Well, if playing the Yankees is your litmus test, it’s probably safe to say that the Cincinnati Reds are better than the Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, and San Diego Padres.

I almost want to say that it’s a shame Dan Giese was not lifted today after his stellar first six innings – and he was awesome today for the first six. And, I almost want to say that it’s a shame that the Yankees infantry relievers didn’t pitch better today. As, if those two things happened, that could have made this a closer game.

But, the fact of the matter is that the Yankees offense, today, was ineffective – and that’s being polite.

It will be interesting to see what New York does tomorrow with the Reds’ Johnny Cueto. So far, this season, it seems like Cueto is either good for 6 innings and allowing about 2 earned runs; or, he’s “bad” in the sense that he doesn’t make it to the sixth and allows at least a run per inning pitched. It could help the Yankees that Cueto has been hit hard when he’s pitching on the road, to date, this year.

Let’s hope that Andy Pettitte has his “A” game tomorrow. Losing three in a row, at home, to the Reds, would certainly take away from the seven game winning streak that New York had coming into this series.