I forgot to post this yesterday as part of my “I Quit” post, so here are a few things left to enjoy while we watch the Yankees fold, once again, to the Red Sox.
Robinson Cano: This is the future of the organization. They better keep him around for the long haul, because this kid is going to be something very, very special.

Melky Cabrera: His ceiling isn’t has high as Cano’s, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him in pinstripes for a long time. The kid has a ton of energy and plays the game with a joy that’s noticeably absent from guys like A-Rod, Sheffield and Johnson.

Derek Jeter: Enough said.

Johnny Damon: Turns out he wasn’t the devil after all.

Alex Rodriguez: Personally, I can’t stand the guy. He and the Big Eunuch are my two least favorite Yankees. That said, you have to at least appreciate what a monumental talent A-Rod is. After his career is over, and the booing is well behind him, we’ll all look back and tell our kids that we were lucky enough to watch Alex Rodriguez play. Then we might mention that he couldn’t hit with men on base and made an error every other day, and didn’t really perform when it counted and, possibly, cost the Yankees a couple of championships. But, man, was he a ballplayer.

Jorge, Bernie and Mo: Jorge’s probably got one more productive year left, Bernie may come back next year, but his role would be incredibly limited and, at some point, Mo’s going to start to slip a bit. It’s easy to get caught up in what’s going on this year and lose track of the fact that these guys (along with Jeter) were the core of a team that won four World Series in five years. Not exactly an easy thing to do.

Enjoy the rest of the season, everyone. I’m calling to cancel the MLBlogs subscription today, so I don’t know how long they’ll leave this up.

I’m tired of writing it, you’re tired of reading it, let’s just call it a day, shall we?
If you’ve watched the last six games and honestly believe this team is going to make the playoffs, I’m sorry, I can’t do anything for you.

Enjoy the rest of the season, folks. I’ll just get in my “I told you so” now for good measure. They’re finished, and so am I.

Thanks for reading.

The Angels handled the Yankees, the Red Sox woke up and pounded the Orioles. What a surprise. I predicted the Yankees would split with the Angels. They may only win one game. Four days into the 20-day stretch and we’re already reading about how tired the poor Yankees are. That doesn’t bode well.
Enjoy first place, fellas. You won’t have it much longer.

The dominant Adam Loewen is done after 2 1/3 in Boston, yielding six runs on six hits. Keep in mind, he one-hit the Yankees.
7-0 Boston in Fenway.
3-0 Anaheim in the Bronx.

So, after tonight, the Yankees are two games up on the “staggering” Red Sox. Keep in mind the Yanks played a late game last night, had a late flight, and have another night game tonight, which means they’ll still be exhausted tomorrow. Which means they’ll lose again tomorrow, which will see them sitting in first, a ******** one game up on that awful, sinking ship of a ballclub from Boston.

Adam Loewen woke up the Red Sox. Maybe you folks should wake up, too.

Remember Adam Loewen? The young Orioles pitcher one-hit the Yanks about a week ago. Here’s his line after one inning in Boston tonight.
1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K

Huh. How ’bout that.

Meanwhile, in the Bronx: one inning down, one man left on base for the Yankees. In other words, same ****, different day.

In other news, some kid with the last name Carter just threw a 79 MPH fastball in the Little League World Series on ESPN. If you can ignore the fact that he’s probably actually 24 years old and a heavy HGH user, it was pretty cool.

Update: Wow, you guys were right. Lidle’s been solid. Oh wait, that’s Saunders. Lidle’s given up two home runs and it’s only the 3rd inning. But, yeah, they’ll be fine. Come on.

From Peter Abraham’s Yankees blog:
“The Red Sox lost five straight games against the Devil Rays and Royals and the Yankees picked up only two games in the standings. When you have a chance to throw your rivals under the train, you have to do it. The Red Sox are in a free-fall but they’re one series away from being back in first.“

Huh. How about that. Somebody else out there realizes that missed opportunities come back to haunt a team, whether it’s in one game or over the course of a season.

Another A-Rod error cost the Yankees (and Mike Mussina) another run.

Fifteen (!!) men were left on base, nine in scoring position.

But, because Boston hit the skids, everyone’s positive this season is going to turn out well. Guess what? Boston’s not going to drop eight or nine games in a row, and the Yankees have perennial Yankee-killers the Angels coming to town. Here’s the Angels’ rotation for the upcoming series: Saunders, Escobar, Weaver, Lackey. That’s four very good pitchers, two of whom the Yankees haven’t seen before, and we know how that story ends. Here’s the Yankees’ rotation: Lidle, Wright, Wang, Johnson. That’s three big ifs and one solid starter who’s last outing wasn’t exactly fantastic. Who exactly does that favor? (Hint: not the Yankees.)

When the series at Fenway has come and gone, and the Yankees are back in second place, remember these last three days. You can see this collapse coming a mile away.

Like him or not (and I do not), Randy Johnson shut the White Sox down for six innings last night, proving a number of his critics wrong, at least for the moment. Johnson’s no-hit performance through six was so good that it managed to overshadow his minor meltdown in the seventh (single, walk, double, double, yanked). Maybe a few people saw this outing coming, but I sure didn’t. We’ll see going forward if this was an anomaly or if Johnson can find some consistencty.
Overuse caught up with Kyle Farnsworth (well, that and a regained infatuation with his slider) and Mo continued to hiccup a bit against the White Sox. I’m not sure whether this is something to be concerned about, as Mo has been markedly less dominant since the all-star break, or if it’s just a bump in the road. I recall him enduring a similar “effective, but not dominant” stretch around this time last season. Something to keep an eye on.

The Red Sox are teetering right now, no doubt about that. But, again, if writing the Yankees off in May was a mistake, so is writing the Red Sox off right now. They’ll get Wakefield, Nixon and Varitek back soon enough and they’ll make a run. It’s a matter of how much distance the Yankees can put between themselves and the Red Sox before that happens. The Red Sox were kicking themselves for not being able to shut the door on the Yankees, and the Yankees could very easily find themselves in a similar position come September. Don’t print those playoff tickets just yet.

“The Yankee payroll argument ain’t flying this year, Boston fans. If your team isn’t there in October (and don’t worry, they will be), you can look at that three-month stretch where the Red Sox had every opportunity to put the Yankees away and couldn’t close the door.”
That was posted, by me, August 4, 2006 as part of the entry Cry, Cry, Cry. Seeing as how it whas a whole five days ago, it’s understandable that you guys have already forgotten it.

Try actually reading the blog before you decide to tell me what I did and didn’t say.

Also, if you’d bothered to read the post entitled Little of This, Little of That, you’d understand that my attitude has nothing to do with living up to the title of the blog and everything to do with the early 90’s and 2004. Again, if you’re just coming here to insult and argue, more power to you, but you’d be better served to actually read the posts before you argue them. Just a suggestion.

At the end of this 21-game stretch, the Yankees will have squandered their season and you’ll be wondering how it happened. All you had to do was pay attention.

And yes, I honestly believe that.

This stretch of 21 games in 20 days is going to murder the Yankees. They’ll go 11-10 at best.
Randy Johnson’s line tonight will be: 4 2/3 IP, 6 R, 6 ER, 9 H, 3 BB, 1 K. He’ll take the loss.

Get ready to hear/read the following statements a few times over the next three weeks:

1) “It was a frustrating loss, but I feel good about this team.”
2) “We just need to get back to doing what we do and letting the game come slowly.”
3) “We’re a tired team right now, but that’s no excuse.”
4) “Randy’s searching. We’re all hoping he’ll find it.”

It’s not going to be a pretty three weeks. The Red Sox are certainly struggling right now, but the Yankees’ season is about to start spiraling. Wait and see.

Because these predictions seem to infuriate people, I figure why not keep throwing them out there. The worst-case (or best-case, depending upon your perspective) scenario is I’m wrong, the Yankees play well, and you guys have a little fun at my expense. I can live with that. Here are the next two weeks for the Yanks and Sox, respectively.
Yankees
@CWS: 1-2
vs. LAA: 2-2
vs. BAL: 2-1
@ BOS: 2-3
Overall: 7-8

Red Sox
@ KC: 3-0
vs. BAL: 2-1
vs. DET: 2-1
vs. NYY: 3-2
Overall: 10-4

That’s a 3.5 game swing, which leaves Boston up 1.5 games after the Fenway series. The fine folks at ESPN are wetting themselves at that possibility. What a harrowing story of triumph it will be.

Finally, is it just me, or does Boston seem to get a series with the Royals every time they need to get things back on track?