The Pinstripe Pulse Edition 5: Offense

The Pinstripe Pulse has not slowed to a halt. It lives!

This edition of the Pinstripe Pulse will be a bit different than the others since there is a full month of games to recap from August 24th through September 26th. The "last period" will cover the 16 games from August 24th through September 9th. "This period" will cover 15 games since then, from September 11th through September 26th (there was an off-day on September 10th).

At the start of the "last period," the New York Yankees were 72-52, leading the American League East by 2.5 games over the Tampa Bay Rays and four games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. During the period through September 9th, they went a disappointing 7-9, taking a three-game road series against the collapsing Cleveland Indians before dropping three consecutive series to the division rival Toronto Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rays. The first two series losses were even worse since they came in their own confines of Yankee Stadium. Ultimately, the Yankees finished squandering the 10-game lead they once held in the AL East on July 18th, but they never completely fell out of first place at the end of any day. They closed the period in a four-game split with the Orioles at Camden Yards and now stood at 79-61, a mere game ahead of Baltimore and two ahead of the Rays. The offense scored 4.5 runs per game in this period, although that figure was skewed by a 13-run outburst in the final game; otherwise, it was a slog of 3.9 runs per game.

The Yankees began "this period" with a loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, but they rebounded to take the series with their first consecutive-game win streak in nearly a month. They returned to Yankee Stadium for a nine-game homestand with the Rays, Blue Jays, and the Wild Card-leading Oakland Athletics. It was a tremendous success, as they sandwiched a seven-game winning streak between losses in the first and last games. The Yankees regained sole possession of first place over the Orioles at the start of the winning streak on September 15th, and they have not let it go since then, though Baltimore's hot pace has never kept them more than a game and a half behind. The Yankees closed out this 11-4 period by taking two out of three from the Minnesota Twins at Target Field to move to 90-65, 25 games over .500 and a game behind the Texas Rangers for the best record in the AL. The offense scored exactly 5 runs per game in this period.

Player	Last Period (8/24-9/9)	This Period (9/10-9/26)	Thoughts
Russell Martin, C			Hit .304/.373/.478 in first period before recent slump.
Nick Swisher, 1B/RF			Nearly a 200-point improvement in slugging over two periods.
Robinson Cano, 2B			Led team with 4 homers last period; just 5 XBH in second.
Derek Jeter, SS			The hits kept coming for the Cap, but the power vanished..
Alex Rodriguez, 3B			Returned from injury strong (.615 SLG) but then fell to .283.
Ichiro Suzuki, LF/RF			Hitting .417/.440/.625 since 9/10. Long live the Ichiro Show.
Curtis Granderson, CF			There's value in the 8 homers, but not much in the .178 AVG.
Raul Ibanez, "LF/RF"			Streaky much? Went 2-for-35, then 9-for-25 with 3 homers.
Eric Chavez, 3B/1B			Magic from early in A-Rod's DL stint wore off, but recovered.
Mark Teixeira, 1B			Wasn't hitting much (1-for-12) prior to calf injury.
Andruw Jones, OF			Still poor, but .450 OBP and a homer show some signs of life.
Jayson Nix, INF			Infield versatility is probably ensuring his playoff roster spot.
Steve Pearce, 1B			Hit .140 in 12-game stint before recent cut.
Chris Stewart, C			"Stewie" did have a double! So there's that.
Eduardo Nunez, SS/3B			.207 bat hasn't been worth his glove of stone.
Chris Dickerson, OF			Underused. 4-for-12 with 2 homers since call-up.
Casey McGehee, INF			Hitless, but ability to play third forced Pearce out instead.
Brett Gardner, OF			Just returned yesterday for one inning of defense.
Francisco Cervelli, C Melky Mesa, OF			Both have appeared in just one game without a PA.

Legend

	Players hitting at "Ruthian" levels are honored with, of course, the Babe.
	Players slumping are dis-honored with punchless former backup catcher John Flaherty.
	Injured players are indicated by the perpetually-hurt Nick Johnson, who unfortunately just hurt himself posing for this picture.

Here are the players' statistics from the past two periods (Click for a better view).

Statistics from August 24-September 9:

Statistics from September 11-26: