Yanks Get One

Hey, these aren't the Nationals. You had to figure the Yanks would win sometime, and they played well last night. The three Yankees that aren't doing too badly, Posada, A-Rod, and Jeter, carried the team to victory, behind some impressive pitching by Clippard.

Is this a momentum-shifter? I don't think so. The Yankees still have a ton of games to make up in the standings, and still need a lot of guys to start doing consistently well.

- Yanks have their big three, Wang, Pettitte, and Mussina, going up against Boston this series. Should be fun.

Ugly Get Uglier

You knew it didn't look good for the Yankees coming into this series, and it hasn't gotten much better. All Yankee fans can get excited about are the 15 hits tonight and the Braves blowing out the Sox in the nightcap.

Friday night, Endy Chavez once again proved why he's a fan favorite. Andy Pettitte pitched well, but got no run support. Years ago, Pettitte's claim to fame was that he always helped the Yankees win following a loss. No such luck this year, especially with the anemic bats. Melky Cabrera's average dipped to .220. Who's gonna be this year's Matt Lawton (insert steroids joke here)?

Today, it was Robinson Cano's day to shine, with a Sax-esque three errors. The guy is not doing very well. Yankee fans will probably say today's loss wasn't their fault, because of Rasner's injury and all, but still, a $195 million team should have a better pen. When are they gonna bring back $6 million mop-up man Sterling Hitchcock?

- In case you had any doubts about George's health, how could he show up to the Clemens game and Tampa and not say a word about his floundering team? Nothing?

- I remember John Maine's first start against the Yankees. It capped off that disastrous '05 for Baltimore, the one that started with them being in first in May and then totally got destroyed with injuries and the Palmeiro controversy. In Maine's start, Brian Roberts suffered that nasty elbow injury when Bubba Crosby ran into him, and Maine got knocked out in the 2nd inning, after giving up 6 runs.

It's been great to see Maine turn to into a great pitcher with the Mets. He faces Tyler Clippard on Sunday night, as the Mets go for the sweep.

- Speaking of Clippard, I give Ca$hman credit for going with young pitchers during all these injuries, rather than going with washed-up guys for PR. I guess Ca$hman saw just how well Tim Redding, Sidney Ponson, Al Leiter, and Scott Erickson worked out for him.

- And I give Giambi credit for being a lot more open that Bonds about the "stuff."

Subway '07

As we approach the first subway series of '07, it's amazing to see the way things have shaped up. In the New York Post, they had the usual page with the position-by-position matchups and the edges. The results were shocking, though they made a lot of sense: 7 edges went to the Mets, 2 to the Yanks, and the rest even. To be fair, some of the results were debatable (Chavez/Gomez > Matsui) (Green > Abreu), but right now, the Yanks don't look good. My favorite part was how Torre and Randolph were ranked even. The Torre mystique has worn off.

What I find interesting this year is that the Yanks have become a boring team. Maybe it's because George is not well, and not chirping after every loss. After the ugly White Sox series, I thought George (I mean, Rubenstein) would have what to say. But things have been quiet. The Yanks still have A-Rod, Jeter, and Wang, but the rest of the club bores me.

The Mets, on the other hand, get more and more fun to watch. It's been great to see the emergence of Oliver Perez and John Maine. And maybe Jorge Sosa's next.

Pettitte vs. Perez tonight, and Glavine faces Rasner tomorrow. Should be fun. At least watching the Mets, that is.