Yanks Fall To Jays 7-6 in Series Finale, Blame The Pitching Not The Umps

I didn't get to see any of yesterday's game. I did follow along with it as best I could on MLB.com's gamecast. I'll tell yeah, it's pretty stressful trying to watch a game that way, especially when there are 2 outs in the 9th with the winning run at the plate. You see the little ball arc making it's way toward the virtual plate and there's a slight pause before it tells you what happened. I thought for a second that the Yanks were going to pull it off but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I didn't see, but read about, the 2 blown calls made by the umpire. The one in the first when Girardi got ejected sounded pretty bad. I would have liked to have seen it. Derek commented after the game that the ump told him he didn't have to be tagged to be called out. What's up with that? I can understand getting all hot and bothered by that, but come on now. How many times have we seen Derek get the out call at second when he never tagged the guy stealing second? It's baseball. Blown calls are a part of the game and they always balance out in the end. The Yankees will have benefited from many a blown call. Just ask the Orioles. They'll tell you. For the most part, games are not won and lost because of a blown call. Games are won and lost because you didn't hit, or you didn't pitch. Yesterday, it was the latter.

The "Pettitte Pattern" is still in effect. Going back 8 starts, Andy has won, lost, won, lost, won, no decision but got rocked, won, lost. I didn't see the game to say first-hand, but Pettitte's line was rather unimpressive. 5 hits, 5 walks, 6 earned in 6 innings. 53% of his pitches were strikes and that's pretty bad in my book. He definitely didn't get things done. Neither did Brian Bruney. He needed to come in and keep the score where it was. Bru has been pretty terrible lately. In 3 games, his ERA has jumped from 2.84 to 4.11. In those 3 games, he's thrown 2.2 innings, 7 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned. Brutal. That's not the Brian Bruney I expect to see.

What's up with Mark Teixeira? He started July on fire, but has gone 0-7 in the last 2 games and his average is down to .273, the lowest it's been since May 29th. It's also been an eternity (June 12) since his last home run. Teix isn't exactly finishing off the 1st half on a high note. The team was 2-for-11 yesterday with RISP. One extra hit and they probably win that ball game. They can afford to slack with RISP if the pitching is on. When it's off, like it was yesterday, they need to make the most of those opportunities.

Congrats to Eric Hinske on hist 1st HR as a Yank. Hopefully, it's the 1st on many.

The Yanks are now in Minnesota for a 3 game set. Tonight's game is on My9 which means no Yankee baseball for me. Two games in a row. Ugh. The Scranton Yankees are in town and I may go check that out assuming my car is fixed in time. I was driving home from work yesterday when my muffler came unattached. I dragged that sucker for about 15 miles before I could pull over. Good times.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie