This has been an ongoing problem for the Yankees this season. They might go 9-20 with runners in scoring position in one game (yesterday) and win by 15 runs, or go 1-11 (last Thursday in Boston) and lose by a single run. How can it fluctuate so much from day to day?
It's not just our slanted perspective either - the Yankees have actually been quite bad: They're fourth from the bottom in batting average with RISP (.258). The Yankees are batting .273 overall this year; but the league BA w/ RISP is .266, against a .269 league BA. So while the league hits slightly worse with RISP, the Yankees hit significantly worse; why?
I believe it's a matter of luck. The Yanks have a below average BABIP (.288 vs. .297 for the league), yet they also hit more line drives than the league (20% vs. 18%). Then there's the matter of A-Rod, who's batting just .230 at the moment; that won't continue, and as the BA of our cleanup hitter inches closer to his career BA of .305, so will his BA w/ RISP.
Jeter (.291), Teixeira (.290) and Cervelli (.286) have been our best so far (w/ RISP), but it's offset by poor performances from Matsui (.239) and Cano (.228). Every other regular is hitting close enough to their normal BA that they don't deserve scorn. The discouraging thing is that only one Yankee is hitting above his normal BA, w/ RISP: Tex (.290 vs. .284).
It's probably just a matter of our BABIP evening out and A-Rod returning to his normal productivity. But when will that happen?
FYI, the Yankees AL rank in BA w/ RISP -
2008: 10
07: 2
06: 5
05: 7
04: 7
03: 10
Not awful, but not great either, especially considering the caliber of hitters in the lineup during those years.