What's Wrong With Yankees Captain Derek Jeter?
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- Josh Beckett out-dueled CC Sabathia to lead the Red Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Yankees on Sunday night.
But the big story to come out of New York's series loss to Boston was Derek Jeter's lack of production.
"I don't want to judge it too quick. It's just not fair to the player," manager Joe Girardi said after the game. "We know how resilient Derek has been in his career and we have to give him an opportunity."
Jeter, batting .206 on the season, went just 2-for-13 this weekend.
"It's nothing for a guy to hit .250 one month and hit .330 the next month, Girardi said. "You're only talking about 100 at-bats a month. That happens all the time."
After hitting .270 in 2010, one of the big topics this spring was Jeter's new approach at the plate. Is the captain reverting to his old stance?
If hitting coach Kevin Long's quotes from Sunday are any indication, it seems the new approach is out the window.
"It is more of what Derek Jeter has done for his whole career, yeah," Long told Newsday. "Even from my standpoint, it looks a lot more like what he did in the past."
Long added: "He started off doing it and then he said, 'It is hard for me to think about that on every at-bat. I said, 'You know what, I don't want you to think about it every at-bat so he is kind of tapping and picking up. We'll still monitor to see if he is going in or gets out of whack with what he is doing. For right now, I just want him to be at-ease with his at-bats and going up there and basically competing against the pitcher and not having to worry about his mechanics."
Girardi wasn't as straight forward.
"He hasn't spoken openly to me that 'I'm not going to do this or I'm not going to do that,'" he said. "There are going to be days when he goes back to that comfort zone. You try to get back on track and do your work. You have to remember how many at-bats he had one way and it's not easy to change overnight."
As for Jeter? He's just tired of all the talk.
"I ain't talking about it anymore," Jeter said on Saturday. "I'm good. People made so much about it. I'm fine."
He added: "I'm striding the same. Everything is the same. I don't know what else to tell you guys."
Will Jeter turn it around? Sound off in the comments below...
