Schadenfreude 191 (A Continuing Series)

George A. King III, Post (early edition):

It wasn't enough for the Yankees' miserable season to continue Tuesday night at Camden Yards with a sixth straight loss.

In the fifth inning of a 4-1 defeat to the Orioles, they may have lost Alex Rodriguez with a right hamstring injury. Normally teams don't fret over missing a 40-year-old designated hitter batting .194 with two bad hips that cause him to run like mud going uphill.

But if Rodriguez is out for an extended stretch, the Yankees will lose their leading home-run hitter (five), who is tied for the team lead in RBIs (12). ...

Rodriguez's injury turned a bad night worse. The Yankees' season-long slump continued and Luis Severino gave up two homers to Mark Trumbo and dropped two balls covering first base. ...

A three-run deficit isn't easily overcome by a team batting .234 and that has scored 47 runs in the last 19 games (2.47 per game). ... They went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and are batting .148 (21-for-142) in the clutch in the last 19 games. ...

"Tomorrow is a must-win game for us," said [Brett] Gardner, who doubled with one out in the first inning and was stranded there. "There are no more off days. It's go time."

Mark Feinsand, Daily News:

There was a chill in the air at Camden Yards Tuesday night, and it had nothing to do with the unseasonably cool weather in Baltimore.

The Yankees' ice cold bats remained in their deep frost, dooming them to a 4-1 loss to the Orioles that extended their losing streak to six games and dropped their record to 8-16. ...

[T]he Bombers went back to swinging the same icicles they've been carrying to the plate for the past three weeks. ...

Just when it looked like Alex Rodriguez was finally heating up at the plate, the designated hitter left the game after his fifth-inning at-bat when he appeared to pull up lame while running out a ground ball. ...

For all the talk about the struggling offense - and man, it's been bad - the rotation had not exactly established itself as anything more than ordinary.

Severino was the biggest offender, going 0-3 with a 6.86 ERA in his first four starts.

Mark Feinsand, Daily News:

When Brian Cashman looks at the Yankees' underachieving roster, he says he sees a reflection of himself. And the picture isn't pretty. ...

No, Cashman isn't the one trying to hit the ball, though one wonders if the former Catholic University standout could do any worse than many of the players he's paying eight figures to do that very thing.

But he was the architect of this roster over the past few years, putting it together with the belief that these players would help get the Yankees back to the top of the division and hopefully beyond.

So far, not so good. ...

The Yankees opened the season 4-2, leading the league in runs scored after the first week. But things have taken a turn for the worse, as their 4-13 run has seen them plummet to 14th in the 15-team AL in both runs scored and OPS ...

Dan McCarthy, ESPN:

The New York Yankees have stumbled to an 8-16 start, their worst through 24 games [since 1991], and they sit in last place in the AL East.

What has gone wrong? A lot. They're failing to score, haven't hit in the clutch, and the elite bullpen hasn't mattered, because the starting pitching can't get them the ball. ...

The Yankees have scored 82 runs, tied with the Rays for fewest in the majors. ...

The top of the order has also been problematic. The Yankees are getting a .286 on-base percentage out of the top spot in the batting order, second-worst in the AL.

The Yankees are also not hitting in important spots. They’re batting a major-league worst .196 in the seventh through ninth innings, .201 with runners in scoring position (29th in the majors), and .223 when trailing (22nd in the majors).

The Yankees nine games with a lead at any point after the sixth inning are the fewest in baseball. The starting rotation has fared poorly, with an AL-worst 5.13 ERA, and a .282 batting average that ranks 14th in the league.