The stuff the Bronx is made of...

It was all about Johnny Damon yesterday. Not only did he tie the game in the 8th inning... not only did he win the game for the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth... but he had six hits during the course of the day... something not done by a Yankee since 1934!

"All these great players that played here didn't do it," Damon said. "I was fortunate to have that opportunity to do it. I'm definitely blessed."

For those of you who are really observant, you would have noticed that Johnny shaved his moustache off before yesterday's game. Hmmm....

Yes, it certainly was a crazy sort of game. Andy Pettitte started the game and gave up 10 runs, the last four of them via a grand slam by Guillen. But, like Thursday's game against Toronto, the Yanks pressed forward and worked their way back into the game. That is the most important part in my minds. It is that perseverance... that winning attitude that makes me proud to be a fan.

It was a game that was played in a sweltering heat (trust me, I was there). Mark, the beer guy, traded in his beer bucket for some Poland Spring water and wound up selling over 23 cases. The home plate umpire had to leave the game after getting hit by a ball off Posada's glove which cause a brief 7-min "ump-delay". Mo, who came in for the ninth the preserve a tie instead of make a save, wound up giving up a home run but still got the win.

"When you've got a day like that, you know it's going to happen," closer Mariano Rivera said. "Somehow it's going to happen. And it did."

So the Yankees take the second game in the series from the Royals by a score of 12-to-11 and are back at .500 for the 20th time this season!

Here are the Sunday Standings:

No Support for Rasner

He pitched an amazing game for the Yankees. He released 118 pitches from the mound and 75 of them passed across the plate for strikes. He walked none and only let two runs score. He lasted 8 innings which, by recent Yankee pitching standards is incredible in itself. But yet again, his teammates were unable to perform for him offensively and Rasner wound up taking a loss for last night's 2-to-1 game against Kansas City.

In fact, in his last 3 starts, the Yankees have only scored 2 runs for Rasner. This is not the way to catch up to Boston.

Abreu, Rodriguez, Cano and Cabrera all went 2-for-4 last night and one would think that would have been enough to put more than one run in the books. But that doesn't always happen when you strand 9 men on base. A ground out double play (A-Rod) is not the way to move runners.

To the teams defense however, I think that it was the obnoxiously incorrect call by the home plate official (Ed Montague) in the bottom of the eighth inning that cost the Yankees this game. It happened with Giambi at the plate with runners at first and second and Jason didn't even come close to swinging at a 3-2 pitch but was called out for not checking his swing. It is surprising to get such a poor call from a veteran official... a call that never would have come to pass if Montague would have first checked with his colleagues at first and third base, as he is supposed to do.

"It doesn't matter now. I can't really do much about it," Giambi said. He is right... but where was the skipper to support his slugger? I would have liked to at least see Girardi leave the dugout to argue this one.

So the Yanks return to last place and one game under .500, unable to beat a team that was toting an 11-game losing streak on the road. They will have three more chances this weekend. The next one today at 1:05pm. I will be at the stadium. Perhaps I can provide the Bombers with a little bit of luck.

So maybe it IS the moustache...

Well, one thing is for certain... that moustache isn't goin' away anytime soon for Giambi. Not after that pinch-hit, walk-off home run that landed in the upper deck to give the Yankees the 9-to-8 win over Toronto on Thursday afternoon. For as long as mlb.com keeps it up, you can catch a glance at the game saving play here.

It was by far the most exciting game this season (as least the ending, anyway) and a much needed boost for the Yankees. It was looking pretty dismal for the Bombers after Wang's pitiful performance on the mound. Wang left his team with a five run deficit in the 5th inning after 90 pitches; but not before giving up 5 hits, 7 earned runs, and walking 4. The Yanks did rally in the next two innings to reduce the deficit to 1 run but then Girardi, as if he hasn't learned his lesson yet, brought Fartsworth in during the 9th to give up 3 hits, one run, and load the bases before getting out of the inning. I think the Yanks got lucky.

So New York takes this series 2 games to 1 and is back to the .500 mark, ready to host Kansas City this weekend. Now if we could just inspire the likes of Robinson Cano and others to grow a little facial hair we might be in better shape.

Consistency and Confidence

So much of success in baseball (or anything at all really) can be attributed to consistency and confidence. The two are so tightly related that sometimes it is impossible to possess one without the other. When pondering what makes a team successful, it is clear that consistency plays an important role. Mike Mussina is a perfect example here. Often an overlooked starter in the Yankee rotation, the Moose can no longer be dismissed as a player that can't get the job done. Actually, if you have been following my blog you would know that I have been sticking up for Mussina all season. It sort of pisses me off to hear everyone promoting his success now that he has been successful when all they could do was bad mouth him weeks earlier. If you are a regular listener of Michael Kay you know what I am talking about. Even Kim Jones when she was interviewing Jeter after the game last night asked if Jeter was surprised at Mussina's performance... if he was going beyond expectation.

I am getting away from my point. What we have been seeing from Mussina this year is confidence. He is modifying his pitches, he is getting balls inside, and batters are finding him difficult to hit. This confidence has made him a consistently good performer for the Yankees. The more consistent he is about winning, the more confidence he will build. See the circle here? Currently, the Moose has 9 wins and that stat ties him as the pitcher with the most wins so far this season in the American League.

Enough about Moose... let's move on to Jeter. The Yankee captain is now number three (below only Gehrig and Ruth) for the most amount of hits as a Yankee. Last night his total became 2,416. When you think about Jeter is is hard not to think about consistency. No, that doesn't mean that every time he steps up to the plate he performs... every player is subject to a slump. But if you look at the overall picture... if you reflect on what Jeter has done for the Yankees over the course of his career, you will have to agree that he is a consistently good player. This is what makes him a superstar. There is no way that any player can keep company with Gehrig and Ruth without it. I will go further to say that that makes for some pretty confident stuff.

So what I would like to see from the entire Yankee roster is more consistency and confidence and less superstition. I have news for you Giambi and Damon: growing a moustache or wearing pink panties or doing whatever you have been doing because you think it is making you hit better is not the answer... so please, let's not see anymore facial hair. I can't stand listening to my wife complain about how bad you guys look. Instead, let's remember who we are: The New York Yankees. Keep that in mind every time you step up to that plate. Remember what got you in those pinstripes and let your confidence erase everything else. A consistent winning record may be just around the corner.

Final score of last nights game: Yankees 5 - Toronto 1.

Yanks Should Dump Joba...

Yes, of course I am kidding. I just thought perhaps I might stir up a little blog traffic from the search engines.

As any Yankee fan knows by now, Joba's first outing on the mound as a major league starter was a bust. To a standing crowd, Joba threw his first pitch, a ball, and it went downhill from there. 62 pitches total (38 in the first inning) Joba lasted just 2-1/3 innings. He walked 4 (3 in the first inning) and balked. He allowed two runs on one hit. Clearly not a night the Joba will want to remember.

What does all this mean? Absolutely nothing. Joba IS the Yankee's ace. No doubt about it. But with all the hype surrounding last night's start and all the anxiety that Joba (who is still a kid in major league terms) must have felt, his pitching was affected. Give it time... hell, give it till Sunday... I think we will start seeing some awesome-ness from number 62 soon.

I have heard all the debates about Joba and many feel that although this transition is the best move for him personally that it may not be the best move for the team as a whole. I completely dismissed all these critics until I saw yet another crappy performance by the bull pen, who ultimately lost last night's game for the team. Although newcomer Dan Giese took the blow for the 9-to-3 game, he wasn't to blame. Actually, he didn't do so badly. Veras and Ramirez on the other hand... absolutely pitiful.

Now is the time that the Yankees have to do anything that they can to fix their bull pen woes. Let's be honest here... it was broken before Joba made the transition and it is not like one great set-up man is going to carry the entire pen anyway. So, if I were Girardi, I would stop wasting time and figure out what needs to be done. Earn the money the Steinbrenner's are paying you.

Hitting last night... nothing special either. Jeter hit a milestone: tying Mickey Mantle for all-time Yankees hits with 2,415. Damon continues to be hot, going 3-for 4 with a double and a triple.

The Yankees will play Toronto again tonight at 7:05pm.

A waste of time...

Last night's game just seemed like a waste of my time. With so many other projects that I have going on around the house, I often feel guilty sitting in front of a TV for an entire game on a weeknight evening. If I could have gotten myself motivated, I would have painted the guest room while I listened to John Sterling call the game on the radio... but I didn't. I sat through all nine innings and watched Andy Pettitte give up one Yankee lead after another. He really wasn't pitching well last night. "It's an extremely disappointing loss," Pettitte said. "I'm extremely disappointed in the way I performed. The team gave me the lead three different times, and it's unacceptable."

The pitcher that I really want to talk about though is Kyle Fartsworth. For the life of me I can't understand why he is brought in during close games. Yes, I understand that he is the consideration for replacing Joba as the set-up man and that just makes me more irate. He should be dumped on his ass off the team no matter what it winds up costing the Yankees. He is worthless. Every time, without fail, he loses the game for us. And what REALLY gets me is the fact that Fartsworth doesn't think he is doing anything wrong: "I'm throwing my pitches, and I get beat on my best pitch," Farnsworth said. "It's going to happen. You've got to take the good with the bad. You just keep on going at it." What a friggin' idiot!

Probably the only excitement that came from last night's 6-to-5 loss was watching the plethora of close officiating calls. A-Rod's "safe" call at home being my favorite.

The Yanks will be back home tonight to battle the Jays with Joba Chamberlin on the mound.

Back on the See-Saw

The Yankees once again seem to be teetering on a win-loss record that has them balanced at the .500 mark. Yesterday's 5-to-1 loss in Minnesota wasn't disastrous but it was disappointing. The Yankees still lead the Twins in this 4-game series, two games to one.

The team finally decided that Morgan Ensberg was not working out as planned. I too had bigger hopes for Ensberg pre-opening day but after watching him play for the last two months, the appropriate move was to dump him and that's what the Yanks did. In his place, right-handed pitcher Scott Patterson got his major league debut yesterday afternoon coming in to relieve Rasner, who was definitely off his mark though he did keep the club in the game. Patterson was ok, I suppose. Nothing that I didn't expect. He threw 21 strikes over 40 pitches and let one run in. Patterson was followed by Chris Britton who did far better: 9 strikes over 14 pitches and nothing but zeros across the board.

Hitting for the Yanks was sluggish and 8 men were left on base including a bases-loaded situation. The only run scored was a result of a solo home run in the 5th inning by Derek Jeter, who has been in a bit of a slump lately.

Tonight's game at the Metrodome will begin at 7:05 p.m.