Yankees 5, Indians 2

How much stranger can this season get, at least offensively?

The Yankees entered the final game in Cleveland batting 2-for-24 with runners in scoring position – nothing new, since a lack of situational hitting has been the main reason the Yankees were 13-13 coming into Monday’s game.

So what happens on Monday? Indian starter Aaron Laffey, just up from Class AAA Buffalo, gets a 2-0 lead and throws five no-hit innings at the Yankees. How do the Yankees respond? By producing one of the strangest innings they’ll likely have all season.

Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter dribbled back-to-back infield singles to start the sixth. Then Bobby Abreu followed with a solid line-drive single to left centerfield (yet another Yankee hit with runners in scoring position that failed to plate any runs). Alex Rodriguez then got plunked by Laffey, forcing in Cabrera with the first Yankee run.

If you’re scoring at home, that’s two improbable dribblers for singles, a single that doesn’t score anyone, and a wayward pitch from a steady Laffey, all cutting the Yankee deficit to 2-1. From there, it got even better. Or stranger.

Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui followed A-Rod with two groundball outs – nothing new for the Yankees, as they’ve consistently failed to get hits with runners on base this season, and this time the bases were loaded. But wait just a moment: both groundballs were right at Indian first baseman Ryan Garkos, who was playing deep for the double play. Because Garkos failed to charge either ball, the runners moved up on each play.

So again, if you’re scoring at home, the Yankees take a 3-2 lead when two batters fail to get hits with runners on base. What’s going on here?

But yet, there’s more.

With two outs and A-Rod still on third, and reliever Jensen Lewis on for Laffey, Morgan Ensberg hits a pitch for – you guessed it – another infield single, scoring A-Rod for a 4-2 Yankee lead.

So here’s the total for that whacky inning: three infield hits, a hit batter, two potentially harmless groundouts, and one major league caliber single. Oh, and four runs for the Yankees.

That’s not strange. That’s stranger than strange. That’s bizarro-baseball.

So after 26 games when the Yankees can’t get a meaningful hit to save their lives, they win a game by going 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and two of those five hitless at-bats produce the tying and go-ahead runs.

I give up on trying to figure out this game…

Rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated

Mike Mussina? Back-to-back victories? Getting out of April with three wins on his record? Show me the Yankee fan who had that figured coming out of spring training, because I sure didn’t.

We’re way past the stage in Mussina’s career when we’ll ever again use the term “vintage Moose” in the present tense (and I had him pegged for a 1-4 April), but with the Yankees getting subpar pitching at least half the time, and with a new team injury seemingly every day, Mussina’s two wins in the last stages of this road trip are huge for the Yankees. Chien-Ming Wang has deservedly gotten all the accolades this month, but Mussina has rebounded nicely from his previous fiasco with Boston. His last two outings won’t make anyone forget that Mussina should pretend to have the flu the next time he’s due to start against the Red Sox, but wins are wins, especially when the team is struggling.

Hats off to Moose for five fine innings on Monday.

Cano can’t do

At what point does manager Joe Girardi sit Robinson Cano for more than just a single game?

Three horrendous at-bats on Monday show that Cano is nowhere near breaking out of his offensive slump (.153/.217/.214), and with his body language after every piss-poor swing, it looks as if Cano’s hitting woes are now embedded in his psyche.

With Alberto Gonzalez on the bench, and the Yankees facing left-handed starters in three of their next four games, maybe it’s time to sit Cano for a few games and let him avoid the rain of boos that is likely on its way every time he jogs back to the Yankee dugout after another pop-fly out at the Stadium this week.

Looking ahead

It will be nice to play, finally, a team that’s having an even more disappointing season than the Yankees are having. Welcome to the Bronx, Detroit Tigers!

With a legion of baseball pundits touting the Tigers for this season’s World Series, the Motor City kitties got off to an 0-7 start (with the first six losses coming at home!). They’ve rebounded since then, and will come into Yankee Stadium on Tuesday with an 11-15 record but still mired in last place in the American League Central Division.

Let’s hope they leave that way.

Season to date

The Yankees are 14-13 and one game behind Baltimore, Boston, and Tampa Bay, all tied atop the AL East standings. The Yankees won the final two games in Cleveland to even the series at 2-2. Tuesday’s game with Detroit opens a nine-game home span with the Tigers, Seattle Mariners, and Cleveland.

Tuesday’s starters

Yankees: Phil Hughes, RHP, (0-3, 7.85 ERA)
Last start: Hughes was off to one of his best starts of the season after two innings in Chicago, throwing two innings and allowing just one hit. But a 50-minute rain delay led to a short night for the rookie pitcher, as manager Joe Girardi did not send Hughes back out in the third inning. The last time Hughes faced Detroit, last August 26, the Tigers scored five runs in six innings.

Tigers: Kenny Rogers, LHP, (1-3, 7.66 ERA)
Last start: The 42-year-old Rogers allowed six runs, three walks, and nine hits, and walked in a run with the bases loaded, in just 3 and 1/3 innings against the light-hitting Texas Rangers. Lifetime against the Yankees, Rogers is 5-7 with a 6.45 ERA.