@ OnceIWasAYankeeFan:
why CC doesnt throw a change-up in that spot is beyond me

Thanks, YankCrank. What’s encouraging to me is that the Sox have the lead but haven’t yet gone on a hot streak like the Yankees have, but with Papi, Lester and Beckett looking better, and Smoltz on his way, I think they’ve got a chance to do that, and if they get a little bulge just by playing .675 ball while the Yankees play .575-.600, then these head-to-head games will loom much larger. Should still be a great pennant race.

IMHO, the key moment in that game was Pedroia’s at-bat, which was a thing of beauty for me and one hell of an aggravation for you guys. If C.C. gets the K there, I do believe the inning ends differently.

Corey wrote:

how about the baseball God’s and swisher huh? I guess you nailed it huh Steve, that WAS a bonehead play.

Girardi even referred to it in the post-game…saying it was two times in two days that Nick was erased off the bases, and that both games were decided by one-run, and then he said something like ‘there’s both games/losses for you.’

Raf wrote:
I thought Aceves was the “bridge to Mo?”

If Aceves was truly the Bridge to Mo then he would have started the 8th.

A tired CC was better than anything else Girardi could have done (except Mo in the 8th but that’s another story).

how about the baseball God’s and swisher huh? I guess you nailed it huh Steve, that WAS a bonehead play.

ken wrote:

3- Wang’s disaster leads to using only reliable middle reliever not named Rivera (that would be Hughes) to get used up in a losing effort.

4- Last night’s need for a big time 8th inning performance by the only reliable middle reliever not named Rivera can’t happen because of Wang.

5- No bridge to Mariano last night.

I thought Aceves was the “bridge to Mo?”

Anyway, last night was a perfect example of managing for the save. You have the heart of the order coming up, you want your best guy in there. Piece together the 9th if you must, but their best has to be matched with your best. Now I understand that’s not the way it works, but it doesn’t make the error any less glaring.

I can’t believe I’m the one to try to relieve the doom and gloom – but its hardly impossible to play three games better than the Red Sox the rest of the way, particularly with ten head-to-head games against them left.
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You make good points, and i’m one to give credit where credit is due. Congrats on the series sweep…your team certainly has our number.

Awful, awful loss…but let’s put it all into perspective.

The Sox have our number right now, and good for them. But there’s still 102 games left and we’re still only two games out. This series sucked, again, but it’s time to move on and beat the other teams. We’ll see them again in August.

obviously they are clearly inferior to the sox. the bullpen is the biggest reason.

I can’t believe I’m the one to try to relieve the doom and gloom – but its hardly impossible to play three games better than the Red Sox the rest of the way, particularly with ten head-to-head games against them left. What are the odds of the head-to-head records coming into play? Its happened once in the wild card era, twice in the division era. Far more likely that a team wins the division, and the Yankees are two games off the pace with 100 to go.

But as we’ve seen the other division races shape up, its clear to me that if everything stays the same, division-wise (and I see no reason to believe that it won’t) its more important to be the playoff participant that draws the Rangers than the Tigers (or the Angels for that matter if they get their act together), regardless of whether that requires being the wild card or winning the East. I wouldn’t want to have to face Verlander and Edwin Jackson in a short series under any circumstances.