Tough Tex

‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’ were the words that President Theodore Roosevelt made famous and lived by.

After watching Mark Teixeira on Wednesday night at Fenway Park, there’ s no doubting he carries a big stick but his words following the seventh straight loss to the Red Sox this season spoke volumes about the kind of leader he could become.

“We just have to pick it up,” Teixeira said. “We can’t just throw out gloves out there and expect to win. I’m not saying anyone’s thinking that but it shows. We have to go out there and play well because a team like the Red Sox aren’t going to go out there and give us any wins.”

If any Yankee earned the right to speak his mind on Wednesday it was Tex. He went 4-for-4 in his first four plate appearances before grounding out to first to open the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon.

In those four at-bats, he hit the ball sharply each time, singling in the first doubling in the third and fifth and hitting a long, towering homer to right off Ramon Ramirez in the seventh. He fell just a triple shy of the cycle.

But what was most impressive watching the man Red Sox fans thought might be headed to Boston in the offseason was how he seemed to inspire his lethargic team when they trailed 6-2 after four innings.

“We always think we’re in the game,” Teixeira said. “If you think you’re out of it, you shouldn’t be playing. You always have to be grinding and having good at-bats. We’re always going to be grinding no matter what the score is.”

Teixeira watched as the Red Sox were able to get key outs from their bullpen, namely Hideki Okajima in the eighth, when the Yankees had the potential tying run on second with one out and Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon up. Both struck out against Okajima as the Yankees were just 2-for-15 on Wednesday with runners in scoring position.

“A lot of little things,” Teixeira said. “They’re doing the things to help them win and we’re not. They add up and they’ve added up seven times.”

Of course, the biggest problem in the first two games of this series has been on the mound. A.J. Burnett on Tuesday and Chien-Ming Wang Wednesday, each lasted just 2 2/3 innings, with Wang unable to get his sinker over for strikes. Wang is now a brutal 0-4 with a 14.34 ERA.

“There’s struggles in baseball,” Teixeira said. “I go through them, everyone goes through them. There’s no one in baseball who’s been perfect everytime out there. We just need Wang-er to come back and be as good as he can be.”

Spoken like a true team leader, something the Yankees hoped for as part of the complete package when they signed him to that eight-year, $180 million deal in December.