Bronx, N.Y., May 20, 2011 – My brother thought he had it right on this one. And looking at the results, you had to give him some credit. “I knew we were in trouble once they scored 13 runs last night,” he told me after the embarrassingly lifeless game the Yanks played to a 2-1 loss to the crosstown Mets in Yankee Stadium Friday night. And the misgivings were there before the game, not just once this was a final.

Managing just four hits over six innings against a knuckleballer who has consistently been unable to pitch well against much weaker National League lineups, the Yankees and their fans have little to crow over after that display. They actually took a 1-0 lead on a just-clear home run to right by Mark Teixeira in the third, but the offense punched the clock then, even if they came close two frames later.

By that time the visiting Mets had reached Freddy Garcia, who again pitched better than the team has any right to expect, for the tying run on two doubles in the fourth, but the “Bombers” managed to put two on with no one out in the home fifth. Brett Gardner’s speed was finally an asset, as it was a factor in Jose Reyes’s bad throw to first on his grounder to short, and Brett finally stole a base three pitches later. He had to hold second, however, on Derek Jeter’s infield single to the shortstop hole two pitches later. With two on, Tex barely missed a double to right one out later when his soft liner landed just foul. Two pitches later, however, he took a third strike, and when Reyes smothered Alex Rodriguez’s base hit bid up the middle and threw him out, the inning, and the Yankee chances in the game, were over.

Earlier the team did nothing with Jeter’s leadoff walk in the first and, even worse, A-Rod’s double to the right center field gap to start the second. And Russell Martin’s one-out double in the sixth went for naught when Jorge Posada took a third strike and Nick Swisher went down swinging, the middle of three straight times Swish swung big and came up empty on a third strike. The Yankee right fielder finally had his first two-out base hit this year with a runner in scoring position the night before and, by the look of his work Friday night, it’s likely to be at least another seven weeks before we can expect a repeat. Swish is resilient, but it was a surprise to see he was the one guy local news had on camera on the 11 o’clock news. It may be that there’s something to be said for a player who faces the music and admits the team had a tough night, but it would be refreshing as well to witness a guy who stunk up the batter’s box sitting despondent and quiet by his locker post-game as well. I’d be concerned about playing time once Chris Dickerson proves to be well if I were Swisher.

R.A. Dickey, who garnered his second 2011 win against five losses by fluttering pitches within range of Yankee bats, won this game the second time through the Yankee order, even if was during that time that Tex reached him for the one long ball. After missing the zone 15 of 35 times through two frames during which he allowed a double, two walks, and a hit by pitch, the knuckleballer threw first-pitch strikes to all nine Yankee batters the second time through the order. His fourth-inning walk was his second, and last, virtually assuring that the flailing Yankee bats would fail to post a scoring rally.

Garcia was almost equally effective, carrying the game through seven innings on just 95 pitches, surrendering just two walks as well, and five hits. He gave up a long ball, as did Dickey, but Freddy’s was a homer to right by Daniel Murphy in the top of the sixth that was the Mets game winner. Garcia also allowed three doubles, but because two of these were bunched into the same frame he came off a loser. He threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of 28 Mets batters, and the lone single he allowed was a bunt base hit.

So, perhaps you’re thinking, maybe my brother did have it right after all. Maybe the 13-run explosion the night before set the team up to have an offensive stinker. Looking at the most recent results that would seem to be the case, but the truth is the Yanks have been having horrible moments on May 20 for almost as long as they have been an AL franchise. Riding the return of Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel, who had each been suspended at the end of the 1921 season, once Commissioner Landis reinstated them, the team was poised to take a 2-0 win against St. Louis on May 20, 1922, but an overturn of the call that seemed to have ended the game keyed a Browns rally that carried them to an 8-2 win, and three years later a six-run Cleveland ninth-inning rally beat the Yanks 10-9, with Tris Speaker scoring the game winner. One-armed Pete Gray carried the Browns on both offense and defense to a doubleheader sweep over the Bombers on this day in 1945.

But it gets worse. Coming off four straight championships, a 10-2 loss to Cleveland on May 20, 1940 sank the Yanks to last place, a position they would not hold again until exactly 19 years later when Detroit Yankee killer Frank Lary beat them 13-6, improving his personal record against the club to 18-5. Although both of those Yankee teams plunged into the cellar that day, they would each finish in third place, and soon be in the thick of pennant fever once again.

And one hopes the Yanks will find themselves in middle of the poeennant cahse in 2011 as well. But they’ll need to overcome some recent embarrassments to do so. May 20, 1310, is credited with being the day when men first began being oufitted with specific footwear for right and left feet, but watching Yankee at bats Friday night, they may have regressed to before that time. And May 20, 2011, is the 84th birthday of actor David Hedison, who captained as hokey a vessel as you’re likely to see on TV in the undersea series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea four decades ago. The flailing at bats against a mediocre hurler have plummeted the Yankees to third place in the AL East, even if they’re just one game out of first. Let’s hope that Friday night’s debacle in Yankee Stadium is the final stop on the team’s

Voyage to the Bottom of Baseball

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!