But, at the end of the day, if you were at Yankee Stadium today, and sat through a 58 minute rain delay at the start of the game, and then saw all nine innings of this one, you’d be walking away from this event with a pretty big smile on your face – thanks to the win here. So, I’m going to leave it at that – it’s a good game for the Yankees…thanks to that “W” you can hang on this puppy.

All told, the Yanks went 15-11 in the month of June – after going 17-11 in May and 12-10 in April. Again, things could be a lot worse. It will be interesting to see how July, August and September unfolds for this Yankees team.

I think the Yankees may have gotten away with one here – as their offensive attack in this one left a little to be desired. Basically, they were no-shows for the seven innings between the first and the ninth. But, a win is a win – and any win against the Mets is a good one.

Back to Mo, how can you not be happy for this guy right now? He, along with the rest of the Yankees, should have a fun off-day on Monday. They deserve it.

Lastly, was it just me, or, was A-Rod extra animated in this one? What’s up with that?

Then again, it’s not like facing the Mets, right now, is the same as having to deal with the 1978 Brewers, 1993 Tigers, or the 2003 Cardinals. In fact, in the post-game coverage that I heard, Mets manager Jerry Manuel even called his team “depleted” and then said something like needing to catch a team on a bad day in order to get a win. (Manuel also said that Burnett had better stuff when the Mets last faced the Yanks. Is that an attempted slap on his team, Burnett, or both?)

When I got home, I checked the stats and saw that A.J. Burnett had a “Game Score” of 82 this evening. That’s pretty impressive. That’s the best Game Score posted by Burnett since he was a Blue Jay and faced the O’s on May 16, 2007. In fact, A.J. – with this game included – only has ten career starts with a Game Score of 82+ (on his resume). And, seven of those ten came when he was pitching for the Marlins.

In any event, this is a nice win for the Yankees – as now, in the series finale, they get to play with house money.

While at the BlueClaws game this evening, I had a chance to meet Jayson Stark and his wife Lisa. Jayson was at the ballpark to meet fans, sign autographs and promote his new book “Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies.” It was wonderful to meet Jayson and his wife in person – as they’re both very pleasant and down-to-earth people. Here’s a photo of my kids, me, and Jayson (along with a copy of his book):

Thumbing through Jayson Stark’s new book this evening, it looks like a great and entertaining chronicle of the 2008 Phillies championship run that ended a quarter-century “title” wait in Philadelphia. And, having also read and enjoyed Jayson’s first book, I’m looking forward to reading this one – and will share a review on it here once done.

O.K., and, now, for a little machine gun post-game victory celebration music…

No, not Cody Ransom – although he’s back too. Yes, A-Rod’s mashing the ball again. Jeter and Damon were ripping in this one too.

Then again, Derek Lowe, coming into this game, had an ERA of 5.46 and a BA allowed of .306 over his last 5 starts (covering 29.6 IP and 131 Opp PA).

And, in the end, the Yankees did allow an 8-1 lead after 4 1/2 innings turn into a 11-7 win where the Braves had the tying run on deck in the bottom of the 9th inning. That’s not too pretty.

Hey, bottom line, if you have to play a 9-inning game, in June, in Atlanta, in 90 degree heat, over three hours and forty nine minutes, it’s better to win it than to lose it, right?

And, it’s now off to Metsville for three games. Let’s hope there’s no let-down in Camp Girardi for this set in Queens.

A win! Seems like forever, don’t it?

Hey, I guess the lack of offense was Joe Girardi’s fault? As soon as he was tossed from the game, and Tony Pena took over, the Yankees bats came alive. (Yes, I’m just kidding with this one.) By the way, was that a terrible call by Bill Welke, or what? Brett Gardner was back safe by a mile. General Joe had to get run on that one.

Great game by Joba. Then again, it was expected – since he had an extra day’s rest between today’s game and his last start, and, if you’ve been paying attention, you know what that means.

And, nice nights at the plate for Damon, Teixeira, A-Rod and Swisher. Now, of course, the key is…doing it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…

Lastly, was it just me, or, did Francisco Cervelli’s homerun trot seem like it was under 15 seconds?

The Yankees offense in this one was beyond bad. You can’t blame Wang for not coming through in a big spot, with the bat, in the second – because he’s not a hitter. But, A-Rod and/or Cano have to get hits in the third. And, Swisher has to come through in the fourth. Lastly, Jeter has to make it happen in the sixth. If just one of those Yankees plates some runners, it’s a lot closer ballgame. Actually, Alex Rodriguez, on the whole, still looks totally lost. Maybe it’s time to stop batting him clean-up, for a while, until he starts to bat well, again?

New York has now lost 9 of their last 13…and it should be 11 of their last 13 (if not for Willy Aybar and Luis Castillo gifts).

At this point, this team needs a spark. I’m not sure what it is – picking the line-up out of a hat, or, turning over a buffet table? – but, something needs to happen…and soon.

You know, just three weeks ago, the Yankees were on a run, closing out a string where they won 16 of 20, and their dugout looked full of life. But, since that time, the Yankees have lost 11 of 18 (and it should have been 13 of 18, if not for those aformentioned gifts) – and now it looks as if this team has zero energy…zip, nada, zilch.

Somebody call a doctor, huh?

New York has now lost 8 of their last 12…and it should be 10 of their last 12 (if not for Willy Aybar and Luis Castillo gifts).

Cross your fingers on the biceps tendinitis issue for CC Sabathia. If he’s got an issue, given the way that the rest of the Yankees rotation has been inconsistent, if you’re the Yankees, you might as well start planning vacation activities for October – because this year’s Yankeeland baseball journey this year will end in September.

And, by the way, don’t lose sight of the fact that “the second place Yankees,” with this loss, are now closer to 3rd place (1 game) and 4th place (2 games) in the A.L. East than they are to the division leader (4 games). If things keep trending the way they are, you might have to call New York “the fourth place Yankees” by the end of next week.

Well, yeah, he’s no Brandon Weeden, but, he’s a beast, nonetheless.

Yanks have now lost 7 of their last 11…and it should be 9 of their last 11 (if not for Willy Aybar and Luis Castillo gifts).

Yes, that’s nine of their last eleven games where New York played bad enough to lose. Can you say “June Swoon”?

Actually, around the sixth inning, I was starting to get nervous – with the fear that the lack of “tack on” runs by the Yankees would allow the Marlins to get back into this game. Good thing that never happened.

In the end, the Yankees had 13 hits and collected 5 walks. But, they “only” scored those five runs. It’s interesting, over the years, the Yankees would have maybe five or six games all season where they would have 18 batters or more reach base and score five runs or less. And, now, with this game, they already have six such games this season – and there’s 95 games left to play. Does that mean the Yankees offense is good, or, does it mean that they’re leaving too many runners on base? It’s probably some combination of both.

Nice to see Pettitte have a good game – even if he’s still not feeling 100% yet. It’s funny, when Jorge Cantu flied out to center, against Pettitte, to end the sixth inning, I was thinking “Boy, I bet the Yankees pitchers would love to throw in a ballpark this size everyday.” And, then, after the game, I saw that Peter Abraham was thinking the same thing.

Somehow, some way, they have to fix the new Yankee Stadium next year. It would be so nice to see the Yankees pitchers actually have a chance to be successful at home too.