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

R-Mart says Boone has been "money all year."

I guess he would know better than me.

I'm not even gonna try to pigeonhole Blogan, because he may be the most complex pitcher on that team. (Somewhere, Mike Mussina is throwing his crossword puzzle down in a huff, sputtering about how he'll show YOU complex!)

Seriously though. Would you do as R-Mart does and identify Blogan as "money"? Or is that too generous? Have his good starts been the norm or the anomalies?

Where is this absurd strikeout rate coming from? He hovers around the 12 K/9 mark with a fastball that generally tops out at 9 and an above average, below phenomenal slider.

You know how Sneach has this way of appearing on base when you aren't even 100% positive he ever even batted? Blogan has this way of holding onto leads in such a way that you never are blown away. Blowganned, as it were. Or if it weren't, it is now.

Hughes made it through 7, barely, and I almost sympathize with him, since he lost any ability to pitch beyond 5 innings, like 2 years ago. So when you ask him to do a little bit more, he's all like this.

Or this.



I know that feeling. Like when a meeting is scheduled to go from 1-2, and at like 1:55, my body is mentally already halfway to the Italian Sandwich Store, but then 2:05 comes and 2:10, and there's no end in sight. I hadn't planned on this! My mind only was calibrated to be on point for an hour! Now, there's trouble.

Similarly, in the 7th inning, Hughes plays a fun game of baseball jenga, where he sees how many players he can pile on the bathpaths before the game is broken open.

99 pitches. (Among the many, many reasons I could never manage baseball, or anything with so many numbers, is the fact that there is NO WAY, I would've stopped at 99. Just let him pitch 100! Make it a round number! GOD.)

Hughes said he wanted to stay in. WHY? You just loaded the bases and clearly had NOTHING left in the tank. Why would you WANT to remain in the game? You're like those people at work who are completely useless on account of coming into the office with a raging case of the flu, and when they're not getting everyone else sick, they're refusing to go home and get better.

"Bo, bo. Bime fide. Rully."

So, "cooler" heads prevailed and Girardi pulls him and goes to Blogan. It's being called "the safe bet."

The safer bet, with a 3-1 lead, would've been to pitch Color Swatch. I'm sorry, I know that's like trying to playing croquet with a wet noodle, but if Girardi is arguing that he made the logical move, then I'm going to have to counter that with stats. Ugh. I hate you, Blogan and Girardi for forcing me to delve into the dark netherworlds of numbers and logic.

Lefties are batting .190 against Color Swatch. Against Blogan, righties and lefties are almost batting identically, average around .240.

That alone kind of takes him out of the Lefty Specialist player pool eligibility, yeah? That's like saying that I'm a soccer phenom who plays both soccer and basketball at an average level.

Anyways, Blogan blows the game, leaving us with another nuance of the Blogan Enigma over which to mull, as we consider his utility in future critical moments. You know what he is?



He's getting a 15 or 16. No matter what the dealer's holding, it's an uncomfortable hand.

Run scores on wild pitch because R-Mart isn't really the best defensive catcher. Maybe an average one. 2-run double to Span makes it 4-3. Homegrown golden boy who really is just perfect and I would definitely be awkwardly stalking him if I lived in Minnesota, well he hit a homerun because he's perfect.

Hi, Mauer. I like you. I can say that because your homerun didn't ruin our chances at a win.

Oh wait, it kind of did when Andrew [sic] Jones hit a solo shot in the 9th to put the Yanks within 1.

Nix struck out swinging to end the game. Cheers for the swinging K though. I know that sounds condescending, but really I feel like more often than not I'm watching the Yankees watching 3rd strikes to end the game. Not like in the Posada days, where he would excel at swinging at balls that bounced in the dirt 10 feet before reaching home plate, to end the inning.

Esmerling Vasquez somehow managed to only get tagged for 2 runs off 7 hits, while simultaneously managing to sound like he sound be a hot Disney gypsy with an edge.

Oh, you know what that means? Yeah. NYY 0-1 with RISP. Also kind of weird since there were 9 hits in the game (CONGRATULATIONS CANO ON GOING 3-for-3!!!)

My mom: "I think Cano is handling his slump extremely well."

She noticed that, too, huh? Yes it's impressive when a slumping players who go 3 for 3 holds himself with greater aplomb, I guess.

All 3 of Yankees' runs came from 3 bombs, Swisher puts the Yanks up 2-0 in the 4th, R-Mart makes it 3-1 in the 7th, and then Girardi decides to play things safe and effectively toss the game away, then Jones hits a wait-maybe-we-have-a-chance! homerun in the 9th.

Yankees lose. Orioles lose. 1.5 lead stays put.

The Yankees, howevah, will win tomorrow. Fatso is on the mound against some also-ran named Deduno.

Nunc est tempus cum igne probatur Aurum.  Nunc est tempus pro citiori. magis quam aurum, da mihi citiori.

Magica numerus est septem. Caelum! Progressionis!