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

Eh, I don't want to talk about it.

You know how there's a handful of losses every season that just irrationally devastate you? And by that I mean that there's games you lose in extra innings, or games you get blown out, or games rife with tension and animosity..but those losses are understandably upsetting.

Then once in a while there's a loss with a random team and it's a garden variety defeat, and yet it still manages to depress the hell outta you.

So that was tonight.

It's a feeling akin to being in an 0-2 hole in a playoff series.

Yeah, I said "irrational."

The Yanks' loss tonight gives us another series loss and I guess in the "be thankful for small favors" column, I can check off the fact that I don't work anywhere near the Empire State building and hence can avoid seeing a reminder of this wretched day.

It looked an awful lot like yesterday's debacle. The Yanks immediately fell behind. Then more behind. Then to the point of half the tv's in NYC being angrily shut off.

Then in last moments, they decide to show up for work. And just like yesterday, it was too little too late.

CC was so off it was disgusting. On the brights side, at least he didn't get himself hurt on the basepaths. After roping a single in center, he trudged to 2nd and honest to God looked like he had just completed one of those cardiac stress tests.

But I mean, cmon, look at all that fat on him. It's absurd. Absurd but also protective. Last year he managed to avoid injury on more than 1 occasion on account of his blubber. Soo, that said, why not just try to steal 2nd? He would have been thrown out faster than a guy in a sorority house after midnight, but it would have handed me probably the heartiest laugh of my adult life.

But he didn't steal. And instead, just became yet another stranded base runner to add to the Yanks' growing tally.

3-for-9 with RISP. Again, not that bad, but there were also 9 runners left hanging. I know in a recent post I said that numbers don't lie...but tonight they do.

Tex went 2 for 5, which is great for my fantasy team, but if you watched him play, you'll see that his hits aren't well hit, and his outs are incredibly ill-timed. He should be powering the lineup to excessive, gluttonous hit parades, and instead look who we have drawing in the runs:

As it usually does, it came down to A-Rod in the 9th. Full count. Runners on 1st and 3rd. But there was no game-winning pop up in his bat tonight, as he struck out on a change up.

And I oddly don't fault him. Partly because it's Arod, and he's more than earned his share of latitude. But also because I loved what he had to say afterwards:

"Right where you want to be. A great matchup, a great battle. It was a good sign we put some pressure on them. After being down 6-0 it came down to the last at-bat. I'll take my chances."

I did NOT like what K-Rod had to say though, and not just because he shut down my boys. Something about the last part irked me for some reason:

"That's what I get paid for. Not to make the fans suffer like that, but to get the job done."

The part about making fans suffer. I kind of want to be like, "Alright, look. You're on the Mets. BY DESIGN, your paycheck goes towards making fans suffer, regardless of what you do on the mound."

Speaking of suffering, I had to minimize my own hell by muting the tv. I know it's always the obvious solution to the ESPN/Fox broadcasts, but I have a hard time actually watching a game in complete silence. It'd be lot easier if the radio broadcasts weren't ahead of tv ones.

Morgan, Miller, et al continued to drown us all in their patented breed of mindless drivel. I think I muted it around the time one of 'em had this to say about Johan: "As good as Santana was when he played for the Twins, that's how bad he's been with the Mets." It was like this freakish Megatron of announcer devil dogs. Like ESPN was TRYING to emulate McCarver's stylings. Can a more disturbing objective exist that that? Not really.

So here's what you got in terms of the game stats. CC gave up 10 hits in 5 innings, including 2 bombs to Bay. Mitre and Logan quietly plugged up the bats for the rest of the game. And on the other side, Santana let up 6 hits and 1 run in 7.2 IP.

All in all, there wasn't a gaping difference between the hit output. It was all who wanted it more. And watching the Yanks half ass dives for infield hits, and their late swings...not very encouraging.

CYC: "We can't lose this. It just seems like the type of game that would really screw up morale for the whole team."

Laur: "Eh, don't worry. It doesn't even look like the Yanks care about this game at all, based on how they're playing. So it probably wouldn't bother them if they lost."

Sigh.

Girardi needs to act as aggressive and involved, as he did in the 9th inning when Gardner got called out at 1st. Our fearless leader threw a tantrum and kicked dirt and screamed. And good on you, Joe, for proving you have a pulse.

But don't be like the chick who gets mad at her bf over "the principle of the thing." Get mad at something real.

Anything else is a waste of energy and credibility.