Memo to Yankee batters: Patience (at the plate) is a virtue

You're not supposed to reveal birthday wishes, but since this is after the fact, after the wish has already been destroyed, what the hell....

All I asked for today -- leaning over that chocolate, strawberry-covered marvel of a cake, preparing to blow out far too many candles -- was that the Yankees didn't get shut out this season. I can take (though just barely) Kyle Farnsworth throwing flat heaters that turn into gofer balls, and I can even take that dopey stretch motion that Ian Kennedy stole from Mike Mussina, but what I hate -- HATE!... worse than liver or ex-wives -- is seeing accomplished, professional hitters giving away outs with loopy swings at first-pitch strikes. That's what the Yankees did in Kansas City last night, and that's why my birthday wish went up in (candle) smoke faster than one of Hank Steinbrenner's cigarettes.

Tyler Kepner wrote in the NY Times story (posted online after the game) that this first shutout was bound to happen, and sooner rather than later, with the Yankees plating an anemic 25 runs in nine games, good for 13th out of fourteen American League teams. That's an easy claim in hindsight (but to be fair to Kepner, I think we all saw this coming), and it gets even easier when realizing that two of the three best Yankee hitters from 2007 -- Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter -- are out of the lineup.

But the frustration this shutout brings with it doesn't spring from untimely injuries or even the personal slumps of Robbie Cano, Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi. The Yankees, all of them, are woeful with runners in scoring position -- bad enough in itself -- but the reason they're woeful is the way they're approaching at bats with men on second and third base.

How many times, with a runner in scoring position, has a Yankee batter run a pitcher to a full count? I haven't kept track, but I'd bet the percentage is well below a third of the time. How many infield pop-ups have we seen with a runner on second and no outs? More than enough. How many times has Cano tried to pull an outside pitch and grounded out with runners on second? He did it again last night with Damon on second in the eighth inning. (I'm tempted to cop-out on Cano and rescind my pre-season MVP tag, but that'd be cheating and.... on second thought, let me sleep on it.)

Before the season, Yankee fans were ready to lay all the blame for a poor start to the season on the pitching staff, but with a few timely hits, even last night's latest Farnsworth disaster wouldn't have stung so much. Girardi was right to start Bruney, who is looking more Joba-like every time he takes the hill. And Kennedy has to be excused his poor first inning because starters really don't perform well in relief, and last night was a unique game situation unlikely to come up again.

In Kepner's game story, he writes that Girardi held a team meeting before the game to address some in-game situations that have been troubling him. At the top of his list had to be timely htting. It didn't get corrected last night, but it better get turned around soon. The Yankees are already in a three-game hole, just a half-game out of the AL East basement. With an unforgiving April road schedule, the Yankees can't afford to fall much further back. Counting on another late-season rebound from a disastrous start is asking to much.

A 4-5 record is no time to hit the panic button, but the offensive trend of bad decision-making rather than poor swings is troubling, and it's a trend worth watching as the Yankees prepare to invade Boston on Friday.