"I'm a positive person, but after a while it was hard to be positive. We were beating ourselves, basically." Joe Torre (N.Y. Daily News)

The Yankees were smoked by the Royals in Kansas City last night by the tune of 17-8. The offense hit the ball hard but could not capitalize early on. Then the Royals--a bunch of hackers who were swinging from their heels starting in the first inning--scored ten runs in the fifth against Brad Halsey, Taynon Sturtze (wild pitch, balk, walk, dinger) and Brett Prinz. If that wasn't bad enough, Paul Quantrill and Felix Heredia--pitchers the Yankees will actually need come October--were rocked two innings later for five runs. Who were those imposters wearing Yankee uniforms last night?

This one felt worse than the 22-0 loss to the Indians. The Yankees weren't just flat, they were pathetic. I'm sure I'm overreacting, but it was a disconcerting game to watch. And for some reason I sat through the whole thing, which makes me either incredibly loyal, amazingly stupid, or positively masochistic. The Yankees are now three games up on the Red Sox--who were idle--but just two ahead in the loss column.