I think the ball would have hit near the top of the wall had Wells not caught it. Even so, great running catch by Wells.

It's a pitchers' duel.

I may not like his performance lately, but thats just mean.

Posada must have been furious. Striking out in a big spot is his game and both Giambi and Tino tried to steal his thunder?

He showed them.

A Rodriguez doubled to deep right.
J Giambi struck out swinging.
T Martinez struck out looking.
J Posada struck out looking.

One word comes to mind: disgraceful.

He blew Giambi away, then went 3-0 to Tino. The 3-1 pitch was a high fastball, Tino's favorite. But it was out of the zone and Tino swung through it.. He then caught him looking with a beautiful breaking ball on the outside corner. Posada whiffed too. Didn't look good at all. He's 4-48 on the season with runners in scoring position and two out.

Mussina looks good but the Jays have two men on in the fifth...

Of course, a baseball hitting a hand should make some kind of sound, but dont let that stop the ump.

They rock our best pitcher, we cant hit a bad one.

No way this team makes the playoffs with Moose pitching like this.

That can't happen.

Wasn't that Aaron Small? Or is Torre trying to play match-up 8 down?

Never seen a guy go lights out for 1/2 the game and then get abolutely crushed as often as this guy does. What's that all about?

Kaat just made an interesting comparison and said that Bert Blyeleven used to have games like this too. Said his pitches were too much the same speed and he'd just have games where his location would go south in the middle of the game and he'd just get plastered. I remember that Blyeleven.

There was 26 minutes between outs number one and two in the fifth.

And the next inning, the pitcher walks in 2 runs, and then gives up double, single, HR. The reliever is a set-up man who obviously came to mop up the inning.

No chance in hell Yankees are winning this one. Tomorrow is a new day, and let's hope TB holds onto that lead against Cleveland.

A 3-way tie again.

Mea Culpa. I'll never do that again.

Though we have had a couple games this season where we've scored 13 in an inning. . .

Mo & Flash get another day off.

"This is one of those 'go for the jugular' games. This is the team the Yankees play most over the remainder of the season and a win tonight could break them."

Dag. A game like tonight only makes me appreciate what kind of special team the Yanks had in their recent championship years, especially 98-99 when they almost always went in for the kill and just put teams away.

Jay's blues indeed.

Unbelievable.

Meanwhile, F-Rod is not doing much to earn the trust of anyone, he sucks big time.

Well Escalona is 2 for 4. :)

Sheffield, Giambi, Posada, Cano, and Bernie are all slumping. Matsui seems to be coming out of a slump. Womack blows, but has stuck some hits together. Tino's been doing well, but without any power. Ditto Jeter. That leaves Rodriguez who at .304/.360/.478 is hitting well below his season level over the past week.

Adams boots a DP ball and still turns it. That's what happens when Tino and "Flash" Flaherty are running. Ouch.

Donde esta Andy Phillips & Russ Johnson?

20 games ago, Mussina had a 6 run, 5th inning implosion against Cleveland after looking untouchable for 4 innings (sound familiar?).

Yankee starters have allowed no more than 3 runs in 17 of the 19 games since then -- the two exceptions both pitched by Randy Johnson (stinkers against the Jays and the White Sox).

And now Mussina turns back into a pumpkin. Hope this isn't the end of a great pitching run...based on the way the offense is going these days, we're definitely not slugging our way to the playoffs.

Cleveland lost (or will lose soon) too, so we are still tied for the WC lead.

Forget about division, the Sox game is tied, but the KC pen and Sox line-up is gasoline on fire.

Bubba is 2 for 2 in this game. I don't really think he can hit much, but Womack can't hit any.

That's not to say they would have gotten them, but he helped make sure they didn't.

The following is my everyday lineup for the balance of the season. It must be followed or the Yankees will be watching a lot of WWE in late-October.

1. Jeter - SS
2. Bernie - DH
3. Sheff - RF
4. A-Rod - 3b
5. Matsui - LF
6. Giambi - 1b (can't hit for shit while DHing)
7. Cano - 2b
8. Posada - C
9. Crosby - CF

In a perfecter world, they'd call up A-Phil to platoon with Giambi and Tino at 1b-DH, but COME ON.

That said, I have faith that Bubba can hit at least as well as Womack (which is a very low standard). And I know he has more pop in his bat. He just needs the exposure to get his swing up to that modest level of "production." Meanwhile, he's by far the best defensive centerfielder on this team, if not in the entire organization.

I've been a Bubba doubter for most of the season, but something about watching Womack out there and at the plate last night convinced me, Bubba must be better.

The decision to pull A-Rod, Sheffield and Posada at the end of 6 when trailing 9-0 is entirely excusable considering that it's a day game tomorrow. At this stage, every little bit of rest helps, especially when it comes to the big bats and the differnce between even the diminished Posada and Flaherty Will Get You Nowhere.

GRANTED, neither of these guys is Andruw Jones here. I think we can pretty much agree like hell on that. But how could you compare Womack's 320 ABs to Bubba's (a wopping 42 ABs). I really think their respective offensive output would be a wash if Bubba were given the opportunity to play on a daily basis, while Crosby is far superior defensively - advantage Crosby.

Except I do have a problem with Bernie being anywhere near CF anymore.

Again, our complete lack of outfield depth borders on the surreal.

I'd forgotten that Bellinger had some pop in his bat (10 career ML homers in 275 ABs). Bellinger, now 36, slugged .427 in part-time duty for the Oriole's triple-A team in Ottawa last year (don't ask about his AVG and OBP, they're not pretty). I'm not sure where (or if) he's playing this year.

I doubt he was a better defensive CF than Crosby, though. He has a career Rate2 of 87 in 36 ML games in CF in 2000 and 2001.