Tex's Hot Glove Makes Up for Cold Bat

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Between the performances of Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and even Johnny Damon, it's easy to suggest that the Yankees are on the verge of an American League pennant purchased on the open market.

Even Mark Teixeira has had a significant impact on the series. Don't let his .111 average fool you.

While Teixeira's bat has apparently gone to Jell-O this postseason, his glove has shined, especially in the series against the Angels.

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"Just drape him in gold," said right fielder Nick Swisher, who figures that Teixeira is going to win his third Gold Glove after a two-year hiatus. (Teixeira changed leagues in the middle of each of the previous two years.)

The Yankees, who will try to close out the ALCS in Game 5 on Thursday, certainly didn't sign Teixeira to an eight-year, $180-million contract so he could go 4-for-30 in the postseason while playing great defense. If you are going to go 4-for-30, though, the defense doesn't hurt.

"Just drape him in gold."
-- Nick Swisher on teammate Mark Teixeira's First Base Defense "All season long I've always said that you can help your team out defensively every day," he said. "Offensively you can't. That's just the way it is. I think I've been hopefully helping out my infielders and pitchers this series."

In the first two games in New York, Teixeira made several nice picks on throws in the dirt to save his fellow infielders errors. In Game 3 in Anaheim, Teixeira helped bail the Yankees out of two jams. In the bottom of the eighth, Bobby Abreu led off with a double. He rounded second base too far, and Teixeira was trailing behind him, as he's supposed to do, so he could be there to apply the tag on Abreu when Derek Jeter got him the ball on the relay.

In the ninth inning, Teixeira handled three consecutive ground balls when the Angels loaded the bases with no outs. One was sharply hit with Teixeira playing in. On the second he had to make an accurate throw to the plate to get a force.

All of it looked familiar to Angels first base coach Alfredo Griffin, who is also the team's infield instructor. He's had the misfortune of a front-row seat to Teixeira's play this series, after being a beneficiary of his excellent defense when Teixeira played the last two months of 2008 with the Angels.

"He's one of the best," Griffin said. "He's been making a difference all year. This just seems big because it's the playoffs, but I look at the whole year."


The Angels have actually seen more of Teixeira than just about any other team in the majors. Besides this playoff series and the time he spent in an Angels uniform last year, Teixeira played for the Rangers in the AL West for the first four and a half years of his career.

"I can't tell you how impressed we were just seeing him up close in the couple of months we had him last year," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Just how hard he works on his defense. How much pride he takes in it, and the difference-maker he is in a position where it's probably a little tougher to be a difference maker than if you play shortstop, centerfield, catch, second base. But he certainly is. And he takes pride and works harder, and he's obviously had a major impact on a lot of situations that have already happened in just the three games we've played them on the defensive side."

Angels third baseman Chone Figgins said that Teixeira "has obviously made them a better defensive team."

Statistically, Teixeira obviously has much more range than any Yankee first baseman since Don Mattingly, at least. He's also helped the other Yankee infielders cut down on their throwing errors, from 22 last year to 18 this year.

"He's got a long wingspan," Jeter said. "I don't know what else you'd want him to do over there."

Swisher, whose best position is actually first base, is now relegated to watching from the outfield as Teixeira works.

"The thing that really surprises me the most is not his range, but his ability to pick balls out of the dirt. Wow. It's impressive. Those guys on the infield should be thanking him."

First base is often a position reserved for a big slugger who can't play anywhere else. It is typically an offense-first position. Teixeira is best-known (and paid) because of what he does with the bat, but he said that his father preached to him when he was a kid that defense was just as important.

Of course, back then he was a shortstop.

"Looking at me now you probably can't believe that," Teixeira said. "I took a lot of pride in [defense]. I took almost as many ground balls and throws as I did swings in the cage. As I've gotten into the big leagues, I've realized it's even more important nowadays."

Especially when he's not hitting. Teixeira said that he can't put a finger on anything that's going wrong at the plate.

"I'm obviously not hot right now," he said. "You try to hope you are on a hot streak once you get to the playoffs. It's not happening for me right now. I'm still working in the cage trying to swing at good pitches, working deep counts. They are being a little better than I am right now."

The good news is that he is hot in the field.

"If you are confident in the field with the glove, it allows you to attack balls without thinking," he said. "It allows you to make plays that maybe if you were thinking about them or not as confident, you wouldn't make those plays."