look y’all, not getting the sac flies & the GIDPs hurt a lot, but when you give a lead to your closer in the 9th, the team has pretty much done it’s job. that should be in the bag. rivera blew this game, plain & simple.

the only consolation is that beating chicago should not be expected, but beating KC should be.

Your forgot not starting Lidle and giving Wang an extra day’s rest Bailey. [wink]

Okay, how about this: Posada’s double play with the bases loaded; Giambi’s grounder to Garcia in the first; Melky unable to get Cano in from third with less than two outs; Mo giving up the home run; Proctor giving up the winning hit; A-Rod not catching the popup; Johnny’s noodle of an arm and his weak throw from center; Cotts hitting Giambi in the elbow, forcing Bernie to pinch-hit from the left side; Bernie striking out with A-Rod on second; Wang giving up that tying run to Crede; the horrible strikezone of the ump (that “walk” to Thome put the winning run on second, if I remember right) — all of these things contributed to the loss against the White Sox.

And if Mo doesn’t blow the save, A-Rod doesn’t get a chance to miss the pop up. You’re right – Mo didn’t get the L, but A-Rod didn’t get an E either. And even if A-Rod did catch it, it would have been the 2nd out and Proctor would have had some work left.

I guess we could go all day with chicken and the egg scenarios.

Bottomline – we lost a tough game, but it wasn’t as bad as Boston spitting the bit against KC.

Gabe – there’s a difference between a Blown Save and a Loss, no? Did Rivera get the “L”? No, he got a “BS” – because that’s all he did. Mo did not “Lose” the game.

As far as Damon’s arm, again, if A-Rod catches the pop-up that fell in front of him, then there’s never a hit to CF and Damon’s lack of arm is not an issue.

saying Mo didnt lose the game because he just allowed it to be tied is a silly argument. If Mo doesn’t give up any runs, there is no chance the white sox win (obviously). So “blame” for a loss goes only to the pitcher (or player) involved with the losing run. So let’s say if Mo came in when it was 8-0 gave up 8 runs, and then the yankees lost in 11 innings on a sac fly, the pitcher who gave up the sac fly lost the game?

Fair enough. What about Damon’s inability to throw a baseball more than 100 feet?

Yeah, but, for the record, Mo didn’t lose the game, he just allowed it to be tied. Same as Posada with the DP grounder – the Yankees were ahead when that happened – his DP did not lose the game.

Proctor, on the other hand, well, he did set up the 11th. But, since Dye won the game, and he would have been out if the pop-up was caught, then you have to say that not catching the pop was an important part in losing the game, at least to me.

It’s hard to say, but I would guess it was 2-3 feet in front of him – slightly further than an outstretched arm. He took a bad route to the ball. I think Cabrera had a better shot at getting to it, but he wasn’t going all out.

For ther record, I don’t think your an A-Rod hater. I just don’t get how A-Rod running after a ball 150 feet down the 3rd base line becomes an “event” or a “karma” related loss. If I were to come up with the top 10 reasons why we lost last night, that pop up wouldn’t make the list.

Mistakes happen but that 2-strike pitch to Konerko could have been a 2-seamer on the inside corner rather than a flat cutter over the plate. Konerko’s a great hitter on anything out over the plate. Mo and Posada have to be more aware of hitters who’ve had success against Mo in the past. It’s not inconceivable that Konerko set up Mo for that cutter with his two weak swings leading up to it. If the cutter does its job, of course, Konerko can only foul it off or take it for strike three. But it’s clear he was looking outer half…and he put a good swing on it. End of game, really. The other turning point was definitely Bernie having to pinch-hit from the left side against a real hard thrower, Jenks. Oh, Aaron Guiel might have done better. Might have. We’ll never know.