The Rays Are Driving Me Crazy

I have a confession to make: I am a spoiled Yankee fan. I am used to seeing the Yankees, at this point in the season, enjoying a division or a Wild Card lead, not tied for first place with a team that just won't go away.

This team that just won't go away, the Tampa Bay Rays, has been in a flat-footed tie with the Yankees for nine eight days now. Nine Eight days! It's driving me crazy. The Rays are like that rash that just won't get better, or a stray cat that keeps coming back, just when you thought you'd gotten rid of it.

If this keeps up I may start having nightmares about them. That ugly BRayser jacket might start showing up in my dreams:

The Yankees have six games remaining with the Rays. Here's hoping they can get rid of these stray cats and their rash coats once and for all.

Pete Rose Talks Roger Clemens

According to a recent article on ESPN.com, Pete rose has some words of advice for Roger Clemens:  Come clean now. Does Rose think this will happen? No.

The article is very, very interesting. Written by Johnette Howard, it also outlines Rose's thoughts on his own situation. Rose is a contrite man now:

"I wish I had come clean the day they had called me into the [commissioner's] office in 1989. I do. Because I would have saved myself a lot of grief, a lot of everything."

On Clemens:

"When I look at Roger, I just think Roger is a competitor, and he's got it in his craw that he's gonna go to his grave saying he didn't do this. I think Roger is adament that he's just not going to admit this is something he did. They'll probably give him a plea bargain opportunity. And he'll probably not take it. Why? Because he thinks his whole reputation and everything he's ever done is on the line. If he goes down, it seems like he's made up his mind that he's gonna go down fighting."

I wish I could say that Rose is wrong about Clemens. I want to believe that he'll come clean before long. But Rose probably is absolutely right.

Sad story.

Playoffs Not A Sure Thing For Yanks

It's time to admit it. The playoffs are not a sure thing for the New York Yankees. You should know why, but in case you don't, let me tell you:

With a little more than 35 games left in the season, the Yankees hold only a 1 game lead in the AL East. They have 6 games left with the Boston Red Sox, including a three-game series to end the regular season. They have 7 games left with the Tampa Bay Rays who trail them by that 1 game in the standings. Including tonight's game, they have 9 games left against the Toronto Blue Jays. They also have one more trip to Texas where they could possibly face Cliff Lee again.

Then there are two other big issues:

The rotation. Andy Pettitte's return is still unknown and anyone other than CC Sabathia right now is a risky proposition.

Alex Rodriguez. Not having his bat in the lineup could be extremely problematic for the next two weeks.

The X factor is the rotation. If Pettitte returns in the next few weeks, and if Burnett and Vazquez can get their acts together, the Yankees should be okay. Otherwise, it's going to be a tough month of September for the New York Yankees.

Jane Lang Video: What An Inspiration!

The Yankees continued HOPE Week yesterday by spending time with Jane Lang of Morris Plains, New Jersey. If you don't already know her story watch this video. It almost brought tears to my eyes. What an inspiration!

AJ Burnett A Bright Spot In A Bad Yankee Loss

It happened again yesterday. The Yankees lost to another pitcher they had never faced before. This time it was 29-year old journeyman Bryan Bullington. He gave up only 2 hits in the Royals 1-0 win.  This cloud, however, had a silver lining: AJ Burnett.

A while back I wrote about how I wanted AJ Burnett to be more like CC Sabathia. Well, yesterday he was. His first and second innings were shaky and, for a while, it looked as if he wouldn't make it through three innings. But he settled down and ended up pitching a complete game, giving up 4 hits and 3 walks and striking out 6.

On MLB.com Burnett was quoted as saying, "It got away from me a couple of times, but I knew I could get it back. I had in the back of my mind that I could throw my hook at any time, and I had that confidence."

He had that confidence. Now that's what I like to hear! If that doesn't sound like CC Sabathia, I don't know what does.

If the Yankees are going to succeed in the playoffs AJ Burnett needs to keep doing what he did yesterday. Pure and simple. Let's hope he can.

Yanks Starting Rotation Not Very Good Right Now

CC Sabathia pitches tonight for the Yankees. Big deal? Yes! Sabathia has been the Yankees' only consistently reliable starter this season, the only pitcher on the staff who, when he takes the mound at the beginning of a game, makes me feel as if the Yankees have a chance to win it.

Of course, things could change when Andy Pettitte comes back, but right now it seems as if none of the other four starters measures up to whoever he is pitching against. Take last night for example: Javier "dead arm" Vazquez vs Cliff Lee. On paper this match up did not favor the Yankees and it proved true, even though the Yankees won the game.  In the previous game we had Boston's John Lester vs Phil "inconsistent" Hughes.  In other games we have had AJ "head case" Burnett. A few have featured Dustin Moseley. Moseley has been pretty good, but does anybody really expect that to continue?

The Yankees starting rotation just isn't very good right now. The rotations of the Red Sox and Rays are good right now. The Rangers have Cliff Lee. If the playoffs began today, the Yankees could very well be staring at another first-round exit. They have a little less than two months to get their act together. Here's hoping they do.

Does Teixeira Think Papelbon Is Better Than Rivera?

So Boston earned a split in the latest installment of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. After the game the Yankees had their usual postgame comments, some of which were complimentary to the Red Sox. I don't have a problem with that, but I was reading LoHud this evening and saw Mark Teixeira's comments. Something he said about Jonathan Papelbon threw me for a loop:

"...they have arguably the best eighth and ninth inning guys in baseball..."

What? Jonathan Papelbon is the best ninth inning guy in baseball? True he did say "arguably" but still, how can a member of the Yankees say something like that? Did Teixeira forget about Mariano Rivera? Or, does he not believe that Mariano Rivera is the best closer in baseball? Shocking.

Perhaps Teixeira was talking about the eighth and ninth inning combination of Bard and Papelbon. I hope so. If not, he needs to have his head examined.

Today's (Aug 5th) Daily News Back Page

I was so busy today that I didn't see the back page of today's New York Daily News until about an hour ago.

Wow. That's blunt, to say the least.

To be honest, I have no problem with the page itself. (The milestone is tainted.) I just think the timing of it is bad. A back page on the day after Alex Rodriguez hits home run number 600 should be more celebratory. The News could have run a more positive back page today, then come back tomorrow with this one, or something similar to it. No one would be the worse for wear. Instead, they came off looking very juvenile today.

AJ Burnett Needs To Be More Like CC Sabathia

Why can't AJ Burnett be more like CC Sabathia?

When CC Sabathia doesn't have it he hangs in there and keeps his team in the game. When AJ Burnett doesn't have it, we get things like the fifth inning of last night's game against the the Blue Jays. Burnett surrendered five doubles and a two-run home run, which helped turn a 2-1 Yankee lead into a 8-2 deficit.

In postgame comments on YES, Joe Girardi said that, after Burnett lost the sink on his fastball, he tried to adjust but couldn't do it. Burnett himself added that he didn't have his curve ball or his sinker. "Tough night for me," he said.

Now, I'll admit that it's probably pretty difficult to adjust when you don't have either your curve or your sinker. But I somehow believe that CC Sabathia could have done it, or, at least kept the damage to a minimum.

Go, CC. Take a lesson, AJ.

Sheilds' Good Pitching Stops Yankees Good Hitting

Yesterday James Sheilds became the first pitcher in eight years to have 7+ innings pitched, 10+ strikeouts, 1 or fewer walks and no earned runs against the New York Yankees. His exact line was 7.1 inn, 11 K, 4 H, 1 BB and 0 ER.  His Rays won the game 3-0. 

True, the Yankees didn't have their usual lineup in place but, in my opinion, it didn't matter. Sheilds' changeup would have gotten anybody out yesterday, perhaps even Murderer's Row. Even if Alex Rodriguez and Brett Gardner had been in the lineup all day, Sheilds would still have been stellar.

As for Lance Berkman's bad plays at first base, they probably wouldn't have happened had Mark Teixeira been there instead. But defense is only half the game. Sheilds and his changeup were still lurking and Teixeira was 0-4 against him.

That old saying proved true once again yesterday: Good pitching stopped good hitting.