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

I texted my buddy Justin to inform him that "if the Yankees lose I will collapse into myself like a dying star."

I can see how it would difficult to be friends with me during baseball season.

Btw, the above video has absolutely nothing to do with baseball, and yet everything to do with the absolute despair that inevitably burgeons in a loss like tonight's.

Today started to tumble downwards at around 2pm when everything at the office did this:
So although the Yanks were playing the ORIOLES, THE ORIOLES FOR GOD'S SAKE, they were, in fact, facing an uphill battle. There was a lot of pressure on them to redeem my afternoon. And this is on top of all the pressure they had on them to not become the 4th win for this disaster of a team.

But anyone who follows the Yanks and knows their M.O. should have known that this game was over before it began. Well, not really, but c'mon. This is what they DO. They'll have an amazing sweep or dramatic comeback win or surge for eleventy straight games...and then they fall to a bunch of semi-functional armadillos.

(On a side note, the ESPN headline for the recap was so reminiscent of that line in "Rookie of the Year" that I have to wonder if that's what the writer had in mind the whole time.)

That extends the Cubs to their longest winning streak of the season...two.

Anyways, the Yanks lost today. In a stomach punch like fashion, because not only was it to the worst team in sports, but it was one of those games where their bats are just choking on ineptitude AND they decide, with 2 outs in the 9th, to stage a comeback and almost pull it off.

When they were down 5-2, Adam Jones doubled to left and at that point I said to my sister, "That's it. I can't watch this anymore. I may jump off a bridge."

She protested, "What?! It's 3 runs, what is the matter with you? Leave it on. And stop thinking so many negative thoughts."

So we leave it on. And watch as the 9th inning rolls around. I'm still cranky.

"Who the f is pitching for the O's? It looks like a poor man's CC."

Alfredo Simon is a good pitcher. Well, he pitched well tonight anyway. Struck out 2 before closing out the game. I think he might just be one of those Brad Halsey types who has a good night and then forgets how to pitch after that.

The Yanks bat were a quiet mess. Of the team's 9 hits, 6 came from Swish and Cano. They just played sloppy. Posada tried to stretch a hit into a double at one point, which should say something about where the team's heads were at. Posada shouldn't even try to stretch a long lunch. He needs to come to terms with his inertia and embrace it. It was a big out, ruined a rally.

4 errors in the game. That's disgusting. Like, seriously nauseating.

Hughes pitched well despite a few control problems that ended up walking in a run in the 3rd. But only 2 hits in over 5 IPs. And that was the only run he let in. Michael Kay might have jinxed us when he said, "Well, if the game's going to the bullpen, the Yanks definitely have the edge here."

One might think.

But once controlled and focuses D-Rob was less than sharp tonight, and after giving up 3 hits and 2 runs in .1 IP, he was treated to the loss.

There's not much to say about the O's bats. It's not like they were anything to write home about. (Predictably.) And while I have to say I was actually pretty impressed by Millwood and the supporting pen's pitching, they weren't exactly overpowering. From what I could tell, they beat the Yanks by tucking their pitches away in the corners. The Yanks weren't swinging, and the O's took advantage.

Quite a gamble, you gotta admit.

But I guess when you're 3 4 and 16, you can afford to take those kinds of risks.

Let it be known that if CC loses to Baltimore tomorrow, I may ingest whatever drug is used in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in an effort to forget that Baltimore ever existed.