5-10 start has club restless; Cashman vows to stay course

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees’ players and staff are restless. So are fans.

A 5-10 start, the franchise’s worst in 24 years, has shaken a team that expects to contend for a World Series title.

“Right now we would be a team that an opponent would want to play because obviously we’re not firing onall cylinders,” general manager Brian Cashman said Monday. “So if you have a chance to catch us right now, you’re catching us at the right time, through obviously yesterday’s games, and we look forward to that changing.”

Batting, pitching andfielding have faltered. New York’s .210 batting average is nextto-last in the American League, and a team with a dearth of left-handed hitters is batting just .202 against right-handed pitchers. The Yankees’ 55 runs entering Monday tied Detroit for the American League low.

Ace Gerrit Cole is 2-1 with a 1.82 ERA, and the rest of New York’s starters are 1-6 with a 6.39 ERA.

Twelveerrors have led to 10 unearnedruns. Only the bullpen, which has a 2.43 ERA that is third best in the major leagues, has performed to expectations.

“There’s a lot of tossing and turning going on,” Cashman said, “but we’re going to do everything in our power to avoid that finger pointing or having those frustrations boil over into something negative and make sure that wejust rally the troops around each other and try to be there in a strong, supportive way, because right now we earned any negative criticism.”

Cashman accepts the carping — but said it wasunacceptable andillegal for fans to throw balls on the field during Friday’s 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay, which caused the game to be stopped for 2 minutes, 15 seconds.

“I don’t care howbadyou’veplayed. Noone has earned having things thrown at them on the field in that one particular game,” he said. “But ultimately, the rest of it is, yeah, it’s part of the process, too. Whenyouplaybad, you’re going to hear about it. Whenyoudon’tlive up to your expectations or your fans’ expectations or your own expectations, you’re going to hear it. And it’s about doing something about it as you move forward.”

New York has lost five consecutive games going into Tuesday’s interleague series opener against Atlanta. Aloss woulddropthe Yankees to 5-11 for the first time since 1972.

Cashmanthoughtbacktootherslowstarts. In 1997, the Yankees lost 10 of their first 15 games and finished 96-66 and earned a wildcard berth.

“I don’t remember any of those because ultimately we got back on track,” he said. “We got through it. We found a way to be ourselves and be what we’re capable of.”