I could throw out some expletives, but even those wouldn’t be able to convey the frustration I have right now. The Yankees COULD be in the lead for the Wild Card and they COULD be a mere three games back (in the loss column) of the Red Sox. Instead, we’re still on the outside looking in at Oakland and we’re five games back of the Sox.
Things started out fine on Monday. Jaret Wright made his return from the disabled list and threw a nice game. He was held to 79 pitches, but he threw 6 1/3 innings of four hit ball. In the meantime, Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield both homered and drove in two runs to give the Yankees the win. To make matters even better, the Tigers beat Curt Schilling in the ninth and the A’s lost their game to the Orioles. Things were definitely looking up.
Tuesday was a disaster. Plain and simple. The Yankees jumped out to a nice 3-0 lead, mostly because of a two run single by Hideki Matsui. Randy Johnson had a shutout going through five innings when Eduardo Perez of all people took him yard in the sixth to cut the lead to 3-2. Eduardo must have eaten is Wheaties or something that morning because he then took Mariano Rivera (yes, that Mariano Rivera, the one who had given up only one freaking homer the entire season) deep in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra frames.
Then in the bottom of the eleventh, Scott Proctor walks three batters, including one that drives in the winning run. A walk off walk. Sigh. Alan Embree was hit with the loss because he left that runner. So despite the Devil Rays making three errors, we lose because we can’t score a run through the final nine innings AND we have a guy who can’t find the strike zone.
Then there was yesterday. Things were looking up when, after being down 2-1, Gary Sheffield hit a huge three run blast to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead. They’d add a run in the sixth to make it 5-2 and things were looking good. Well, maybe if this were 1998 this game would have been a lock. But this is 2005. Aaron Small came in to relieve Al Leiter who, once again, managed to give up several walks (5) but not a lot of runs (2). Small gave up a two run shot to Alex Gonzalez, and now all of sudden, the game’s interesting.
Both teams score a single run going into the bottom of the eighth when disaster struck once again. With Tanyon Sturtze on the mound, Alex Gonzalez once again made his mark by doubling in a run to tie it. Then of all the crappy ways to lose (outside of walking a guy home), Sturtze throws one that Posada can’t handle and Gonzalez comes home to score. A walk off (run off) wild pitch.
There is good news. Yes, you might find it hard to believe. The Tigers managed to take two of three from the Red Sox, and the Orioles swept the A’s. So, we’re four and a half back (five in the loss column) of the Red Sox and only one and a half back of the A’s (one back in the loss column). The White Sox are on deck and they gave us fits last week. Hopefully we can turn the tables and rough up there pitching in that band box they play in.
