biggest muff of the evening: mcgee didn't tear down #51. or so i learn from bellyitcher, who live-blogged the ballgame again last night. one comment she typed amid the tee-ballish 3d inning -- "Whoa, what just happened?" -- nicely encapsulated the nyys' performance. (add'l pith from yankblogger was watching: "they're shitty.") bscratch also correctamundo w her summating line: "Wow, did the Yankees look bad. I gotta think Torre's gave them hell in the clubhouse." and so he did, altho after reading about i'm still asking: where's the passion? try to picture the histrionics after last night's debacle if billy martin were still around. yet another way in which von frankenbrenner isn't getting his $200 mill'n worth. . . . .
i missed the game but looked at a few top-halves on mlb.tv this morning to get a feel for jason jekyll's performance. one strong impression: he seemed to locate his fastball inside last night. threw it for strikes, and far enough inside that the yankers couldn't do much with it. yadi was calling that number on key counts: 2-2 pitch in the first v jeter, 3-1 v sheffield; 3-2 in the third v jeter again. marquis sidestepped his big-lead bugagoo and turned in his first really solid performance since losing to pedro and the mets on may 13. keep those new york teams coming . . . .
the yankees' 3d-inning d was so in-your-face shitty that it called attn away from the cards' quietly artful glovework in the top half of that inning. damn near converted a 2-6-3 on a bunt; then a fine play by nunez on jeter's hard one-hopper. they remain middle-packish in defensive efficiency rating -- baseball prospectus has them 9th in the league, mlb.com 7th -- and are second in the league in errors (40). but they're also now 2d in double plays, for which we can largely thank yadi's quashing of the oppo running game.
today's mound matchup: yankees have had their way w mulder. . . . unit scuffling so far in pinstripes: touched for four or more runs six times in 12 starts, two runs or less just three times.
