Yankees’ Brett Gardner gets blunt about rough start

Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner said he knows he’s got to produce more, though his team is red-hot.

NEW YORK — Only a masochist would truly nitpick the Yankees, who have won 16 of 17 games and sit tied with the Red Sox atop the American League East.

But for all their success, Brett Gardner hasn’t had that much of a hand in it. And he’s aware.

“I’m not happy with how things have been going for me the last couple of weeks,” the veteran leadoff man said before Wednesday’s game against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

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Among regulars, Gardner has the lowest batting average (.198), OPS (.568) and home runs (1). He’s also stolen only two bases through 32 games — tied for the second-most on the team behind Aaron Hicks at three.

Gardner said he believes his problem has been his timing.

“I’ve felt better than the numbers indicate,” he said. “I just have some things mechanically I’m trying to work on.”

The 34-year-old, who’s at the end of his four-year contract extension, has spent almost every pregame over the last week taking extra batting practice.

He said he believes he’s recognizing pitches well, which bares out. 

He’s walking in 13.3 percent of his at-bats, well above the league average of 8.9 percent, according to Fangraphs.

But it also appears Gardner has had trouble lifting the ball. He’s hit 51.6 percent of his balls on the ground so far this year, much higher than his 44.5 percent average of last year, when he popped  a career-high 21 home runs and post ed a .778 OPS.

According to MLB.com’s Statcast, Gardner hasn’t hit a single ball on the sweetspot of the bat this season, though his 85.3-mph exit velocity isn’t far off his career average. 

Manager Aaron Boone said he’s not considering dropping Gardner in the lineup yet.

“I think our internal numbers when you dive into exit velocity and walk rates, things like that, all encouraging signs for him,” Boone said. “I think it’s a matter of when he’s getting into good counts, driving the ball in the air a little bit more or on a line a little bit more.

“He’s hit into some tough luck as far as some one-hoppers right at guys. I think he’s hit into a little bit of tough luck but internally I think our signs point to that eventually he’s going to get it rolling. The tough at-bats really making the pitcher work always continue with him. I think it’s a matter of time before the hits start falling for him and he gets on a really good roll.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.