Do I feel relieved to see the Junkees' win streak is over. And I loved the way it ended, in classic '05 Yankees style: bad starting pitching, bad D (by the new centerfielder, no less), and an inability to hit in the clutch (thanks, A-Rod). Maybe after a bizarre week when Jason Giambi was hitting 'em out like crazy, things are headed back to normal.
Which leads to my next point. Back in '98, everyone made a big deal about how Andy Pettitte was 15-0 after a Yankee loss (something like that, I forgot the exact number). Now, I don't know how much you can read into that: after all, maybe he just got more run support than the other pitchers, maybe he was just plain good that year. Or maybe the guy preceding him in the rotation stunk so he had a lot of opportunities to win games after losses.
But there is something to the stopper effect. For one thing, this year the Yanks have no Pettitte, and thus no stopper. Consequently, this has turned into a very streaky team, and oftentimes one loss has snowballed into a malaise of losses. And considering how characteristic yesterday's loss was, perhaps this Yankee team is once again headed for a dive.
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I'm not the biggest Billy Beane fan out there, but it was great to see those guys sign Mark Kotsay long-term. If Cashman doesn't fix that situation by the end of the year, it just might be what costs this team a playoff spot.
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