Ooodles And Ooodles Of O's Ya Know, Yanks Drop 3rd Straight

I think it's painfully clear that the back end of the Yankees' rotation is in need of an improvement. Darrell Rasner was again, for the most part, ineffective. The loss tonight puts him at 5-8 on the year, and he's 2-8 in his last 10 decisions. He wasn't as horrible tonight as he's been in recent games, but his performance left a lot to be desired, especially when your in the thick of a pennant race and 3 days away from the non-waiver trade deadline. If there was one game that Rasner needed to be great, it was tonight. A solid outing might have solidified his spot in the rotation and kept Cashman away from exploring a deadline deal. D-Raz is just not getting it done. He allowed 12 baserunners in his 6 innings of work. He didn't really do anything to help himself out either, only striking out 1 batter. But again, it wasn't a bad outing. But it was far from good. It'll be interesting to see if this sparks Cashman into making a move before Thursday's deadline.

Damaso Marte. You're already making me hate owning your jersey, albeit temporally. Thanks again Phil. Appreciate it. Marte's job was to come in and pick up Rasner. Marte allowed successive hits to the 1st 3 batters he faced. LaTroy Hawkins could have done that. I'll let it slide this time.

Justin Christian. Love the speed baby. He's our version of Dave Roberts. If only we could follow it up with a base knock.

The offense put up a fight, but it was a little too little, a little too late. No runs in innings 1-5, 6 runs in innings 6-9, with 5 coming in the last 2 innings. It was nice to see some fight in the dog, but I'd like to see the fight a little earlier on. Again, I'm left wondering what value there is in having Wilson Betemit on the roster. He is absolutely abysmal, going 0-5 tonight and whiffing with the tying run on 2nd. The top of the lineup ended up having a pretty big night. hitters 1 thru 5 went 11-21 with 3 walks. The bottom 4, excluding Nady's ever so productive at-bat, went 2 for 17. But what do you expect when those 4 hitters are made up of Melky, Betemit, Chad Moeller, and Robbie Cano. Cano is the only hitter I have faith in. He didn't put up much of a fight in the 9th, but he'll be OK. I can let Moeller slide too b/c he's basically a 3rd string catcher. But Melky and the aforementioned Betemit? We could do definitely do better. To be completely honest, I wouldn't mind seeing the Yanks take a flyer on Barry Bonds at this point. It hurts to say that because I'm not any kind of Bonds fan, but he'd be a huge upgrade to an offense that struggle more often than it should. Nady in left. Damon in center. Bonds at DH. Could work. It's really a can't miss, assuming Bonds truly would play for the league minimum. It'll never happen though. If it doesn't, no complaints here.

Despite 3 hits, Giambi's struggles at the plate continued. He came up in 2 big spots with RISP and didn't deliver. The highlight of the night though was watching him flip off Brian Roberts. Smooth G. Real smooth. I immediately started laughing. I called my wife in to see it and she thought it was funny, but a little classless considering the kids in the audience. That's a 4th grade teacher for ya. Anyway, still funny.

Mariano. Why can't every game be a save situation? A meaningless HR turned into the game winner. He's still having the best season he's ever had. No worries.

Tomorrow is a hated day game. Hopefully, some of my Wednesday meetings get canceled, otherwise I'll miss most of it. I know. I know. Woe is me, right? Hopefully Joba ends this slide.

I take full responsibility for John Lackey giving up a hit to Dustin Pedroia. I turned it on picture-in-picture and he got the 1st out. With 1 strike on Pedroia, I flipped it to the main screen, and said to my wife, "Now that I'm watching he'll give up a hit." Here come the pitch....base hit. Sorry Angels fans. My bad. But at least you won and continued your domination of the Red Sox. Having Mark Teixiera around won't hurt either. Can't wait until he's in Pinstripes next year.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie