Break Up The Rays, Yanks Go Down 7-1

Well that was a crappy start to the Yanks/Rays series. The Rays are playing some pretty damn good ball right now. Tonight was no different. The Rays pitching has been outstanding lately. Tonight was no different. Matt Garza looked pretty good. The Yankees didn't have much of a chance against him. The 6th inning was the only inning the Yankees had 2 runners on base at the same time against Garza and he got out of it by getting Abreu to bounce into the 5-4-3. It seemed like every time the Yankees got a runner on Garza induced a double play ball. When you're hot you're hot. The Rays have now won 10 straight at home. Break 'em up I say. Break 'em up. I have a feeling they'll be around the top of the standings for a long time.

The Yankees offense was brutal, but you've got to credit Garza for that. The Yankees managed 6 hits, 5 coming off the bats of the 6-9 hitters in the order. The 1-5 hitters went a combined 1-17 w/ 5 Ks. Not good. Teams don't win ball games when the top of the lineup doesn't hit the ball. But again, you've got to tip your hat to Garza.

Andy Pettitte started out well but he quickly faded and ended up getting knocked around. Is it me or does that seem to Pettitte's typical outing lately. Start out great and end up getting hit around. Weird. I guess all those stats the YES crew flashed before the game about how great Andy is in the Trop meant bupkiss. Stats schmats. I appreciate the 4-1-1 but very seldom do you see a performance that backs up the stats. At least that's how it seems. Pettitte didn't help anybody out by only lasting 4 innings. It was good to finally see Chris Britton get into a game. For a guy that gets called up and sent down a lot he never seems to pitch. I wonder why that is. The leadoff walk to Longoria was his only real downfall. Leadoff walks are not what you want.

I watched most of the game in picture-in-picture. There was some local nutjob who had a 3 hour standoff with police on a local highway. The guy was packing and the po-po shut ended up shutting down the highway. SWAT was there. The news had full coverage so it was one of those things you kind of want to watch because who knows what'll go down. The wacko was shown holding his gun to his head for quite a while. After about 3 hours the SWAT team finally rushed the car and hit him with one of those "light blasts." The guy was apprehended and no one was injured. I didn't want to watch it but I couldn't turn away.

Chien-Ming Wang gets the ball tomorrow and we might need him to throw up a lot of zeroes if the Rays pitchers keep tossing the way they have been. I think they showed that their team ERA over their last 10 home games is 1.86 or something. But like I said, stats schmats. Wang is our ace and number 1. No better guy to have on the hill.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie