Yanks Walk The Plank, Lose To Pirates 4-2

That was a pretty ho-hum game. I think the Yanks offense took the night off. Perhaps their hits were all sent to Toronto by mistake. Let's hope so because 2 runs isn't going to fly against the Jays, especially when facing the expected Jays rotation of Roy Halladay, Jesse Litsch, and Brian Tallet. The Yanks again had some chances tonight but again came up short. That's happened more times this year than any Yankee fan wants to admit. Cano whiffed in the 1st with 2 down and runners on the corners. A-Rod flies out with a runner on 2nd in the 3rd. Abreu strikes out with 2 on and 2 out in the 5th. A-Rod grounds out with 2 on and 2 out in the 7th. That right there was the key spot in the game. The Yanks finally broke through and tied the game. They had Maholm on the ropes and just couldn't complete the knockout. They then had 2 cracks at tying it up in there 9th but the Pirates held on for victory. It was a good game. Just had the wrong ending.

A-Rod had the worst night at the plate, going 0-4. He's 1-12 in his last 3 games. Maybe the impending loss of kazillions of dollars is weighing on his mind. Whatever the reason, he needs to come through when they need him to. He's been doing extremely well since returning from his injury. And I know he's not going to be money every time. But he's the reigning MVP. He's arguably the best to ever play the game. He gets paid to deliver and tonight, he didn't.

Surprise surprise. Mike Mussina got no run support. What's new right? The Yankees have now scored 2 runs or less in 5 of Moose's last 6 starts. It's funny how that always seems to happen to certain pitchers. Moose pitched another great game tonight. Any starter that starts the game with an ERA of 3.64 and manages to lower it, pitched well in my book. At least they bailed him out and he didn't get tagged with the loss. That would have made this card carrying member of the Mike Mussina Fan Club very unhappy. This could very easily have been the year Moose won 20 and his first Cy Young award. He's got 11 wins going into the break and the Yanks have lost in 6 of his starts by scoring 2 or less runs. This offense needs to give my man some love.

I guess Jose Veras is human. The 2 runs he gave up tonight were the first runs he's allowed in 9 games. It's only the 2nd game he's allowed a run in his last 17 appearances. I'll let this one slide. Jose has been doing a bang up job all year. He's been great as the 7th inning guy and this one outing isn't going to change that. I hope Girardi keeps going to him.

As expected Jason Giambi lost out on the final vote. I heard some rumblings that there was a big movement out there between Yankee haters (Sox fans, Mets fans, Rays fans) to vote for Longoria. Whatever. The Big G's numbers speak for themselves. You can make a strong argument that Giambi is most deserving of starting the ASG at first. Don't get me wrong. Everyone's favorite ogre, Kevin Youkilis is deserving as well. Arguably more so than Giambi. Giambi has been absolutely the man since spouting his 'stache. I pulled these #s from Pete Abraham's blog to illustrate that point. These #s are as of 5/23 - 7/7:

PA: 158; AB: 129; R: 28; H: 39; 2B: 7; 3B: 1; HR: 10; RBI: 32; BB: 20; SO: 27; BA: .302; OBP: .424; SLG: .605; OPS: 1.029

I haven't heard anything about Terry Frankandbeans naming Giambi as a replacement for the injured David Ortiz. It would be nice if he did. It should happen, but me thinks it won't.

The Yanks are now off to Toronto, where I'll be meeting up with them for Friday and Saturday's game. I have tickets to all 3 games but I have to skip out on Sunday's game for my nephew's baptism. I'm super-psyched that I get to see Joba vs. Doc Halladay. That should be a good one. I'm not sure if I'll get to blog at all from the Great White North, but I've been known to check in. You guys hold down the fort and worse case scenario, I'll be back Sunday. Enjoy the games.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie