But the Baltimore Orioles, truly revived under their new manager, former Yankee manager, William Nathaniel Showalter III (Buck), have now taken the first 2 of this series, 4-3 on Monday and 6-2 last night.
CC Sabathia, who hadn't lost at Yankee Stadium II all season, was going for his 20th win... and got beat. Really not a good effort for him. I can't give him much flak, but, at this point, if we can't count on CC, who can we count on?
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Not Suzyn Waldman. She really did it last night. She was talking about how Showalter trusted his pitcher, Jake Arrieta, to go into the 7th. (Those of us who remember Buck sticking with David Cone too long in the 1995 ALDS were hoping he was doing the same thing here.) But Suzyn added, "He's trying to let him know that the calvary isn't coming over the hill."
Suzyn meant "cavalry," as in the scene in Western movies where an Army unit on horseback comes over the hill in the nick of time to save the hero. (Today, most horseborne units are ceremonial only, and "cavalry" often refers to tanks, with helicopters sometimes serving as "air cavalry.")
What Suzyn said was "calvary." Calvary is the Latin name -- "Golgotha" in Greek, translating as "place of the skull" -- of the place in Jerusalem where the Bible says Jesus was crucified.
It's an easy mistake to make, and Suzyn is Jewish, but she gives the impression of being smart enough to know the difference.
Then again, she wasn't smart enough to see through Roger Clemens. I wonder if his house is called "Place of the Thick Skull."
There was one other moment worth mentioning from last night's game: When the Yankees tried to rally in the bottom of the 7th, getting men on 1st and 2nd, there was a popup, and, instinctively, I yelled at the radio, "Drop it!"
Yelling, "Drop it!" works maybe once a year. Once out of 162 games -- even more games than that, if you follow some minor-league teams as I do the Trenton Thunder, the Newark Bears and the Lakewood BlueClaws -- isn't very often.
This time, it worked. The ball dropped.
Except... it didn't work that well, because the Orioles still got an out on a force-play on Jorge Posada at 2nd. (Jorge didn't really have a chance: He had to presume the ball would be caught, so he had to stay close to 1st. But the ball was too far out for the infield fly rule to be invoked.) So instead of bases loaded and nobody out, it was 1st and 3rd with 1 out.
Then, according to John Sterling, A-Rod "hit the ball as hard as you can hit it."
No, he didn't. If he had, it would have been a 3-run homer, and the Yankees would have been within 6-5. Instead, he hit it right at somebody, and that was the 2nd out. The 3rd soon followed, and, despite having a man on 3rd with less than 2 outs, the Yankees scored no runs in the inning.
This is the sort of thing that happens to the Mets. This is unacceptable.
Tonight, Ivan Nova -- really good in his 1st 2 starts, but not in his last one -- goes against Brad Bergesen. He's 6-10 with a 5.47 ERA, but... Uh-oh. Have the Yankees ever faced him before? (Looks him up on MLB.com.) Yes, on June 2, at The Stadium, and we rocked him, knocking him out of the box in the 3rd inning. Okay, it's not a "trap game."
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The NHL finally let the Devils sign Ilya Kovalchuk. Good.
Arsenal's Theo Walcott got hurt playing for England. Bad. I hate Interlulls.
I don't know about you, but in September, with baseball's Pennant races boiling, I still can't think about football. Unless it's... futbol.
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Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 2, Friday night, at Monroe. (Doesn't look like I'm going.)
Days until Rutgers plays football again: 3, Saturday afternoon, at Florida International University in Miami.
Days until the first regular-season Giants game at the new Meadowlands Stadium: 4, this Sunday, against the Carolina Panthers.
Days until the first regular-season Jets game at the new Meadowlands Stadium: 5, this Monday night, against the Baltimore Ravens, including former Rutgers standouts Ray Rice and L.J. Smith.
Days until the next North London Derby: 14, as Arsenal and Tottenham were drawn together in the Carling Cup, England's secondary cup tournament, formerly known as the League Cup, in a match to be held at White Hart Lane on Wednesday, September 22. The next Premier League clash between the teams is 74 days away, on Saturday, November 20, at New Highbury. (It was rescheduled again, due to Champions League requirements -- for the first time, involving both teams. Don't expect that again, as Tottenham aren't finishing in the top 4 this time.)
Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 16, Friday, September 24, at Yankee Stadium II. A little over 2 weeks.
Days until the Devils play hockey again: 30, on Friday, October 8, at home at the Prudential Center in Newark, against the Dallas Stars. 1 month.
Days until Rutgers and Army play the first college football game at the new Meadowlands Stadium: 38.
Days until the Devils play another local rival: 45, on Sunday, October 24, at Madison Square Garden against The Scum. Then the Rags come to the Prudential on Friday, November 5. The first game of the season against the Islanders is on Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, at the Nassau Coliseum, followed the next day by the first game of the season against the defending Eastern Conference Champion Philadelphia Flyers, at The Rock.
Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Thanksgiving clash: 77. 11 weeks.
Days until Derek Jeter collects his 3,000th career hit: 253 (estimated).
Days until the Rutgers-Army football game at Yankee Stadium: 429.
Days until the last Nets game in New Jersey: 584 (estimated).
Days until the 2012 Olympics begin in London: 687.
Days until Alex Rodriguez collects his 3,000th career hit: 770 (estimated).
Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 700th career home run: 1,040 (estimated).
Days until Super Bowl XLVIII at the Meadowlands: 1,239.
Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 756th career home run to surpass all-time leader Hank Aaron: 1,703 (estimated).
Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 763rd career home run to become as close to a "real" all-time leader as we are likely to have: 1,727 (estimated).
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