"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

And the bats return. So we can't get more than 2 runs off Nieve, but tag the best pitcher in the league for about 400 million. Makes sense.

Aj Burnett. Man, I love having that guy on the mound. I know he got absolutely rocked in his last start against Boston. But he is fantastic. He's exactly the type of intimidating-control pitcher we need. Finally, a strike-out guy who doesn't have to rely on a quirky sinker ball to get outs.

15-0. Jesus. But that's not the most impressive, striking aspect of this game, amazingly.

It was the defense.

Zero runs is a lot better to me than 15 runs against. Because these are the Yankees, they're sluggers, and they're going to belt them more often than not. But to keep a team to no runs, to force them to go 0-8 with RISP.

My favorite? Came at 3:41pm today, when it made me fall in love with the Yankees even more. Possibly the most all season.

Jeter continues to make his case for being an amazing defensive player, and not the worst SS in the league as idiots tend to purport.

And Swisher gets a gift from Geico, who awards him the Defensive Play of the Game, when it was clearly trumped by other moves. Like the working-out-of-the-bases-loaded-jam from Burnett. But, semantics. I think it was nice of them to give it to him after he's been nauseatingly bonkers for the last 4 games. Kinda like how the NY Post makes the crossword puzzles easy on Monday, to give us a little break on the first day back from the weekend.

The Sux also lost today, which puts us back to 2 behind. Which seemed like a lot to me until my sister texted me today to say, "The Nats are 19.5 games back in the NL East. Poor guys."

It was funny, because Bob Lorenz cuts to the Sux game to say, "And while the Yanks are running up the score on the Mets, Boston's doing the same thing in Philadelphia." Argh. 4-1.

Then a few innings later, we learn that Philly staged a comeback, only for Josh Beckett to tie the game on a solo homerun. I hate Beckett. A lot. Ever since he went on late night TV after his WS win in 2003 and made fun of people who believe in superstitions. I give him a lot of credit for taking down the Yanks on short rest. Amazing, amazing performance. One of the best in WS history. But then he's all, "Whatever, man. I just play the game, I don't believe in that BS." See, I can't stomach people like this. Who try sooo hard to put forth this, "I am what I am. I just don't give a shit." Because if you have to go out of your way to further this perception, then you do, indeed, care what people think.

Kinda like last night when I'm out and see these 2 girls walking home, and this beligerent asshole yells after them, "YO! Girl in the dress! Ditch your fat friend and come back and hang out with us!" I'm not the world's nicest person, but when it comes to treating people like human beings, I'm firmly entrenched on the good side. That was just cruel, and me and my friend Sam tell him as much. "Whatever. I don't care! That's just me! I don't give a shit, I just say what I'm thinking." What a delightful boy. Why can't I find someone like that?

That's probably what Josh Beckett is like off the field. And this is to say nothing of the fact that Josh isn't exactly above this silly superstitious stuff he claims to ignore, since he tiptoes in and out of the white lines with every mound appearance. Just saying.

That said, it is pretty cool he hit a HR. I love watching pitchers bat, especially when they're good at it. But it didn't help in the long run, since Philly pulled ahead once again. Thanks, Phils.

Tomorrow's day off is well timed. I think the Yanks need some quality down time. As long as it doesn't involve coffee. Or whatever psychidelic drugs that have been circulating the league that's the only reasonable explanation for the rampant pop-up errors.