And, to be fair, Felix Hernandez looked great tonight. He might be the next Pedro Martinez – or he could be the next Dwight Gooden? Or, he may be the next Roger Clemens – or he could be the next Steve Avery? There’s no way to call it – but, I know every team in the majors right now would love to have him and take their chances.

While I have no way to prove this, I called the Sheffield homer. On the pitch before it, Hernandez came up and in to Gary and Sheff shot him that look. I said to myself – here comes the bomb now, and it did.

I wonder if anyone else thought what I was thinking when that fan ran on the field. Did Kay and Justice on YES not speculate that those were the cremated remains of a person – just because they didn’t want to go there? (I’m not saying that I know they were ashes – I’m just guessing at this moment.)

It’s great to hear that El Brujo is joining the team tomorrow. He could be a sleeper addition to the post-season roster.

Lastly, tough night for Tino, huh? A whiff, two DPs and an “E” on a pop-up. Not exactly clip material for his Yankeeography.

If getting up in the middle of the night to let the dog out isn’t enough to tick you, seeing a Yankees loss, knowing that it drops them another game out of first, on top of that chore sure does the trick. Well, at least New York still leads in the Wildcard this morning.

To me, this game came down to two players: Ichiro and Bernie Williams.

Ichiro got the big 2-out three-run homer in the 2nd to make it 5-0. If Chacón is able to make a pitch there and get him out, it’s a whole different ballgame from that point.

Also, Bernie came up in the 1st with the bases loaded and one out and popped up – failing to drive in at least one run. Then, in the 3rd, with runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs, Bernie whiffed and did not help that situation at all. On the night, Williams had 6 LOB. You need the 5th batter in your line-up to do better in those situations.

If you think about it, Sheffield was really missed tonight. With him in there, Bernie’s not batting 5th.

Anyway, even without Sheff, just give Bernie a single in the 1st to drive in two and take out the Ichiro homerun and then it’s a 5-5 game going into the bottom of the 5th – even with all of Chacón’s command issues.

Unit better be golden tonight.

And, Bellhorn needs a haircut.

Now, that’s a way to start your morning right.

That shot in the elbow is doing wonders for Giambi, huh? And, I credit Torre for saving this game, yanking Princess & The Pea Mussina as quick as he did – rather than let the game get out of hand. And, of course, Lucky Charm Small to the rescue.

Also nice to see Matt Lawton HR on the day that Katrina ripped the roof off his house. It shows that he’s able to focus. That’s good to have in a player.

And, yes, I know that Love Child was doing his thing in the 9th – but, it was sofa king we todd ed that Gordon was getting loose at the end of this game.

So, now, the Yankees become the Kings of Wishful Thinking. Four at Safeco and three in the other Beane-town. It would be nice to see a five and two record out of this trip.

The highlights of this road-run should be Wednesday night, Unit vs. Sidd-x Finch-dez, and then the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Chacón vs. Zito (on ESPN at night).

Yankees Baseball.

Folks, this is why you never leave a game early.

You never expect something like this to happen, but, when it does, and you saw it, the feeling is indescribable.

So, since I saw it, albeit on TV, I’m speechless and have nothing to say.

Therefore, for now, I’m just gonna keep grinning.

Twelve days ago, I suggested that Bernie has to stay in the line-up until he stops hitting. I’m glad that he was playing tonight. Could he be the go-to guy? If he does, it’s going to help him in terms of his next contract.

OK, the-uh-uh Yankees win. So, why were they playing Liza at the Stadium tonight, at the end of the game, and not Frank? What’s up with that?

Then again, I’m Oh’fer two in my last two day-game predictions. So, what do I know?

This is the second time in his last five starts where Mussina was humming along and then imploded at just about the half-way mark of the game.

Well, Moose did get to keep the ball from tonight when he notched the out that marked his 3,000th career inning. I guess that’s the important thing for him – keeping track of his personal milestones.

Many say there’s a reason why Mussina has never won 20 games in a season. And, they say that he’s never been a true ace. And, they say that he’s not Cooperstown material. And, games like this one just add another log to their fire.

Hopefully tomorrow’s game will be better. I’m calling it The Battle of the Vowels – Chacon v Chacin. Let us all hope that “O” is the winner.

I actually stopped watching the game tonight as soon as it was 9-zip. The other day, I had picked up The Punisher on DVD at Target for ten bucks. So, I thought this was a good time to watch that instead of the game. The star is Thomas Jane – who played Mantle in 61*. It was pretty cornball – but it had enough suspense at times, and humor at others, mixed in with the requisite amount of guns/cars/explosions that you would expect from this type of flick to keep your attention.

There was even a Yankees reference in one line when The Punisher says:

“Upset? I used to get upset when I got a flat tire. I used to get upset when a plane was delayed. And, I used to get upset when the Yankees won the series. So, if that’s upset, how do I feel now? If you know the word, tell me, because I don’t.”

Maybe the word is “That-feeling-when-Mussina-spits-the-bit“?

A great effort from Leiter. Yankees down by two in the 6th – get one there to cut the lead and another in the 7th to tie. They fall behind again in the 8th by one and come back in the bottom of that frame with one more to tie again (on a big Bernie hit). They allow another in the 9th to fall one back again – and then score two in the bottom of the 9th to win – the first run on a Godzilla HR to tie and then with the GWRBI coming with 2 outs and 2 strikes on the batter (who just happened to be Felix Escalona!).

I did not see the post-game on YES – so, I have no idea if this was confirmed, but, on the replay of the Matsui HR in the 9th to tie the game, when they showed the Yankees dugout, I’m pretty sure that Jeter said to A-Rod “I told you.”

How cool is that?

Tonight was important – and this date is now important as well. Thanks to the outcome of tonight’s game, the Yankees now control their own post-season eligibility destiny.

New York is now tied for first in the AL Wildcard standings (with the A’s and Indians) and 2.5 games ahead of the Twins. There are 39 games left to the season.

In a nutshell, all the Yankees have to do is play better baseball over those final 39 games than the A’s, Indians, and Twins – and they will be in the post-season. Will it be easy? No – not at all. But, now, the Yankees, assuming they win, and very often, only have to worry about what they do – and not what the other teams are doing. And, that’s good.

Having control over yourself and your fate is a very basic, yet extremely important, human need. That’s no longer an issue for this Yankees team. The control now is theirs – and it’s up to them to keep it.