Going into this season most people around baseball noted the fact that the Yankees should finally be considered underdogs to the Boston Red Sox.

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Since the 2001 season both teams have made two trips to the World Series, but only the Red Sox have been able to take advantage by winning not just once but twice.

The Red Sox are the favorites because of their formidable offense and their dominant pitching staff. Meanwhile the Yankees have many questions with their pitching staff, but are considered wild card favorites because of their potent offense which is expected to score in excess of 1000 runs this season.

So where is all of this offense? So far this season they average only 2.8 runs per game and are on pace to score just 450 all season. This is 518 less than they scored last year with nearly the same lineup.

So far the biggest culprit is the injury bug. Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Jason Giambi have combined to miss 8 games just 9 into the season. While neither Jeter nor Posada are expected to miss significant time, both players have the types of injuries which may linger causing them to under perform once they return.

Speaking of lingering injuries, it is hard to help but wonder if Giambi should be in the lineup. As of today he is currently batting .056 and has not gotten a hit since being benched last week with a sore left groin. It might be time to see Shelley Duncan get more starts at first in his place, but he was sent to AAA Wednesday so they could call up Alberto Gonzalez to start in place of Jeter.

Also contributing to the offensive woes is another slow start by Robinson Cano. Through 9 games Cano is hitting .194 with zero walks and 1 extra base hit. This is becoming something of the norm for Cano, who has a career .665 OPS during April, easily the worst month of his young career.

He is not alone in his struggles however as Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter are batting .212 and .208 respectively.

Going forward this slump shouldn’t be expected to continue all season. Cano should bounce back and a few of the aging sluggers Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui are off to hot starts. So once the injury bug goes away, hopefully, the other players will hopefully shake the rust off and the Yanks can continue their march toward 1000 runs.