Or, as they say in English soccer, "Five-nil, and you fucked it up!"
On the radio, John Sterling said he'd never before seen 2 relief pitchers each throw just 1 pitch and get removed. In the words of St. Louis Cardinal fan Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan on M*A*S*H), the Ranger bullpen was operating with all the efficiency of a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest. The Yankee bullpen, however, picked up an off-form CC Sabathia with 5 scoreless innings of relief.
After the game, I saw Rangers legend and now owner Nolan Ryan on TV, laughing about something.
Laughing? After the game that, in the event the Yankees win this series, will go down in history as the Rangers' own Bill Buckner Game? Their Steve Bartman Game? Their Black Friday? (Phillies 1977.) Their Game 6? (Giants 2002.) Their Game 7? (Indians 1997.)
Looks like the new boss is a little too accepting of losing. Well, as Yogi Berra would have said if he'd thought of it first: When you accept losing, you accept losing.
The author of the blog River Avenue Blues says the Yankees got lucky. Yeah, they got lucky that they faced the Rangers bullpen! Darren Oliver? What's the matter, Nolan, couldn't activate yourself? No, the matter was Arthur Rhodes and Armando Benitez weren't available! Ah, but Kerry Wood was... and he was available to the Rangers at this season's trade deadline, and he's from the Dallas suburbs! How did these bozos miss that?
Face it, if Cliff Lee doesn't go 9 in Game 3 -- and even if he does, and it's only tied after 9 -- this could be a sweep. Cue the chant: "You can't beat us!"
Three wins to go for Pennant 41, seven wins to go for Title 28.
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Arsenal had their own comeback win this morning. They should have been 3-0 up on a very unimpressive Birmingham City side in the 1st half (including a header from Sebastien Squillaci that should have been allowed but wasn't), before the Brummies took advantage of injuries to Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny and a return to pathetic form of Lukasz Fabianski, and took a 1-0 lead. But a stupid foul gave Samir Nasri a penalty that he converted easily, and Marouane Chamakh got the winner, 2-1 to The Arsenal.
Tottenham got a result they didn't deserve, winning at Fulham 2-1 on a goal the linesman correctly called offside, but Mike Dean, The Worst Sports Official On The Planet (and Vladimir Putin's only slightly less evil twin), allowed it, the bald bastard.
Manchester United got a result they did deserve, with Edwin van der Sar showing why he's retiring at the end of the season, at age 40, with a major goalkeeping gaffe, and West Bromwich Albion, who earlier beat Arsenal at Ashburton Grove, forged a draw against The Devil's Own United at Old Trafford.
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All 3 local hockey teams lost last night. The (New York) Rangers and (barely New York) Islanders lost in overtime, to the Toronto Maple Leafs (an "Original Six" matchup) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (in powder-blue throwback uniforms) respectively. The New Jersey Devils didn't even get that far, losing 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche. The new Denver team beating the old one.
East Brunswick High School used their own running game to hold possession and a great defense to hold off the vaunted passing attack of Howell. The Bears beat the Rebels, 21-13. E.B. is now 4-1, and could make it back-to-back visits to the Playoffs for the first time since the 1987 & '88 seasons. (For all the good that did us.)
However, the last 3 games before the Playoff cutoff date are against Sayreville, Piscataway and South Brunswick. Respectively: A team we haven't done well against in the last 20 years (though we beat them at their place in the Playoffs last season), a team we haven't beaten at all in the last 20 years, and a team that beat Monroe last night, the one team to have beaten us this season (returning a favor we did last season, and while Monroe hasn't been strong this season, that doesn't say much for us as they beat us).
Then comes the consolation game (if we don't make the Playoffs), and then comes our annual Thanksgiving loss against Old Bridge. So after the Purple Bastards take care of us, we could go from 4-1 to 4-6. And that'll make last night's Texas Rangers collapse look competent by comparison.
Rutgers and Army are about to get underway in the first college football game at the New Meadowlands Stadium. Come on you Reds!
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