Worm Killer Wang is in a slump. His “Game Score” for this contest was 31. In the last two starts before this one, his “Game Score” for each was 37. This is the only time in his career that Wang has posted three games in a row with a “Game Score” of 37 or less. (In both 2006 and 2007 – bizarrely each time on August 8th and August 13th! – he had back-to-back games with scores of 37 or less. But, he’s never done in for three games in a row – until now.)

Wang’s next start is a day game, on Thursday, at the Stadium against the Blue Jays. It’s important for him to have a good start that day. If he posts four bad starts in a row, well, maybe then it will be time to break out some Hsiung Huang Wine and see if that can turn things around. Hey, you never know – a big night on the town led to a perfect game for David Wells…

While it has been beat-up on Jeter time, lately, at many other Yankees blogs, that single of his (in this game) in the 12th inning was a big play. It set up the win.

Last note: Robby Cano is now 3 for his last 24. (He was 21 for 52 before this mini-slump.) Hopefully, this is not the start of another bad stretch for him.

“Boom Boom” Farnsworth did make me sweat in the eighth. Kyle really is the Bizarro Mo Rivera.

Strange game for the Yankees bats tonight: 22 TB and 6 runs. That’s now the 4th time this season the Yankees have had 22+ TB in a game while scoring 6 runs or less. Last season, in total, the team did this 3 times. And, in 2006 it happened 4 times for New York. (Then again, in 1998, the Yankees did this 7 times. But, on average it usually only happens one to four times a season for the Yankees – since 1956.)

So, we’re at the one-third mark of the season and the Yankees are exactly at .500 (27-27). Back in January, I suggested that June and July would be the best months for the Yankees to put together a nice run.

Let’s hope that the second “third” of the season is a lot better than the first “third.”

Another five total bases for Jason Giambi tonight. He really has been amazing since May 6th. But, to be honest, while I’m happy to see him do well – because it means good things for the Yankees- I do, at times, get this strange feeling when I see him hitting like, well, the Jason Giambi of 2000 to 2002. While I am able to rejoice over his success, there’s a part of me that starts to hear, off in the distance, the sound of “the other shoe” starting to drop – meaning that some disclosure is going to come forward that will just ruin all the good things that Jason has done in the last three weeks (with the bat).

Yeah, I know, I’m a terrible person for suspecting that Giambi’s recent great performance may be the result of some enhancing agent…like the one that they can’t test for in baseball (yet). But, hey, it’s somewhat human nature to expect someone to revert back to old tricks…especially when those tricks were so successful in the past and things at the moment are not going so well for them. If Giambi was not the poster-child for PEDs that he was – and a self-confessed poster-child, at that – maybe I would be able to escape this feeling…and the assumption alleys that it leads me down?

Aw, I should probably stop with this now. I know that reading this will be upsetting to some people. However, I’m just being honest about my feelings here. And, for what it’s worth, I can imagine that there other Yankees fans out there who, at times, watching Giambi hit the way he’s be batting lately, wonder if it’s a “natural” thing. Are they willing to admit it, like me? Maybe? But, then again, maybe not.

Just thinking about it…well…it makes me want to go find a heavy-bag somewhere and just start punching away…rather than write about…either that…or…go find a room somewhere…where I can be alone…and cry. Man, what a terrible game.

You have a 4-0 lead after the top of the 2nd – and then allow the game to be tied, 4-4, in the bottom of the second. Then, you have an 8-4 lead after the top of the 4th – and then allow the game to be tied, 8-8, in the next inning. Then, you have a 9-8 in the 11th – only needing three outs to win the game – and then you blow it…10-9, in the bottom of the 11th.

It’s like losing three games in one. And, that doesn’t even touch all the other stuff…like the errors, Jeter getting picked off, and the 4-2-5 double play (in the 11th).

Funny, just yesterday, I wrote:

Yes, outside of Mo, Joba and Ramirez, the Yankees bullpen has not been pretty this season. And, yes, you cannot trust Farnsworth, Hawkins or Ohlendorf.

And, bang, we see it in this game. (Yes, Farnsworth didn’t allow a run in this game – but, he was darn lucky not to…thanks to Millar being slow in one inning and grounder being hit, hard, right at Cano in another.) Hawkins and Ohlendorf were terrible. Maybe Ohlendorf should be limited to one inning for a while?

La Troy Hawkins? Hey, just add him to the list of “Cashman’s Brilliant Bullpen Pick-ups” – along with Juan Acevedo, Gabe White, Felix Heredia, Octavio Dotel, Alan Embree, Scott Erickson, C.J. Nitkowski, Wayne Franklin, Allen Watson, Felix Rodriguez and Mike Thurman.

After the first game of this series, I wrote:

The Baltimore Orioles are not the Seattle Mariners.

Again, you can say that…and, maybe, just maybe, it’s now time to say: “The New York Yankees are close to being the Seattle Mariners.” Know what the difference is between the records for the M’s and the Yanks? It’s the 6 games where New York beat Seattle this year. Take away those 6 games and both teams have the same win total at this junction of season. (The Yankees would be 19-27 and the Mariners would be 19-28.)

And, what’s up with Ian Kennedy? This is now twice, in the last five months of pitching (if you include Spring Training games) that he’s been forced to the D.L. with a lat/back problem. Leave it to the Yankees “crack” scouting staff to find a 23-year old with a bad back condition.

Man, what a shame to waste a gem from Rasner. These last four starts from Rasner are probably the best four starts in a row from a Yankees pitcher this season – outside of the four straight from Worm Killer Wang from April 27th through May 13th.

Big game for Ian Kennedy tomorrow. There’s no way the Yankees want to fall back to being two games under five hundred – because then they’ll have to win (the next) two in a row just to get to .500 at the official one-third mark of the season. I doubt that anyone in Yankeeland had pegged this team to be hovering around .500 with two-thirds of the year remaining.

In terms of local minor league and independent parks, we’ve been to a few with the kids over the last 4 years.  We’ve been to the Somerset Patriots, Staten Island Yankees, Sussex Skyhawks, Trenton Thunder, New Jersey Jackals, Lakewood BlueClaws, and now the Newark Bears. 

I couldn’t ask for a better experience in terms of dealing with a ticket office (as when I got my Bears tickets today).  I explained to the Bears staffer that our kids, being four and six, have a tendency to melt in the sun at ballgames.  And, not only did he set me up with a location in the park that was in the shade soon after the game started; but, he also stopped by our seats during the game to see how things in that location were working out for us.  That’s four-star customer service.

The park in Newark was cozy enough. Click on the thumbnail on the right to see the view from our seats today.

One thing that I didn’t find great about the park today was my concession stand experiences. (And, since the kids like to eat their way through a ballgame, I made five trips to the concession stands today.) First, there were no vendors working the seats today, at all. I’m not sure if that’s how they always do it there in Newark – but there were zero vendors in the stands today. So, there were always lines at the concession stands this afternoon. (In smaller parks, there are usually some times when there’s not really much of a line.) Secondly, the selections at the concession stands were limited. If you wanted something like lemonade or Dippin’ Dots, it wasn’t happening. Lastly, the folks working the concession stands were clumsy and incompetent. Because of this, even though the lines were usually only about six people deep, when you were waiting on line, you were waiting on line. And, I mean waiting. When I returned after one trip, my wife said she was just about to send out a search party for me. (And, I hit about four different concession stands today and they were all the same.) Considering the crowd there today was probably around 2,000 fans, there’s really no excuse for this – and it could be fixed with better staffing.

In any event, as we were in Newark for a while and then hit our favorite local pizzeria afterwards for dinner, I had to settle for a mixed bag in terms of learning what happened in Yankeeland today – meaning a WCBS Newsradio 880 (AM) sports report on the drive home, some ESPN Baseball Tonight highlights after dinner (as we were getting the kids ready for bed), and SNY’s Geico SportsNite at ten this evening.

When I heard the sports report on the drive home, they said that the Yankees scored four in the eighth for a 6-5 win. And, that sounded impressive. But, once I saw the highlights on ESPN and SNY, I know now that J.J. Putz and Ichiro Suzuki really helped the Yankees out in that big comeback inning. Without the error from Putz on the ball Matsui hit and Ichiro giving up on Molina’s fly, well, maybe the Yankees don’t win this one.

Still, a win is a win – and a win is the thing, no? Five-hundred, nice to see ya. It will be very interesting to see how the Yankees do now as they head on a road-trip. Remember, the Mets looked great at Yankee Stadium and then tanked in Atlanta and Colorado. At times, a team looks great and then something happens when they start playing someone else. Hopefully, that won’t be the case for the Yankees. It would be great to see them go on a run now.

Oh, and, what about Wang today? From what I could see from the game highlights, it didn’t look like Shelley Duncan or having the infield in helped him much in the seventh. I’m not worried about the numbers from Wang in this one. I think he’ll be better next time out.

Or, are the Yankees just playing this good?

Will the real New York Yankees please stand up!

Heck, will the real Mike Mussina please stand up? Is it the Moose who started the season not so hot, or the one who went on a roll recently for five games, or is it the one who has pitched “blah” in his last two games?

And, how about Jason Giambi? Back on April 19th, I said it was time to let him go. But, since May 6th, he’s been en fuego.

At this point, I would have to offer that Giambi is not as bad as he appeared in April and he is not as good as he appears (so far) in May. Let’s check on him on June 30th – as that will probably be the true level that we can expect from him, over the rest of the season, assuming that he does not end up on the disabled list.

In the meantime, another win for New York tomorrow would be sweet – as it would enable the Yankees to reach .500 for the first time since May 10th. As long as they get to play the Panaceas again, I like their chances.

Nonetheless, the Yankee Gods decided to punish me for selling the seats – and I guess they thought it would be amusing to do it via the big inning. So, you can thank me for the score this evening.

Phil is a big Yankees fan. But, his in-laws are Mariners fans. So, he’s always on the look-out for Yanks-M’s games as they’re a hot ticket in his family. I think he was going to this game with his father-in-law. (But, I’m not positive.)

You know, it’s the eve of Memorial Day weekend and the Yankees are under .500 and in last place in the A.L. East. And, the Mets…well…it’s open season on the Mets players, manager, and G.M. these days. I was driving about this afternoon, and – between Mike & The Mad Dog (on WFAN) and Michael Kay (on ESPN Radio in NYC) – it was nothing but Mets-Mets-Mets and their woes on the sports-talk radio beat. Between the two New York big league teams, it’s not been a great start to this baseball season in the Big Apple.

Still, it’s a day at the beach (here) compared to what it must be to like for Mariners fans.

Seattle was supposed to be, at the worst, at least decent this season. Many (because of their pitching) even picked them to have a strong season. However, the Mariners stink. Using the expression “a sinking ship” may sound too corny – but, it really fits in this case.

I hope the Yankees don’t let the M’s off the canvas this weekend. New York should take advantage of this opportunity – and get to .500 by Sunday evening.

And, I think it helped tonight. Motivational people always talk about breaking the patterns of undesired behavior. And, that’s what Joe did in the ninth. Tie game, one-up, Matsui does his job leading off…then A-Rod goes down on strikes and ditto Giambi (with some help from the ump). I truly believe, if Girardi does nothng there…then we see more bad things. Even if Abreu still got the walk without Joe’s act coming before it, Cano, who was having a bad night at the plate, would probably continue to ride the overall negative vibe that was present.

But, Joe does his thing…clears the air, resets the mood, gets the crowd going, ices the O’s pitcher a bit…and, presto! A beautiful win.

I’ll talk about Ian Kennedy tomorrow – he’s part of the story here too. But, for now, this one’s for General Joe.

It was the Rodriguez and Rasner show tonight. A-Rod was robbed on that second big fly. But, as the guys in the YES booth said…it was too hard to make that call with the naked eye at real time speed. (Man, if I’m Mitch Seone, I’m going to get myself run on that call. If you’re going to be a BP pitcher fill-in first base coach, you might as well get yourself on SportsCenter jawing with an ump. Yes, I’m kidding – sorta/kinda.)

Hey now…if Rasner keeps this up…it’s going to be interesting at the end of June when Joba is ready to join the rotation. Wang, Pettitte, Chamberlain, Mussina and Rasner leaves no room for Phil Hughes or Ian Kennedy – assuming there are no injuries. Phil and Ian might want to consider being roomies down in Scranton this summer. (Sure, one of them could stick in New York as a long-man; but, I doubt the Yankees would do that.)

Lastly, here’s a question that no one is probably thinking about coming out of this game (now that the Joba news has everyone’s attention): Chad Moeller went 2 for 5 tonight and had a third hit lost to a great play in the field. He’s now batting .262 on the season. Is it an automatic that he goes down when Posada returns? Jose Molina has an OPS of .522 – and it was .530 last year when the Yankees picked him up from the Angels.