Unit, Yankees missing fear factor

MILWAUKEE – On this night, more than any night this season, the New York Yankees surely had to take a hard look at another mediocre outing by Randy Johnson and ask themselves if the glory days for this team are truly over – at least for 2005.

The thought had to cross their minds as Johnson failed to dominate even a weak-hitting National League team like the Brewers … on a night when he hit 98 mph on the radar gun, no less, and two of his fastballs wound up in the left-field seats.

So much for velocity being the only thing missing.

Indeed, on a night when the Yankees needed something spectacular from their supposed ace to shock their system and perhaps to change the direction of this suddenly aimless season, the case of the shrinking Unit became all the more mysterious.

Joe Torre blamed the 4-3 loss mostly on the continued lack of clutch hitting, and tried to make the case that Johnson deserved a better fate.

Nobody was buying it.

“I thought he was dominant,” Torre said. “I thought he did a lot of good things. Unfortunately, we’re not giving our pitchers any breathing room. It puts more pressure on every pitch.”

Enough already, Joe. Enough with the excuses. Johnson was brought here because he could handle the pressure, because he wanted to be the guy to win the big ones against the Red Sox – never mind the lowly Brew Crew.

You only had to see and hear Johnson at his locker after the game to know the Yankees are in real trouble now. Long gone was the defiance of a couple of weeks ago, when he stared down reporters at his locker after a win over the Red Sox and said, “As long as I’ve got air in my lungs, don’t count me out.”

Monday night there was only despair. Johnson sat at his locker and sounded like a lost soul, humbled by his inability to deliver on his reputation, unable to come to grips with his problems.

“I want to come in here and end losing streaks, like I’m capable of doing,” he said. “I want people to ask me when I’m pitching again. That’s what I’m used to. I’m just not doing it.

“We keep talking about my stuff, my velocity. It’s all there. It’s just not happening.”

Perhaps most telling of all, the Brewers boldly swung from their heels from the very first pitch as though Johnson were some mop-up man out of the pen, and hit rockets to all parts of Miller Park. There wasn’t a hint of the old Big Unit intimidation factor – despite the fact that he hit Geoff Jenkins in the back with a fastball.

In short, the Brewers played with no fear of Johnson or the Yankees, a feeling that seems to be spreading quickly throughout baseball. In doing so they extended the Bombers’ Midwest misery on this trip practically beyond belief, and if you watched the game, you know Johnson was fortunate to limit the damage to four runs.

Maybe this won’t be so stunning pretty soon, but for now it is still hard to make sense of watching such a punchless lineup hit Johnson so hard. Jeff Cirillo and Junior Spivey tuned on his fastball and hit booming home runs as though the gun read 86 mph, not 96.

No, the slider wasn’t the problem this time, as it has been lately. Johnson himself acknowledged that, saying, “It wasn’t a hanging slider this time.”

So location is being deemed the problem, and maybe there is some truth to that, but Johnson himself seemed to be having a hard time believing it.

“I’m not getting away with fastballs over the middle of the plate,” he said, in a way that said he has never had to worry about location all that much over the years.

When in trouble, just rear back and fire. Maybe those days are gone for good. Maybe there’s some late life gone from his fastball that the radar gun can’t measure.

Or maybe it’s his aura, like that of the Yankees themselves, that seems to be gone. The first two hitters in the first inning for the Brewers, Brady Clark and Cirillo, ripped a line single and double on fastballs that were clocked at 96 and 94 mph, respectively.

That quickly it was 1-0, Johnson’s shoulders sagged noticeably, and he wound up needing a line-drive double play to get out of the first inning at 2-0. He did get better. He did ring up eight strikeouts. But after the Yankees came back to tie the game at 3, he gave up another home run on a 96-mph fastball to Spivey.

Torre can try to paint a pretty picture, but Johnson knew better. He’s here to be a savior. He’s here to do what Curt Schilling did for the Red Sox last year. Not lose to the Brewers.

It sure felt like big trouble for the Yankees on Monday night. Bigger than any other night this season.