With Jeter electrifying atop the lineup and with Alex Rodriguez having shaken the A-Fraud stigma for the moment, Teixeira's problems have largely gone overlooked.
Then, Monday.
The lingering image of Game 5 was Teixeira fanning on Ryan Madson's changeup to end the Yankees' rally, and Game 5.
The Yankees had momentum. They had scored a run on a doubleplay ball to help whittle a six-run lead to two, and Johnny Damon promptly singled, took second and set up Teixeira to be a hero. A hit or a walk would have brought Rodriguez to the plate, facing a bullpen that leaked a loss in Game 4 and looked ready to do so again.
Instead, Teixeira, the power jewel in the Yankees' three-man spending spree, fell to 2-for-19 in the Series with seven strikeouts in five games.
"It hasn't been easy. It definitely hasn't been. I'm not getting as many hits as I'd like to," Teixeira said.
Not that he's not trying. In fact, he might be trying too hard.
Not pressing, but, rather, overworking.
"You take more time, because you have more time. You watch more tape. You take more batting practice," Teixeira said. "Maybe that works against you. Maybe during the season, when you're tired, when you just go out there and just play the game, because you've played 20 games in a row - maybe your natural ability just takes over."
That might hold water better if Teixeira hadn't smoked the ball in 2008 when, with the Angels, he went 7-for-15 in their American League Division Series.
Playing for a contract, in the middle of a solid lineup, he cranked.
Playing to a contract, in the middle of a historic lineup, he hasn't.
