Not Even a Ray of Hope

Well, the good news is that tonight's game will not keep me up late like last night's bullpen collapse against the Red Sox, I was so angry I couldn't sleep. But tonight's result was pretty simple: The Tampa Bay Rays are a better team than the New York Yankees. All of their outstanding starting pitchers are younger than A.J. Burnett, who is atrocious. They DON'T have Javier Vazquez. They run, they run, and then they run some more. I guess that's what happens when you have several number 1 draft picks in a row.

Although the Yankees were down by six early on, they did give me a quick sign of hope when they brought Derek Jeter to the plate as the tying run. But then, I remembered it was Derek Jeter. He got ahead in the count 3-1 and quickly rolled out to shortstop. This season, a ground out to the left side of the infield can be referred to as a "Jeterian" swing, while a ground ball to the right side can be called a "Teixeirian" swing. Both of these guys are a complete joke, and in the most dire of situations with handfuls of injuries, they have failed to pick up the slack. What's really scary is the fact that Jeter's on base percentage is seriously hovering just above .300. That's pretty awful. Makes you really think about what the Yankees should do in the off-season. He might look good in a Cincinnati Reds uniform.

How about Marcus Thames? The guy is a hero on Monday night, a goat on Tuesday night, and then the biggest idiot in baseball on Wednesday night. Fittingly, he injured himself so poor Ramiro Pena could play right field. But how did he get hurt? He singled to left field and tripped over his bat running down the first base line. You'd think Brian Cashman might want to instill some kind of IQ test before we sign free agents. The injuries are really piling up, and unless they make a roster move, the Yankees currently have no available bench players ready for their series at Citi Field this weekend.

Nice to see David Ortiz hit his seventh homer of the year for Boston. He now has more than Alex Rodriguez. The Red Sox also got a stellar outing from Clay Buchholz, who pitched into the ninth inning. It's pretty scary to know that they are only 4.5 games behind the Yankees, although everyone declared them "dead" just a week ago. All in all, this Yankee team is obviously showing its age. The defending World Series Champions ended tonight's game with an outfield of Randy Winn (75 years old), Brett Gardner (playing well), and Ramiro Pena (utility infielder). Nice job not re-signing Damon.

Tomorrow's game becomes a must win, in order to salvage the home stand and maintain a season series lead over the Rays. Andy Pettitte has always been a stopper, but the Rays will counter with James Shields. I must apologize ahead of time for not putting up a post tomorrow night, as I will be in the Bronx for the first time this season. I thought about skipping my trip after the recent string of disappointing games, but I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I got to see the great Randy Winn play left field.