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

At least the Giants won.

"I hope the Panthers don't suck, because the Giants look really good." -my buddy's stab at positive thinking

If we consider that Kay and the media are right (sign number #1 of the apocolypse), then the Yanks-Rangers series was a PLAYOFF ATMOSPHERE!!! AHHHHH!!! EXCITEMENT! HYPE!!

And if that's the case, the Yanks are in trouble.

They get swept for the first time all season.

Ok, but just read that sentence again. The FIRST sweep and it's September. That itself is pretty impressive. So what do we put more stock in? Streaks of winning? Or streaks of not losing? They're not exactly the same, really.

You can win 10 games in a row, and then lose 5, win 10, lose 10, etc.

Or you can win 5, lose 1, win 3, lose 2, win 8, lose 2, etc.

It's like the difference between snacking throughout the day vs having 3 full meals.

Last year I was having lunch with one of the Yanks' old bullpen coaches, Dom Scala. He said that the the teams that win championships are the teams that go on hot streaks. Hopefully this is not the case this year, since I don't think I have to convince anyone of the fact that the Yanks never really looked HOT or UNBEATABLE.

They've just played like they should be playing. Good. Not breath-taking, though.

I don't necessarily agree with Dom, though. I've always thought that the teams that win aren't the teams that beat their opponents by 10 runs, or who go on these offensive monster rides for games at a time.

I think it's the teams that play juuuusssst better than their opponents. Enough to win. A 3-2 win over the O's is just as good as 10-0 win over the Rays.

So the Yanks lose yesterday after getting only 2 hits against the almighty Cliff Lee. I'm out of ideas with this guy. I always think that the NEXT time we'll have him figured out. I'm baffled by the idea of the same guy fooling us over and over. I mean, he's beatable. And I understand not being able to hit him when you're blown away by his power.

But by now, his power shouldn't be a novelty.

It should be old hat.

It's not though.

The Yanks lose 4-1, after a quasi-impressive outing from Moseley. It was actually better than the score suggests. A couple of base runners in succession in the 7th, and the game "breaks open."

Lee had a no-hitter going through 6th til Eduardo Nunez broke it up. Jeter plated him with a double (are we supposed to be getting excited about the RBI, or disappointed that we're that excited about it?)

The Yanks' 1-0 lead dissolved soon thereafter though. Murphy's ribbie ground out in the 6th tied it, and then Moseley remembered he was Moseley and gave up 3 more runs, because that's what he does.

6IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, 1 K... His consistency is really quite remarkable.

The Yanks couldn't come back from the deficit, and it was just me and the afternoon NFL games for the rest of the day.

The real question is how worried should we be? We have a hugely difficult schedule, and that means we're listening to Kay et al remind EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. that we're watching possible playoff scenarios.

I have faith. The Yanks don't need to destroy their opponents, they just need to find ways to beat them.

Unfortunately right now they're just discovering new ways to lose.

If it wasn't for the walkoff against the O's, we'd be mired in a 7-game losing streak.

So right now, I'm trying to decide if the Yanks are better than we think, or worse.

The latter is really too disturbing a thought to even seriously entertain.

Instead, I'm going to offer it up to the Yankee gods. Pettitte returns soon. Jeter will, too. All of this isn't a cause for concern. All of this is really just the Yankees finding news way to be dramatic.

A new way to stun the league.

A new way to their new championship.