I love it.

Moose was the man tonight. Pefect timing too – when the pen needed the rest. Must be something about Mussina and Motown – one year and a week ago, he did it to them as well.

Gold star to Andy Phillips for his play on the bunt to nail the runner at 3rd in the 6th (when the score was only 2-0 Yanks). That could have been the turning point in the game.

Tonight was a great ending to a very nice month for the Yankees.

Considering that this game was starting to get that “2004 ALCS Games 4 & 5″ bad feel to it, hanging in there to get the win back was pretty important. And, with the Tigers having two good pitchers go in the next two games, it could have been a disaster to lose this game (after being up 5-0).

And, clearly, a gold star for Mo Rivera tonight.

And, now, for something entirely different………

A woman nuts over Elvis decides that she wants a tattoo of the legend’s head on her inner thigh – and she went to a tattoo joint to get it done.

When the tattoo artist was done with her, she looks at the tattoo and freaks – saying “That’s not Elvis and I’m not going to pay for this!”

After long debate, the tattoo artist agreed to do another tattoo of Elvis’ head on her other inner thigh. But, when he was done, the woman flipped out again saying “That’s not Elvis either!”

So, the tattoo artist said to her “Let’s get a third opinion” and he pulled in a guy who was in his waiting room. And, he asked the guy “Who does this look like?” (while pointing to the tattoo heads on the woman’s exposed legs).

After staring at the woman’s legs for a long time, the guy said, “I don’t know who the guys on either side are, but the one in the middle is definitely Fernando Rodney.”

Seeing today’s results, I can’t help but wonder if John Flaherty’s findings had anything to do with it?

It would have been cool to see a no-hitter today. I was having some Righetti flashbacks around the 5th inning. This, from the AP after the game was interesting:

Ivan Rodriguez broke up Johnson’s bid for his third no-hitter — and second against the Tigers — with a single to right.

“I couldn’t have cared less,” Johnson said. “If I had a perfect game, I would’ve come out after seven innings.”

Somehow, I find that very hard to believe.

In any event, now I’m looking forward to seeing Johnson’s next start.

Lastly, is Ron Villone the new Mike Stanton? I know that he’s been doing well. But, I still worry about him against a RH batter in a big spot.

It’s now official. The clock has struck midnight for Scott Proctor. In his last 4 appearances, he’s allowed 8 hits, 2 walks, and 8 earned runs – in just 3.2 innings pitched. He’s now back to the point where he cannot be trusted. Too bad, it’s probably Torre’s fault for burning him out in just two month’s time.

In Spring Training, if I would have asked you “Which pitcher would be more useful in the month of May, Randy Johnson or Jaret Wright?” – what would you have said? This entire month – Wright has not had a bad start. He’s been a big part of a good month for this team. Go figure.

And, now, the Tigers. Yes, they’re playing .700 ball so far this season. But, they’ve beat up on the Royals and Twins to get that record. (If I counted right, the Tigers are 15-2 against K.C. and Minny so far this year.) The Yankees better take three of four in this next series.

On a personal note, I saw X-Men: The Last Stand today. If you were a fan of the last two X-Men movies, don’t let the reviews scare you off this one. It’s fine. And, with all the action and CGI/FX stuff, you’ll want to see it on the big screen.

The Yankees better smoke the Royals over the next two games. Then it might make up for the loss in this game.

After today’s game, I can now write: OK, that’s one!

Yes, A-Rod hit two bombs today. And, Cairo and Stinnett did well. (On the latter, just goes to show what I know.) But, the thing that I’m really grooving on now is Melky Cabrera. He went two for four with 3 RBI today – and has now hit in 8 of his last 9 games.

To borrow from the old band The Church, here goes:

Sometimes your best plans come up empty
Hope from the bench fades with the light
Forget last year’s act of rush desperation
Under the Melky Way is right

At this point, when it comes to Cabrera, I only have three wishes:

1. He keeps doing what he’s doing.
2. That the Yankees keep him and play him.
3. That he gets a better number than # 28. That’s not a star’s number. Maybe # 24?

There’s no need to trade for a LF this season or get a RF for next season. Cabrera is proving that he can fill both needs.

It’s the 8th inning. Game tied at four. You’re playing at home – and it’s May 26th – against a team that was won just two games on the road all year. You’ve got a runner on 1st with two outs. The batters due up are Tony Graffanino and Angel Berroa (both hitting under .250 on the season).

And, you allow a walk and a homer. Now the score is 7-4, Royals, after seven and a half innings. At this point, the probability of the Yankees winning this game drops like a lead balloon.

Congrats to Derek for career hit # 2000. Great job by the fans for giving him his due.

The Yankees better smoke the Royals over the next two games. Then it might make up for the loss in this game.

I expect the Red Sox to go on and sweep this series.

At the time, I truly believed that – and that’s why I wrote it. Now, I must say that I am sincerely impressed with the way the Yankees played the last two days. It would have been easy to lay down, lose yesterday and today, and then just apply excuses as fault and make promises for the future. Instead, the Yankees showed – at least me – something. This team has some fight in them.

So, does Torre batting Melky Cabrera lead-off mean that the kid’s ability to work pitchers has now won him a spot in his manager’s heart? I hope so.

OK, it’s 8-6 Yanks, bottom of the 8th, bases juiced with 2 outs, and Big Papi is facing The Farns.

Well, I’m glad that someone was listening to my point from Monday – change speeds on Ortiz! What a beauty. Kyle Farnsworth drops a breaking pitch in for a called strike three and the inning is over. Grab some pine Papi.

And, thank you Mo Rivera for sending Manny Ramirez skipping in the 9th inning during his At Bat. Finally, someone shows the team how to effectively pitch this guy. The minute you come close, he’s going to stop diving into the plate. (Remember his AB against Clemens in the 2003 ALCS game at Fenway?)

As far as Randy Johnson, tonight he continued his trend that I pointed out earlier today.

In the first, Youkilis singles on the 2nd pitch. Then Loretta singles on the first pitch. Manny homers on the 3rd pitch.

In the third, Varitek singled on the 3rd pitch to drive in Manny.

I missed the count on the Youkilis homer in the second, but, knowing what I know, I would bet that it was hit before Johnson threw his 4th pitch of the At Bat.

Randy just needs to make better/smarter pitches early in the count – in order to turn this thing around.

Lastly, it’s pretty cool to beat the Red Sox in Fenway. But, it’s wicked good to beat them in Fenway when the last out is recorded on a great play by Jeter (like in tonight’s game). And, for what it’s worth, I think it’s great that the schedule will now allow Jeter to get career hit # 2,000 at the Stadium. Sure, Fenway would have been good too. But, it will be a fitting reaction to such an event in the Bronx. Enjoy it Derek – you earned and deserve it.

So, I had to see a lot of the action via the post-game highlights (as I missed the 1st inning and most of the 4th through the 8th).

The guys on YES might have said something (which I missed), but, man, Doug Mirabelli must be made to pay for that attempt to take out Jeter on the DP in the 6th inning. I only caught it in the flash-summary at the end of the game. Nonetheless, Mirabelli went a good 9 feet away from the bag to try and get Derek. Next time he bats against the Yankees, he deserves a shot on the elbow.

OK, on to bigger things. Is Jaret Wright building something now, or what? Yes, the “Did I pop it up?” homer by A-Rod was a big hit. And, yes, Mo cleaning up for Proctor, Myers and Farnsworth – going 5 outs for the save – was huge. And, yep, Damon and Jeter set a heckuva table tonight – which really helped.

But, this game, to me, was all about Wright. He got the game to the bottom of the 6th, with the Yankees winning 4-0. At that point, all the Yankees needed was 12 outs to win the game. If Wright can do that every start, meaning get the team to a point where they have a 4-run lead and needing 12 more outs to win, he’s going to be a big part of this team.

In my mind, coming into this game, the odds were not in the Yankees favor. Getting a win, despite the odds, is very uplifting. I hope New York can ride this into something positive tomorrow.

Lastly, am I the only one, every time that the Sox’ Mark Loretta comes to bat, who hears the voice of Nick Tortelli saying “And, this is my wife. The lovely Lo-ret-ta.”?

So, despite the nice little two-out rally in the 9th this evening, this was not a good game for the Yankees. And, I expect the Red Sox to go on and sweep this series.

When that happens, what will it mean?

Think about it – losing two of three to the Mets where you could have won all three games and then going into Fenway Park to get swept.

Yes, it’s only two months into the season. But, losing badly to either the Mets or Red Sox is a Big Stein hot button. Doing it in back-to-back series is a really big and hot button for Stein.

Sure, even George must realize that the Yankees are not at full strength now. (Up until tonight, did you ever think the Yankees would be playing Terrence Long in LF, Bernie Williams in CF and Melky Cabrera in RF against the Red Sox and Curt Schilling at Fenway Park this year?)

Nonetheless, Big Stein will want to mix things up somehow – to try and spark the team. But what?

He cannot fire the hitting coach – ever. Would he fire the pitching coach? That’s highly doubtful. Same goes for the rest of the coaching staff.

How about Brian Cashman? Has Stein ever let a G.M. go during the season?

There’s no one to trade from the starting nine, the rotation or the pen. They’re either too stinky to trade, make too much, or are pieces that you don’t want to move.

There’s really only one piece to this puzzle that can be touched that would really shake up the team. But, I cannot see that happening just for losing 5 or 6 to the Mets and Sox. However, if the losing carries into the series after the Red Sox (when the Royals come to town), then I think it’s going to get very hot for Mr. Torre. Stay tuned.

Paging Mr. Piniella.
Mr. Lou Piniella.
There’s a call for you at the front desk.

I’m really not sure what to make of this series. On one hand, I want to say that the Yankees were lucky (with the miracle of yesterday) not to get swept – and, that’s at least something. On the other hand, I want to say that the Yankees should have won all three of these games – with a little better pitching in the first game and a little better hitting in the game tonight. And, that’s the stuff to keep you up at night.

What probably bugs me the most now is knowing that many Mets fans will be lined-up and waiting for me at work tomorrow morning – forgetting the fact that all three games in this series were one-run affairs that could have gone either way – and those Met-heads will be ready to tell me about how great the Mets are now and how lousy the Yankees are this year.

All I want to know is this: When I look at the Mets today, I see Glavine, Pedro, Wagner, Delgado, Floyd and Beltran – all big Free Agent signings sans Delgado who was a huge salary grab by the Mets (because the Marlins needed to dump his huge contract). So, if the Mets do win “it” this year, are we allowed to say “They bought it!” (just like Yankees fans have had to hear each time the Yanks won)?

I’m guessing, since we didn’t hear it about the Red Sox (that much) in 2004, when they bought Schilling, Foulke, Manny, and Damon (among others), that we won’t hear it about the Mets this year (should they win).

Well, regardless if we hear it or not, it’s the truth. And, if need be, I’m going to “Edith Ann” it as much as I can – with the hope that at least some people get it.