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

Oh, ok. Yeah so the Angels apparently aren't going to play badly 100% of the time. I'd insert some comment about a broken clock being right twice a day etc etc, but my ex used to always use the sun shining on a dog's ass equivalent every time a NY team won. So I've grown to hate it when people trivialize someone else's win by writing it off as a fluke.

There's a time and a place though, but this isn't one of them. CJ Wilson had this coming.

He finally beat the Yanks. Good on you, CJ. Sizzler time for you, boy!

GNH had that season of being veritable teflon for fly balls. If GNH was working in advertising, it'd be an editor because if something was up in the air, it was coming out.

And then there was that sophomore season of things calming down. ("Ok, fine fine. We'll keep in that line, but realize that eventually legal review may make it come out.")

And yesterday (sorry for the delay on this, I've been a little all over the place this weekend), the Halos were teeing off in the park like old times. But the Yankees weren't. 7-1 loss is not pretty. Obviously.

I hate games like this for a million reasons, but one of them is that recapping it sucks when you can only get ONE runner around the bases in an entire game. I know sports fans consider a penchant for defense as their colophon of analytical prowess. But I'm an offense kind of person.

You can't win if you shut out the other team. You can only tie.

Anyways, so Howie "My Name Has Destined Me to Be a Cop on Law & Order" Kendrick, Chris "Jehovah begins with an I!" Ianetta, and Vernon "Seriously. I'm still playing baseball." Wells are hit it and POP, went out of the park, giving the Halos all but 1 of their runs.

That last run was provided by Albert "I'm still the best batter in MLB I don't care what anyone says" Pujol, who doubled in Kendrick.

And for the Yanks? A similar feat off the bat of Cano, who probably just thought, "oh hell, Pujols just ribbied? Am I the last name on the players-who-are-a-minute-away-from-maddening-overscrutinizing list? Eff that noise."

So he brings in our lone run in the 5th. Golf-style clapping. No shut out! Still in the rough.

ALSO, it should be noted that my buddy Hug was pretty damn close in calling this. (Hey, Robbie was the only ribbie. Same thing.) His knowledge about baseball is actually quite intimidating. And his aggression, while scary, is more than a little outstanding.

And then there was Hughes. Who went a whopping 3.1 innings. ("Whopping was sarcasm because 3.1 innings isn't even a lot. Better to hear it from me than the guy at work.)

He did let up a whopping 8 hits though in his time on the field, which isn't sarcasm because 8 IS a lot.

I don't get Hughes. Just as my dad sadly proclaims to "just not get brisket," I don't understand what his deal is sometimes. How do you get shelled like that when you're textbook good? Which he is. Believe me on that one. He improves and learns and does what he is supposed to. What the hell happened here?

Oh yeah, he decided it would be a good idea to throw the Best Pitch Ever (BPE), when BPE is assessed from the batter's perspective. So basically he thought that a high fastball to a stacked offensive lineup would really be a keen idea.

See, this is why I don't get him. Maybe he wasn't trying to throw it up (I hope, anyway) and his location was just crummy yesterday, but putting that aside, he still continued to throw fastballs which isn't a location issue. Why would he do that when they're taking practice against him off his heater?

Actually I think my biggest concern with Hughes is his inability to close the deal when he's 0-2 in the count. Never seen anything quite like it. Batters are over .400 against his when he's up in the count, something like that anyway. The SLG percentage is almost .700. And to put this in perspective, the rest of the AL is batting .167 against 0-2 counts.

You know what this is? JUSTIN SYNDROME. Justin "Guess What Pitch I'm Gonna Throw Next!" Chamberlain threw a slider pretty much to the point where batters may as well have been in the cages, in terms of knowing where the pitch was coming in and at what speed.

Now maybe Hughes is doing the same thing with his fastball? Great. Fantastic. If there's anyone on the team whose career path is a sterling example of idiocy, it's that of Justin Chamberlain. And Hughes should be warned that while I love him now, my ire and wrath towards his "role model" is well documented and unyielding.

Other ways to see it coming.

Not that the Yanks were helping him. 1-11 with RISP. 10 left on base. (Not for nothing, but the 1-8 RISP for the Angels isn't anything to write home about, either.)

Which means we were beaten at our own game. In our own home. The long ball in GNH. Is that really our game anymore, though?

I've found that lately people have been adhering to perceptions that were once rooted in fact, but have since departed into new arenas. Yeah, the hit homeruns. But mostly they manufacture em. And yeah they used to load up on pricey All-Stars. But lately they've been bolstered by the scrappy ones and farm ones.

Eh, I don't care what other people think about the Yankees because I know the Yankees are better than everything else combined. Which is, of course, 100% grounded in fact. (A bitch of an annotating job, to be sure, given the volumes of references and support for it.)

Anyways, so it's time for the Sunday night game, so in 38 minutes this loss will be irrelevant. Baseball is such a funny game, Suzyn!

Recap for tonight's game will be more timely! Cheers to treating the Halos like punching bags tonight! If "punching bags" are things that are used to plate millions of runs while inhibiting opponents scoring opportunities.

That's what the Greek derivative of the word is, anyway.