Not one you'd see coming

Sidney pitched great. i'm a huge Yankees fan but i have to say it...Mariano is not what he once was. No matter how much Yankees fans wish he was, he just isn't. I have no faith in the guy anymore, period. He hasn't been the same since the '01 series. It's time to move on.

"through 18 innings, you've seen the difference between the Angels and the Yankees as legitimate playoff contenders."

Need I say more....

No, Rivera is not the same as he once was. Show me any player that has been around as long as he has this is still as good as they were in their prime. On second though, Mo hasn't blown a save this year. That does not happen often in baseball. He is still one of the best. He might not be the best, but he is still one of the best and I have faith in him every time he comes out of the pen. With a line up like the Yankees have they should score 3 or more runs a night. You have to give credit where credit is due and that is to the Angel pitchers for shutting down the Yankees. Then again, its easier to blame someone.

I too am a Die hard yankee fan and I must say I did see the yankees getting completely shut down by Santana coming. It's simple the yankees take too many good pitches early in the count and get put away by good pitches later on. You would think by now that a big league club could make that adjustment and swing at fastballs early on. Proven pitchers are not gona mess around they attack and until the yankees learn that,they will continue to struggle against the Angels and good pitching in general. If u ask me that's the reason for their recent post season winning drought.

The team needs to realize that there are only 9 innings in a game and that the "big hit" is not always going to come. That has been our down fall for the last 8 years. We do very little to put an opposiing pitcher off balance. I dont know. I wasn't convinced when we went 8-0 after the AS break. We'd gone on short spurts before only to give it all back and we're doing it again. This team doesn't need anything (save maybe a sp to replace Pontoon/Rasner). We've got all the "talent" we need. This team lacks something else, not talent.

Dig,
These are professional veterans. Every one of them has seen good pitching. No one should have to TELL them anything.

Dig,
These are professional veterans. Every one of them has seen good pitching. No one should have to TELL them anything.

Torre got criticized last year for not bringing Mo in tied games, did Torre know something? Check Mo's stats in tied vs. games with lead.

The Yanks (no longer "The Bombers" for sure), have been teasing us. Notwithstanding Moose's magic to date and Ponson's performance last night, the pitching simply isn't good enough to make a stretch run, especially with an offense that can't seem to score. Mo certainly has some passes in his pocket after 13 years as the best in the business, but that doesn't help when you can no longer expect him consistently to shut down good bats. Even with no blown saves, does anyone really still feel confident that can protect a slim lead (or preserve a tie) in a pinch? Credit Cashman for filling some holes, but the gaping holes on the mound will be the downfall.

Everytime the Yankees lose, the fans want to blame someone. Baseball have changed since the leagues are cracking down on steroid use. The team is no longer a long ball, big inning team. The yanks are not murderous row and then Cano. They have to play fundermental baseball. Case in point last night late inning, Damon led off with a single/or walk I am not sure, derek jeter swings at second pitch, Damon had second stolen, but derek did not want the count to be 0-2. He got to give damon a chane to run if he is thrown out so be it. The Yankees only have one power hitter in their line-up. Play Baseball, stop waiting on the long ball.

I don't really see a lot of difference in this team with Girardi at the helm. He's too loyal to certain players and too tied to the same old philosophy favored by Torre.
We put guys on base and then wait for the 3 run homer. Great hitters fail 70% of the time, so why you would keep waiting for a 3 run homer? With these guys that's been happening less often than a solar eclipse.
No hit and run, no bunting, no moving runners over, and thus no productive outs that produce runs. If we can't hit with RISP, a few productive outs would mean a ton.
While they still talk about it, this whole team seems to have lost the art of working the pitcher, looking for your pitch and not swinging at stuff outside the zone.
Melky has absoutely no discipline at the plate and swings at too many outside the zone. Abreu seems to have forgotten how to hit with 2 strikes. Jeter and Rodriquez are swinging at curve balls off the plate and in the dirt. Rodriquez takes 3rd strikes with RISP. Giambi and his stash are still refusing to slap to third or bunt, continuing to fight the shift and lose. And, please don't tell me that slapping or bunting is not one of his strengths. If your strength is to pop up, strike out, or ground out when you have 2 men on and no outs, then you need to learn another game, 'cause you stink at this one.
And, why does Joe keep putting Mariano in the ninth a when the game is tied? Hey joe, he's closer not a ninth inning guy. You have other guys to get to Mariano with a lead. If you don't get a lead, leave Mariano out of it.
My advice to this team is to stop looking at your career stats on your Baseball Card and start playing baseball. Stop telling us that you're a good team, that you have all the talent, and that you just need to put it all together and get on a run. Sounds like you have a lot of good reasons but no excuses.
Remember Yogi said "It get's late early."

Ponson pitched a gem of a game last night, I wonder if that will stop all the name calling that is continually going on. If it isn't Farns, It was Latroy, or Betemit, Cash or even some players not even on our roster. I am not a big fan of any of them but, I don't resort to name calling. Perhaps it would be better placed if you would go after Arod, G, or Jete. These are the guys making the big bucks and are underperforming. Last night, Bobby, Arod & G. K'd 5 times leaving 4, 3, and 5 LOB. Yes, they are our leaders in RBIs, But a little more clutch hitting would go a long way to win some of these close games. They need to put the wood on the ball. K's do nothing to move the runners. We have the players, we have the potential, But lack the drive to put them together.
I'm upset that we had a good chance at a win, and again the opportunity was blown. I'm sorry that Mariano is not as good as he was 7 years ago, But he is still getting paid to do a job and that is to not give up runs because it is not a save opportunity. You're correct saying he is still among the best, which is really no help when he blows a game. Winning is the most important thing, not the save.
"GO YANKEES!"

it's been bad, but it's still not out-of-hand.. the Yankees are only 2.5 out of the Wild Card with 2 months of baseball left

They still have a chance to win the east or the wild card,if they are lucky. But when your management team fail to make deals that make sense then maybe the player will play better. I have nothing againist Nady or pudge but we need staring pitching, because our hitting is not the yankee strong suit. When they won the othet titles back in the 90's they played sound baseball and they won the championship with good starting pitching and sound baseball. The Red sox they tried all those power hitters, but until they started concentrating on solid starters you not going to win. Gaylord Perry -Hall-of fame pitcher check his record out it is not outstanding, but whenever he went to the mound, he was going to give 7 or 8 innings. Now the talk is about CC when I mention CC back in may the bloggers jump all over me, but now they projecting in 2009. This is the last year of "THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT" you suppose to pull out all stops to win this year. Rebuild next year in the new joint.

Queen, rocketman,

Don't listen to that wannabe GM bpuke/keyswahili.sentinel. He sounds delusional and usually doesn't know what he is talking about. The Yanks aren't going to get Juan Pierre (not that they need the likes of a player like him). It makes no sense for a team like the Dodgers to dump there leadoff hitter when they're still in contention making it harder on the offense, besides it doesn't sound like the Dodgers are going to let him go anytime soon according to the LA Times.

or just Google Juan Pierre's name you will find an article on him from yesterday.

This team still needs at least 2 starters to make a serious run at the WS it can't continually be running the likes of that fat **** Pontoon or Rasner and expect good things. At best this offense is no better than average and we should stop expecting it to go out and bash other teams' pitching. As we have seen over and over this seasonthis offense is incapable of doing that. On paper the offense looks good but baseball isn't played on paper. This team needs quality pitching to make up for the fact that the offense is so inconsistent. At least good pitching will keep this team in games. As we've seen poor pitching won't, why give other teams the advantage by marching out garbage like Pontoon and Rasner every 4th or 5th night? This team is totally incapable of playing catch up when it has to at this point.

Thanks for that Matt!!! As usual you are dead on with what you say. Only a complete fool would think a team would trade away its leadoff hitter. No way Yanks get Pierre, besides he is a crappy hitter. Once again, bpark shows how deluded he is!!!!!!

Matt, " the likes of that fat **** Pontoon" (your quote), is pitching better than Andy or Moose at this time. We certainly need a couple of good quality starters especially when with the exception of Joba,they can't be found on this staff... We've been marching out "garbage"
for the past week. On paper this team can't lose but apparently we have too many underachievers with little or no leadership. When you don't score runs though it makes little difference what kind of pitching you have, you can't win without scoring runs...
I see where another piece of trash (Betemit) has homered to tie the game and Jeter Hit into another DP, Abreu our only bright spot has homered, we lead 4-2... Hey maybe our bat are coming alive. ......
"GO YANKEES!"

Pettitte and Mussina have been far more consistent than that Pontoon, lets not get carried by one start, he is still garbage, one start doesn't change anything about that. First time in a long time Betapuke has done anything significant with the bat, he too is garbage, Yanks should still cut him loose. Again, it's pitching that keeps teams in games and gives teams the best chance of winning championships it's not offense. This team went out and got offense and nothing has changed. The Yanks have had good offense for years, and where has it gotten this team? It doesn't matter how many bashers you have in your lineup if you don't have good pitching you're not going anywhere. IT's pitching that wins championships, this team isn't going to win any with the likes of Rasner and Pontoon in the rotation.

I would rather have a rotation of Chamberlains and a lineup of .250 hitters than a rotation like this team has now and a lineup of bashers.