Psycho: The name's Jeffrey William Francis, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you Yankees call me Francis, and I'll kill you.

Bobby Abreu: (mock scared) Ooooooh.

Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meathooks off my pitches. If I catch any of you guys touching my curveball, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody touching my fastball either. Any of you Yankees touch me, and I'll kill you.

Sergeant Torre: Lighten up, Francis. (sigh)

That's the only explanation I have for this lineup to only score 2 runs in 18 innings in Coors Field.

Andy: "I threw a changeup to Holliday that cut and really after that I quit pitching, to tell you the truth," Pettitte said. "I quit throwing my changeup, my sinker cut a couple of times and I didn't throw my sinker.

Moose (on the homer to Torrealba): "With my National League inexperience I didn't think about who was on deck. I probably would have pitched a little differently had I thought about it."

So our guys now stop thinking and stop pitching? I love them both, and I know these were taken out of context to some degree, but still...wow. I just hope it's the other guy that "stops pitching" tonight.

Clemens will right ship tonight.

Posada runs like he's wearing one anyway, come to think of it.

I know it's part of the ups and downs of the game, and the athletes are very human (like Pedro saying "the Yankees are my daddy"), but I prefer the honesty when we've got our act a little more together.

With that said, some of the other things Andy said did frame his remarks in better context. It was Moose that annoyed me more, but Moose has a way of doing that with everyone.

That's the most inexplicable thing I've ever heard in my life. How does a veteran, quite successful major league pitcher fail to consider who's on deck?

That's mystifying to me.

Frankly, I think we can win the division, though I don't think it's likely. But I still feel good about the starting pitching and if the bats can show consistency, we've got a shot.

Boston could get injured along the way plus we've still got six games with them, so we will be able to at least have a prayer, say by taking 5 out of 6 of those games if need be.

Not likely, but not beyond the realm of dreams either.

14 The pitching had nothing to do with anything last night. The bats lost the game.

For fun, I looked at the 1978 season. On this same day in 1978 the Yankees were 8 behind Boston (game 66); after game 69 in 1978 they were 8.5 back. But their record was much better (38-28 after June 21 and 40-29 after game number 69)--this year's vintage is scuffling around .500.

I'm really getting the feeling that this is not a very talented team that got off to a slow start, or even a very talented team that got off to a slower start than the red-hot competition (à la 1978), but basically a .500 team that has gotten off to a .500 start.

15 I want to share Weeping's hope, but I can't. How will the bats show more consitency? Where will the offense come from? A-Rod and Posada have been crazy good, and Jeter is even playing above his career totals. But Giambi is gone with injuries; Damon likewise looks cooked. Who on the roster will improve dramatically? maybe Matsui looks to be playing about to his career numbers. Maybe Abreu and maybe Cano (if last year was not a fluke) pick it up some more. And even if they do improve, there is a good chance that the three studs will regress at least some.

In the past, when the team got off to a bad start, I was still convinced they were better than the teams in front of them. But this year I am not so sure. If they want to make a move in the standings, I think that they have to look outside the roster for improvement (most likely a stud bat for DH or 1B or CF).

But perhaps Joe should have had a quicker hook once runners got on base.

I agree with weeping that the bats were a significant part of yeterday's loss. As I said in yesterday's game thread, the difference between a one run deficit and two run deficit feels gargantuan when the bats are this bad. Yes, the Rockies ended up scoring a bunch more, but psychologically the game was lost with the 3rd run. Shouldn't be that way with this offense.

When I say the bats lost the game, what I mean isn't that they should have scored 7 runs, but that they should have scored more than 1 run after six, maybe 3 or 5?

Had they come out and taken charge of the game, I think the pitching (Andy) would have had a much stronger chance of winning by relieving some of the pressure off of the staff, be it Andy or the pen.

Just a hunch.

I've never pitched, but I'd imagine it's taxing to have so little run support. Yeah, Andy collapsed and Joe allowed the collapse to happen, but Max says it well, the game was lost with the third run.

I know I felt deflated when that run scored.

That's four teams in the last 3 years. I would think we could pull it off this year based on recent history...but I haven't looked at the numbers closely.

18 i agree that the manager can only do so much, and he didn't make pettitte stop trying, if he did stop trying. but he is the manager, and isn't he paid millions to see when the pitcher stops trying and when he needs to be taken out?

During the Mets series and elsewhere, the team excelled not at having the big inning, but in tacking on runs. One here, two there, so that you just felt if the pitcher kept them in the game, there was no way they'd lose.

I didn't get to watch yesterday's game that closely, but they struck out a whole bunch of times, didn't they?

And previously, as against the Mets, they managed a bunch of seeing-eye hits and even the odd squibber or swinging bunt, which helped the offense stay alive and be pesky.

I don't know, has anyone noticed a correlation between strike outs and run production these last couple of weeks?

If they're going to start striking out a lot, they're going to have a tough time winning.

You can't will yourself to get a hit, but you can try to make contact and put the best swing on the ball you can and hope for the best. Last night it was Ks, the previous night it seemed to be lazy flyballs.

I hope it's just a testament to really good pitching rather than to the bats actually being out of whack.

Not to single out Arod, but he seems to be entering one of his slumps. I hope that's not the case, but if he is, that could have repercussions on Abreu and perhaps the rest of the lineup.

Keep your eye on him.

Jorgie, too. He's been fooled a couple of times on breaking pitches these last couple of games, the way he was against Duque. If those two guys (and Abreu too) start having problems with breaking stuff again, we're in deep trouble.

the story is similar for the WC. On May 29 they were 8 games in the loss column behind Detroit (so they've gained three games since then). But on May 22 they were 3 games back in the loss column, so they have actually lost two games on Detroit in the last month.

No one expects them to win 9 out of 10, but this little mini-slump (losing 3 out of 5) reveals just how precarious their situation is after the horrible start. Five games in the WC doesn't seem like much, but the team probably needs to play very good baseball for more than just a couple of weeks to make up even that deficit.

As Rex Kramer said: "No... that's just what they'll be expecting us to do!"

When he threw ball four, I released a string of curses, turned off the TV and went to bed. At that point, I knew how it was going to end....

32 It's not the objective, Raf, it's the execution. Leiter's constantly talking about how the rest of the team effects the pitcher, who is after all a human being.

Good plays sharpen him up, bad ones can demoralize him.

The better pitchers, obviously, are least susceptible to such emotional turns but to pretend that emotion's not part of the game belies what I think we all know from our own experience playing sports and from what every athlete will tell you: emotion and controlling emotion is at the heart of athletic performance.

It's also taxing mentally in that the less margin for error any one player has, the more pressure he's likely to feel.

Pressure can get to people, and apparently got to Andy last night; something made him drift away from his game plan.

Call it pressure, frustration, loss of focus, whatever, but that's the game between the ears.

The frustration eventually got to Moose and he quipped "Well, I can't go out there and hit for the guys, I can only do so much."

Evidently he was able to suck it up and pitch well, but clearly it was an issue.

Anyone else concerned that Josh Phelps was let go to be replaced by Andy Phillips but Chris Basak is still riding the pine...

WTF? Josh Phelps can play first and even catch if needed. Why does Basak need to be on the roster if he never does anything except pinch run in a blowout game?

Anyone else concerned that Josh Phelps was let go to be replaced by Andy Phillips but Chris Basak is still riding the pine...

WTF? Josh Phelps can play first and even catch if needed. Why does Basak need to be on the roster if he never does anything except pinch run in a blowout game?

http://tinyurl.com/2a2wq2

Damon said Tuesday that his "rib is shot" and the team has reportedly discussed placing him on the disabled list if things don't improve. "We have to look into this and will take the next couple of days to investigate," Torre said.

so wait, damon's obviously hurting so bad that he can't be productive or play the field effectively and the way to deal with the situation is to throw him out there? i mean, is there even a non-zero chance he can be effective at this point? shit, he can't even DH without pain, WTF is the organization waiting for? Jesus Hot Buttered Christ on the Cob this is fucking stupid ...

i wonder what the A's would take in return for Milton Bradley

41 I agree that it is obvious KT must have spilled Joe's green tea or hit his car in the lot or something...

guidry should have some kind of input, too. nothing against the gator or anything... but... pointing situations like that out is kind of his job.

45 i agree. hard to know what guidry does, but it doesn't seem like enough. still, the buck stops at torre.