ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Maybe there is a time to deliver this message, but this wasn't it. Derek Jeter had just been hit on the hand in the eighth inning of what would become another frustrating setback, this time 6-1, the fifth loss in six games on this road trip to Palookaville. Steve Geltz was already getting the business from his own fans for that.
And now he was getting an earful from Joe Girardi, too.
"If you're going to pitch inside," the Yankees' manager would say later on, more than a trace of sanctimony dripping from each word, "then learn to pitch inside."
Maybe there was value to that sentiment, the Yankees having gotten hit five times in their last two series with the Rays. But the absurdity of seeing Girardi yell at Geltz was, honestly, comical, because there were any number of reasons why it was as clear as the Yankees' dwindling tragic number that Geltz wasn't targeting Jeter.
There was the 6-1 lead, for one. There were the two strikes that he'd already gotten on Jeter. There was the fact Jeter leads the league in goodwill, something that was reinforced on this night when the Rays honored his career with a kayak and a check for $16,000 for his foundation, representing 50 bucks for every hit Jeter ever got against Tampa.
"That's Derek Jeter," Geltz said. "I'm not trying to hit Derek Jeter."
And … well, there is this most of all: Remember what Jason Varitek growled at Alex Rodriguez at Fenway 10 years ago, after Bronson Arroyo plunked him and A-Rod loitered angrily around home plate? "We don't throw at .260 hitters," Varitek said, before it all imploded into a lovely and forever photo op.
Now, the Rays may not have this as part of their team constitution. But if they did, it's likely the team protocol might go something like this: "We don't throw at guys hitting .249."
Jeter has never much needed foxhole guys to defend himself on a baseball field. Last week he was drummed on the elbow by a fastball from Geltz' teammate, Brad Boxberger. This time, he simply took his base, and to be perfectly honest looked more than a little uncomfortable at the lecture his manager was delivering.
"There's a lot of frustration," Jeter said. "Frustration that we aren't playing better. And, yeah, I'm a hitter: frustration when you get hit."
He shook his head.
"Sometimes," he said, "these things happen in games."
What he didn't say, what he won't say, is what has to be the most frustrating part of all for him: which is the fact he is in a free fall offensively, 0-for-his-last-26 and counting. Before Girardi started in on Geltz, the most awkward moment of the night had come in the third inning when Jeter bunted two teammates into scoring position and was treated to the loudest ovation of the game.
Jeter's Army, desperate for anything to hang their vocal chords on.
And you wonder if he wonders, as the end nears and this second-worst slump of his career thickens: When am I getting that 3,451st hit?
Jason Kidd famously ended his career missing his final 18 shots as a Knick in the 2013 playoffs. That won't be what he's best remembered for, but it still bothered him on his way out the door.
Jeter? For so much of the year it seemed he was going to allow time to have only fleeting jabs at his skills, he was going to go out hitting .270 or .275, low enough for him to know the time was right to go, high enough where he could still say he ran through the tape.
And we have reached the point in the season where his spot in the order no longer qualifies as news: The Yankees are playing out the string, and it allows Jeter an extra at-bat on many of the days he plays. That's what the people will want across these next 12 games, and they are entitled to it.
Funny thing, too: This all started on Derek Jeter Day Sept. 7, just after he closed the proceedings in pure Jeterian style — "We've got a game to play!" — and promptly reached on an infield single in the bottom of the first inning. Two innings later, he walked. His batting average was .262. Still time for a late surge.
That was 26 at-bats ago. Hit Derek Jeter? That was impossible to believe when he was 26, hitting .339. At 40, at .249? Sadly, even more so.
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