Palladino: Reborn Mark Teixeira Is The Key To Yanks' Offense In Second Half
By Ernie Palladino
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In an AL East, where just 6 1/2 games separate last-place Boston from the division-leading Yanks, one thing is certain.
If Joe Girardi expects his team to win this thing, Mark Teixeira needs to keep doing what he's doing.
Basically, that means keeping everybody else in the lineup in the shadows.
It's great that Alex Rodriguez has roared back from his steroids suspension. It's wonderful that Brett Gardner is having a career year; nicer still that he wound up in Cincinnati Tuesday night, even though it took an injury to get him there. But the unexpected first-half resurgence of Teixeira is most important, if only because of what he's accomplished this year and where he's been the last two.
Basically, he's come back from a long, hard road to regain his form as a premier power hitter, a status many believed lay long behind him. With 22 homers, an AL-leading 62 RBIs and a .240/.350/.876 slash line, he's in fine form.
As the Yanks begin the second half Friday against Seattle, they will continue to need Teixeira's reborn power -- as well as that of Rodriguez and Brian McCann -- to provide support for a pitching staff that has shown an inability to work deep into games. That means it will become ever more important to give an overtaxed, mix-and-match front of the bullpen a cushion to work with so it can get to the shutdown back end of All-Star Dellin Betances and the newly healthy closer Andrew Miller.
And there is no better way to provide those safety nets than with quick runs in bunches.
For that, Teixeira once again has regained his mojo.
It was hardly expected.
The torn wrist sheath that needed surgery in 2013 ended that season after 15 games and never did come around in 2014. Actually, he finished last year with the exact home run and RBI numbers he put up in the first half this year, which shows how far he has come.
He felt pain. Mentally, he thought he'd never have another All-Star season.
The wrist is healthy now, a testament to Teixeira's perseverance at age 35. He's always been a hard worker, but now that his body has cooperated for a full first half, it becomes ever more important for him to put in a whole season. The power-laden 3-4-5 spots, of which Teixeira hits smack in the middle, could profit well if leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury has an injury-free second half.
The 30-homer, 100-RBI goal Tex set for himself at the season's start seems eminently reachable now, especially since they'll play most of the second half in the Bronx, where they have hit 69 of their 116 homers, the second-most in baseball. Teixeira has hit half his homers at home.
Now, the real work begins. After this three-game Mariners series, they get three at home with division opponent Baltimore.
The first week of August has three home games with the Red Sox.
There is opportunity to stretch the division lead. And they'll need Teixeira, who is working on a team MVP season, to lead them.
He's in good shape to do it.
"He seems like the Tex from four or five years ago," Gardner told Newsday this week.
It's a good thing. The Yanks will need all the firepower they can generate if they plan to turn this second half into a postseason run.
Teixeira can lead them.
