Yankees Fall To Red Sox In Finale But All Is Good In The Yankees Universe

I got to listen to pretty much all of today's game on the radio today. My work schedule was kind to me. Busy day but it was desk work for the most part. The outcome of today's game didn't go in the Yankees' favor but nobody should be disappointed with the outcome. There were definitely a lot of positives to go around.

For starters, the Yankees knocked 4 games off their schedule and the Red Sox have nothing to show for it. They came in 7 losses behind the Yankees and they're leaving 7 losses behind the Yankees. The Red Sox needed to win at least 3 of 4 this series if they had any hopes of contending for the division. They failed. Time is running out and making up 7 games when you have 51 to play is a tall mountain to climb. Can it be done? Sure. But it would take both a monumental run by the Sox and a monumental collapse by the Yankees to happen. The Sox have 49 games left. Let's assume they play out of their shoes the rest of the way and play .650 ball, which is 84 percentage points higher than their winning percentage to date (.566). They'd finish the season 32-17. If they pull that off, which is unlikely, the Yankees would have to finish 27-24 (.549), which is 73 percentage points below their winning percentage to date (.622). Assume the Sox could somehow pull off a .600 finish. They'd finish 30-19. The Yanks would have to tank and finish 25-26 just for the Sox to tie. Both scenarios are highly improbable. But it's baseball and anything can happen. Though again, it's really unlikely.

Phil Hughes could have pulled a Josh Beckett today and taken his team right out of the ballgame. He had a brutal start, throwing 50 some odd pitches in 2 innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 runs. He was in shutdown mode the rest of the way. Nice composure from the youngster. Philly boy finished with 6 strong innings, keeping his team in the game and giving them a chance to win. You'd think the team with the most runs scored in MLB could have mustered a few more runs, right? Well, against someone other than Jon Lester and I'd say maybe. Lester is as tough as they come and he shut the Yanks down today. I don't want to call Hughes a hard-luck loser but it was a solid outing. It was nice to see, I mean hear, him pitch his way through 6 innings. I hope Joba and A.J. were paying attention today. Hughes gave a lesson on how not to implode on the mound. Well done.

Speaking of Joba, he put up another solid outing. That's 7 straight scoreless appearances for the Jobster. 7.1 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 6 K. He had an impressive 2-pitch 2-out inning to close out the 8th. Hopefully he's got his head on straight. I think I might have to work him back into my fantasy lineup.

Offensively not the best day for the boys in Pinstripes. Again though, they faced Jon Lester. He's a tough cookie to crack. I thought they had him in the 7th but then Daniel Bard showed up and K'd both Jeter and Swisher with the bases loaded. I haven't seen the replay but it sounds like Marcus Thames was a hair away from tying the game. I'm more curious to see though why Posada didn't score on the hit. The way John Sterling made it sound was that the ball was nowhere need going to be catchable. Did Jorge hold up, get a bad read on the ball, or is he just slower than molasses? If I had to guess I'd say C, he's slower than molasses. Dude is slow.

It's road trip time. The Yankees head to Texas to play 2 and then to KC for a 4-game set. We're now a day past my wife's due date and still no baby. Going past a due date is kind of like a soccer game. Regulation time expired and were now into extra time and we have no idea when the game is going to end. It would work out well if she were born sometime before Wednesday afternoon. Tomorrow's game is on My9 and Verizon FiOS here in Buffalo doesn't carry that feed. So since I can't see the game it would work out well for me if the baby came tomorrow or Wednesday morning. I'm such a selfish person, aren't I? As long as she shows up healthy that's all that matters.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie