Fire starter? Yanks hold casual team meeting
NEW YORK -- The frustration in the Yankees' clubhouse bubbled over on Thursday morning as several position players held an informal meeting, challenging themselves to pick up the production with less than seven weeks remaining in the regular season.
"We talked about it before the game, that we needed to come out with a little more energy, and hopefully some emotion, and play the way that we're capable of playing," Chase Headley said after the Yankees' 3-0 victory over the Astros. "We understand that we're a lot better offensively than we've shown.
"That was kind of the point, to come out with a little bit of fire and hopefully put some runs on the board. ... Some of the position players got together and said, 'Enough is enough, and let's go.'"
The Yankees produced a three-run second inning against Houston's Dallas Keuchel, sparked by Headley's two-run double, which was enough support as Brandon McCarthy hurled a four-hit shutout. The chat wasn't a cure-all, but the results were slightly better: in nine games since a 10-run outburst against the Indians on Aug. 8, the Yankees had averaged 2.22 runs per game.
"We just had a little meeting this morning and talked about some things, kind of cleared the air," Brett Gardner said. "A lot of guys talked. It was good. Hopefully a game like today kind of gets us going a little bit and we can carry that momentum over into the weekend."
Gardner said that the meeting could be a turning point for the Yankees, who have lost seven of their last 10 games and trail the Tigers by four games for the second Amreican League Wild Card spot.
"I don't think it ever hurts. At this point, we're trying to mix things up a little bit," Gardner said. "What we've been doing hasn't been working, so hopefully we can take this momentum, carry it over into the weekend and play some better baseball."
Headley said that the Yankees are feeling a sense of urgency, but not because of the Wild Card race. Coming off two losses to the sub-.500 Astros and with the White Sox due in town, the reality is that if they do not win their games, there will be no point to continue scoreboard-watching.
"It was just, let's get on the same page and let's go," Headley said. "I know everybody wants to win, everybody's working, everybody's doing the right things. You need that little extra sometimes, and I think sometimes those little discussions -- I don't know if you'd really call it a meeting -- but getting those guys together and getting guys on the same page can go a long ways."
Before Thursday's game, manager Joe Girardi said that he continues to believe that the players in his lineup are good enough to turn the season around.
"The effort is there every day," Girardi said. "[Wednesday] we had seven or eight guys hitting early trying to figure this out and get going. So I will be optimistic as long as they continue to prepare correctly and they work hard."