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

I'm struggling. And I crashed last night. I've been managing the west coast pretty well up til now. A lot of Pepsi and sugar and mind over matter, and I can get through the game, write the recap at 3am, and I'm good to go.

But last night, the wheels fell off. I hit a wall. Sometime during Gio's enormous implosion in the 4th inning, I crapped out. I felt like a cartoon buggy that just starts sputtering down the road. No gas. (Kinda like Gio, actually.)

Or maybe it was more like the car in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" when he zooms through THE DIP. Or like little Suzie the Car:



Poor Suzie the Car.

So, the Yanks won their 4th straight road game, (their 10th out of 13), while the Rays completed a sweep of the Sox. AJ looked excellent (from what I remember before drifting into a delirium that led to a shitstorm of sleepwalking). His pitches were controlled and well placed, and he had a poise about him that I haven't seen in quite some time.

Well, except for a pick off error, but let's call a spade a spade here. He's still AJ, he's still an unpredictable loony, so we gotta assume that indeed once in a while it's a crapshoot where his throws are gonna land.

Tex is still working on his Making Up For Lost Time campaign, and doing it quite well. His 3-run homer came after Pena's RBI single unhinged the floodgates of hits. Jeter (2 for 5) pitched in a ribbie, and a couple of walks made it possible for the Yanks to make it a 5-1 game after trailing 1-0. And it was all possible with 2 outs.

That must suck for a pitcher. I feel like most game-changing moments probably come with 2-outs. And you're on the mound thinking, if I had just gotten that last strike, I'd be sitting pretty in the dugout instead of watching this game slip down a greased up defeat slide.

Oh well.

Arod's 2 homer game was followed up with an 0-fer one, and here we go again. It's like the Chase for 500 deja vu.

3 more dings til he's the 7th player to reach 600, and we can hear allllll about how IT SHOULDN'T COUNT BECAUSE HE JUICED. I'm already angrily defensive about it. And also frustrated because I know I'm going to end up writing missing #91238 about why everyone on Arod's case should back the eff off.

But perhaps I should cross that bridge when I come to it?

Swish hit a solo in the 6th to give the Yanks their final run, and it was more than enough, since they finished the game 6-2.

Swish also finished the game overcoming his deficit to Youkilis in the FINAL SPOT OF THE ALL-STAR GAME.

Which is hilarious, because it's like everything John Kerry touches goes to hell in a handbasket. Or maybe it had something to do with a muted interest in the cause, after Youk had to leave Tuesday's game with an injury of sorts.

I have a general disinterest in the ASG, but I DO have a vested interest in sticking it to Boston whenever possible. And if that means putting a guy with technically inferior numbers on the roster, over a guy with the likability of a flesh-eating virus...then giddy up.

Now that the Oakland sweep is done, we move over to Seattle, and didn't we JUST see them? Yeah. In 3 days, this'll all be over. We can all go back to our nice palatable 7:05 start times. WAHOOO!!!

(Also, I love the fact Cano opted out of the HR derby. It's kind of like how my dad refuses to deign to play 8-ball. According to him, real pool players stick with 9-ball. Real juggernauts stick with non-exhibition play.)

See you at 10:10, Yanks!