It is Joe Girardi’s first season as New York Yankees manager and already he is facing his first crisis. The Yankees were thrashed 12-2 by the Baltimore Orioles last night, a crushing defeat that leaves them adrift at the bottom of the American League East division.

It is not a position that Major League Baseball’s most expensive line-up is familiar with. The table makes uncomfortable reading for Girardi, who replaced the beloved Joe Torre. The Yankees have won only 20 of their 45 games, three fewer than the next-worst side in their division, the Toronto Blue Jays. More pertinently, and ominously, New York’s arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, are on a five-match winning streak and lead the division with 29 victories.

The famously ferocious New York tabloids turned up the heat on Girardi after last night’s result. “The Yankees converted baseball’s highest cathedral into the world’s largest commode,” the New York Post opined. “The Yankees released an odour so toxic across The Bronx that Hazmat suits and nose plugs should have been given to those who walked into Yankee Stadium.”

“It was ugly,” Girardi conceded. “I’m hoping this is rock-bottom.” The acrimonious defeat was the Yankees’ fourth in succession. Alex Rodriguez returned from injury and hit a home run, but that was as good as it got on a night of shambolic pitching and fielding. Mike Mussina, the Yankees’ starting pitcher, gave up seven runs in the first inning and LaTroy Hawkins, the relief pitcher, was ejected for intentionally throwing a pitch just over the head of Luke Scott, the Orioles hitter. Derek Jeter, the Yankees star, left the game with a bruised hand but the injury is not thought to be serious.

It may be a small consolation that New York’s other team are not faring much better. The New York Mets are three games behind the surprisingly-good Florida Marlins in the National League East. One of their star pitchers, the veteran, Pedro Martinez, is considering retirement at the end of the season so he can look after his father, who is ill; a former Met confirmed he is hanging up his glove yesterday.

Mike Piazza was one of the best catchers in baseball history, his defensive defects compensated for by his prodigious power. He was one of only eight catchers in baseball history to hit .300, bash 30 home runs and drive in over 100 runs in a season – a feat he accomplished six times.

Aged 39, Piazza was a free agent and last played for the Oakland Athletics last year. A 12-time All Star, his 396 home runs were the most at his position. He spent eight years with the Mets, the most infamous moments occurring in 2000, when a rivalry with Roger Clemens, of the Yankees, culminated in Clemens throwing a broken bat towards him in Game Two of the World Series.

Piazza is sure to be elected to the Hall of Fame. He has already been immortalised: in a pop song by the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian: Piazza, New York Catcher.