As the mist fell on the baseball grounds at 161st St. and River Ave. in the Bronx on Monday night, the New York Yankees missed numerous opportunities to score and fell not just to the Kansas City Royals by a lopsided 6-0 score, but fell to .500 at 21-21 and fell into a last place tie in the AL East with the streaking Boston Red Sox.

To say the Yankee offense is stagnant would be an affront to the order and the establishment of the stagnant. New York went an incredible 0-13 with runners in scoring position, and made Kansas City starter Felipe Paulino look like Pedro Martinez with his slider baffling New York batsmen along with his 94 mile per hour heat.

The 13 hitless at bats with runners in scoring position is the worst performance with ducks on the pond since July 1990. The team is in last place this late into a season for the first time since 2008, and they most certainly deserve to be in the cellar as we approach the Memorial Day weekend.

“At times, it looks like there’s 20 people out there playing defense,” Derek Jeter, who went 1-5 on Monday, said. “It happens every year. It happens to every team. It doesn’t look good when you’re going through it, but you’ve got to have confidence.”

If the Yankees’ offense has confidence right now, they’re doing fantastic work in hiding it. The mist at Yankee Stadium during the game looked like smoke clouding the hitters’ vision, causing an offensive power outage that has become a regular occurrence of late. The announced attendance was 39,225, but there were far fewer people there and nearly all of them were disgusted with the team’s performance.

“You’re going to hear it on the road, and you’re going to hear it at home when you don’t play well,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, regarding the boos. “If they’re unhappy with us, believe me, we’re probably unhappier.”

This unhappiness has yet to convert itself into results of late. Raul Ibanez went 0-3 with runners in scoring position. Mark Teixeira went 1-4 and hit seventh last night because he’s been struggling so mightily this season, in part because of a bronchial infection he’s had for nearly the entire season to date. Alex Rodriguez struck out with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning, and really heard it from the fans.

“It’s very frustrating,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve talked about it over and over again. You can’t really describe it. It’s not a lot of fun obviously going out and not getting the job done. But at this point, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us…We know we’re capable of doing a lot more, and I think we will. Tomorrow would be a great day to start.”

This writer has personally attended four Yankees games, and they’ve scored a total of eight runs in those contests. Seven of those came in one game. They are fourth in the AL East in runs scored and now tied for last place. Until the offense awakes from its late spring slumber, this team could be stuck in last place for quite some time.