Stop the bleeding

Well, the Yankees came out on top in the battle of the Butterfly Ballers.

Despite their short-handedness on offense, their pitching has been pretty good and starts by Andy Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang in the first two games of this series were simply wasted. Five runs in 13 1/3 innings between them, plus four scoreless from Kyle Farnsworth, Jorge Veras and Jonathan Abalablahblahblah should have been enough.

The headline on Yankees.com states "Bombers' bombs brush away Indians' brooms." Who writes this crap? Creativity is one thing, alliteration for the sake of alliteration is, well, not creative ...

Smooth transition:

You know who I hate? Dustin Pedroia. I like David Ortiz. He seems like a nice guy. Same with Manny Ramirez. Space cadet. I bet he's fun to hang around with. Pedroia stikes me as that guy who tried WAY too hard in gym class. And celebrated WAY too much when his team won at, whatever, handball or something.

Joba fails?

So, is it just me, or did Kyle Farnsworth and Joba Chamberlain switch bodies last night?

Farnsworth came in and threw gas at the Indians, mixing in a slider, but working up-up in the zone where no one is going to touch him. Farnsworth has done this his last handful of appearances and has been flat nasty. The guy we thought we were getting years ago.

Chamberlain came in for the eighth and threw curves and sliders, when he’s been spotting his fastball and making veterans look foolish. You could see David Delucci’s home run coming, Delucci probably could too. He knew Chamberlain had to come in, and any lefty can go yard at The House That George Tore Down. That mortar-shot off Delucci’s bat killed the crowd and neutered the Yanks, who got a solid 6 1/3 from Andy Pettitte, who seems to fight himself more than the other team.

Excepting Chamberlain’s wretched performance, the Yankees got good pitching again, 8 innings and two runs from Pettitte, Farnsworth and Jorge Veras who came in when Chamberlain made Mo Rivera’s warm-up routine pointless.

The only thing that irritated me more than Chamberlain acting like an idiot rookie was David Cone saying over and over, “Delucci just beat him to the spot.” John Flaherty was supposed to color with Cone for that game. Flash’s son was sick so he skipped the game. Bad for him and the family, good for the viewing audience.

Sad little Soxes

The pinstripers had a much-needed off day Monday, and take on the Indians tonight at home.

I forgot there was no game last night, so when I tuned in, a Yankees classic was just starting. I don’t do “classic.” If I saw the game, great. If I didn’t, as a much as I love baseball, I’m not going to spend three hours watching a game that may have happened 30 years ago.

In a fit of madness, I switched over to NESN, thinking I might watch the Sawx and Tiggers. I spent all of about three minutes there. The first commercial that came on during the break before the first pitch was for NESN HD, celebrating the greatness that is the Red Sox - Sox highlights flashed by, and then ... a Joe Torre-led Yankees team. The caption and I’m paraphrasing here: NESH HD: Where pinstripes don’t mean greatness.

Is this necessary? The Sox have enjoyed two World Series wins in the last three seasons. The teams have been, and will be competing for the title for many years to come. And yet ... and yet the Sox and Red Sox fans still can’t focus on what their team has accomplished. They live in the past. It’s 2-0 in the new millenium. Celebrate it, savor it. But no, you sully it by putting the Yankees in your own commercials, unable to break the inferiority complex you’ve lived with for so long.

It’s so sad. So sad.

Six strong for the Moose

Maybe Mike Mussina has learned how to pitch ... again. At 4-3, he's looking pretty good compared to the two youngsters the Yanks had been running out there.

Darrell Rasner's back after performing well at Triple A. A sweep againast the M's would work wonders for the Yanks, who seem more and more to be having an identity crisis. They aren't the mashers - at least not yet - people always assume they'll be. They need good pitching, duh, and timely hitting, which doesn't seem all that complex, but turns out to be more difficult than one would imagine.

Maybe going without A-Rod and Jorge Posada for a while will teach them to win by doing the little things, instead of waiting for the big home run. Small, smart ball would be a refreshing change. Plus, it's amazing how good quality starting pitching makes Joe Girardi look.

Strong like bullpen

Yankees relievrs have been pretty good this year, if not great.

Kyle Farnsworth was flat out nasty last night. I hope he keeps it up.

With Mike Mussina on the hill for Game 2 of this series, the Yankees are gonna need more than five runs.

Better tonight

Yanks are leading early against Erik Bedard, Seattle's dynamic lefty ace. Lefties usually murder the Yankees, especially ones they haven't seen before. Bedard's a known, having spent a number of years with the Orioles. That said, they've gotten two clutch hits tonight, from Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera, bringing home all three runs. Clutch hits are rare for these Yankees.

Thanks to the Mariners' defense for three erros in the first two innings.

More importantly, Bobby Murcer is back. He's been battling cancer and his voice is a welcome addition to the Yankees broadcast team. He contributes to the game, much like Paul O'Neill and David Cone have done more recently.

John Flaherty makes me want to tear my ears off. Al Leiter is hardly better. If the two of them read this, or, if anyone who knows those two read this, please, tell them I said shut up - just for five minutes. Shut up. You don't need to talk the whole time. Let the game happen. It doesn't need you and your constant analysis and repeatedly pointless comments. For the love of God, I implore you. Shut up!

Frodo never went on the DL

So, I've been playing Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, which I picked up for the reasonable price of $24.99 used at Gamestop.

While Andy Pettitte was getting whiplash from the Detroit Tigers, Marcus Thames and Placido Polanco took him yard (and hit another, not surprisingly off Kyle Farnsworth), erasing an early, very shakey 2-1 Yankees' lead, I was happily laying siege to Dol Guldur, the digital version of one of Sauron's strongholds.

I won't bore you with the details, but its walls fell to my relentless assault. I know you're all happy for me and my dwarven and elven allies.

About the time those walls were falling, the Yankees were meekly, despondently giving up the second game in their first series at home in what seems like forever. The pinstripers had one day off in April. One. I'm shocked this didn't become a union issue. They've been on the road for most of it, and I'm willing to blame at least 5 losses directly on the pope and his visit to the Stadium.

Michael Kay suggested this was just the baseball gods smiling elsewhere, perhaps Tampa Bay. Or, maybe it's something else, such as an organization that wasted too much money on overpriced free agents in the last decade instead of cultivating the talent that put them on the path the four World Series titles.

The Yankees have looked DOA in previous seasons, but that was the Joe Torre years, when you still had some hope the team would right the ship and get into the playoffs, if not better. This year, the pitching is worse than ever, and they aren't scoring. At all.

I've never channel surfed during Yankees games. Last night, a fat lady passing out while making a cake was more appealing. And boy was that cake amazing.