Yankees Disgraceful vs. Mets, Girardi Costs Us Another One

Last night's opener of the Subway Derby against the Mets at Citi Field was disgraceful. Disgraceful because we lost to The Other Team. Disgraceful because we didn't hit. Disgraceful because Joe Girardi screwed up the bullpen again.

Funny, but... Remember how Met fans were complaining about how hard it was to hit at Citi Field, but the Yankees had no problem hitting there? Now, the fences have been moved in, and the Mets are going to win the National League East; while the Yankees didn't hit there.

Of course, the Yankees aren't hitting anywhere these days. Gee, maybe Kevin Long wasn't the problem.

The game started so well. Brett Gardner opened by drawing a walk on Stephen Matz, was singled to 3rd by Carlos Beltran, and came home on a sacrifice fly by Chris Young. 1-0 to the Good Guys. Greg Bird singled Beltran over to 2nd. It looked like the Yankees would break the game wide open before the blue & orange schmucks even got a chance to bat.

From that moment onward, the Yankees got 7 baserunners, and no runs. Masahiro Tanaka gave up a home run to Lucas Duda in the 2nd inning, and another to Daniel Murphy in the 6th. That made it 2-1 Mets, and pretty much ended it.

That would have been enough to end it, had Girardi not bollixed it all up further. To start the 7th, he pinch-hit for Tanaka. Interleague play, NL park, so we have this idiotic lack of a designated hitter. (Yet another reason Met fans are idiots: They hate the DH and love the National League.)

Pinch-hitting for Tanaka in this instance was a mistake, but understandable, because the Yankees needed runs and his spot in the batting order came up as the leadoff spot in the inning. Fine, I get that. I still wouldn't have pinch-hit for him.

Who did Girardi send up? Jacoby Ellsbury, who's in a monstrous slump. If Ellsbury was worth sending up as a pinch-hitter, why wasn't he worth starting? (Although it was his replacement in left field, Young, who drove in our only run.) And if he wasn't worth starting, why was he worth sending up as a pinch-hitter?

Ellsbury hit a lazy fly ball to left field. Tanaka -- or I, or you -- could have been sent up to bat, and, effectively, given the same result: A leadoff out when we desperately needed a run.

Girardi brought the pathetic Chasen Shreve in to pitch the bottom of the 7th, and pathetic Shreve was pathetic, allowing a single to Wilmer Flores and then a home run to Juan Uribe.

In the 8th, Girardi brought in the hopeless Branden Pinder, and hopeless Pinder was hopeless, giving up a triple by Murphy and a walk to David Wright. Then Girardi took out the hopeless Pinder, and brought in the awful James Pazos, and awful Pazos was awful, as his 1st pitch was a wild pitch, allowing Murphy to score and make it 5-1 Mets.

That was the final score. WP: Matz (4-0). No save. LP: Tanaka (12-7).

*

To make matters worse, the Toronto Blue Jays won last night. Now the Yankees are 4 1/2 games back in the American League East, with 16 games to go. (Including 3 in Toronto, but how confident can we be about those games now?)

Essentially, the AL East race ended last night, and we lost. Our best hope now is the Wild Card, a race for which we currently have a 4-game cushion and home-field advantage.

Unfortunately, we still have the disadvantage of having Joe Girardi as manager. The thought of Joe Girardi having to manage a Wild Card play-in game, a win-or-go-home game -- possibly against the Houston Astros, who swept us not that long ago, or possibly against the Texas Rangers, a team he's blown it against in the Playoffs before (2010 AL Championship Series) -- sickens me.

Not "scares." Sickens.

I just hope my Pepto-Bismol lasts through October 3.

That Daily News headline was 20 years too soon: It's Girardi, not Torre, who is "CLUELESS JOE."

Then again, after their Wednesday Night Massacre (or, as Lisa Swan of Subway Squawkers called it, Fire-mageddon) this week, who can expect wit and good writing from the Snooze?

*

A side note about Carlos Beltran: Met fans booed the hell out of him. Apparently, they're still sore about his having taken a called 3rd strike for the last out in their Pennant-losing game in 2006. These same idiots chose him as the center fielder on their 50th Anniversary Team in 2012.

Or maybe they were just booing the Yankee uniform. So why didn't they boo anybody else as vociferously?

Probably because Alex Rodriguez was rested. Except he was put in as a pinch-hitter, and didn't get booed as much as Beltran.

Like I said: Met fans are idiots.

But they sure are crowing about this game, and this season. They've come out of the closet, haven't they? Because you couldn't find a Met fan a year ago.

Yes, Met fans have come out of the closet. But this isn't something you're born with. Rooting for a baseball team is a choice, and being a Met fan is a deviant, repulsive lifestyle.

And yet, in all this, it's worth nothing that, for the year, the Mets are still only .500 against the Yankees (2-2).

Of course, we're only .500 against them. And that is unacceptable.

The series continues this afternoon, with Michael Pineda starting against Noah Syndergaard. The Yankees better win, and not just because I hate the fucking Mets and their inbred fans who, as they say in English soccer, only sing when they're winning.

And speaking of English soccer, don't even get me started on Arsenal's 2-0 loss to Chelsea this morning. Between Arsenal's own bad play, Chelsea's continued cheating, and getting screwed yet again by referee Mike Dean, whom I once described as the worst sports official on the planet (that was 6 years ago, and he's gotten no better)...

I don't want to talk about it.

Another Yankee Outburst Crushes The Scum

Remember how I wondered, during the Yankees' 13-run outburst against the Chicago White Sox on Friday and their 12-run onslaught on Sunday, if they were saving any runs for their arch-enemies this week?

Apparently, they were. I just hope they didn't spend themselves last night, because there's 2 more games against The Scum.

Last night, Masahiro Tanaka started for the Yankees. Doing so for the Red Sox was 23-year-old Henry Owens, making his major league debut. Uh-oh, the proverbial pitcher the Yankees have never seen before.

The Red Sox began the night 13 games behind the 1st place Yankees. So far, I like what I'm seeing.

But, looking at the Red Sox lineup, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Most of the usual suspects are gone. David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheating bastard, is still there as the designated hitter. Mike Napoli is still there at 1st base -- mainly because you can't have 2 DHs, and 1st base is the least taxing field position.

But Dustin Pedroia is injured, and unavailable for this series. They had former San Francisco Giants World Series hero Pablo Sandoval, putting "Kung Fu Panda," who may be even more rotund than Big Papi, at 3rd base -- because the DH and 1st base slots were already occupied. Former Florida Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers star Hanley Ramirez was in left field, having returned to the Sox, his 1st organization.

Brock Holt? Blake Swihart?J ackie Bradley Jr.? Xander Bogaerts? These sound like names of soap opera characters -- the kind dashing, if dimwitting, young man that the leading lady, tired of her husband's neglect and philandering, uses for her own affair, and then sees them killed by the show's villain of the month. Alejandro De Aza? Maybe a similar character in a telenovela.

Anyway, the Sox' makeshift lineup worked just enough... for a while. For 5 1/2 innings, it was a tight pitching duel. The Yankees struck immediately, with a single by Chris Young, a walk by Alex Rodriguez, and a single by Mark Teixeira. But Owens settled down after that, and the Sox got him 2 runs in the top of the 5th: A double by Napoli, singles by De Aza and Swihart, and a sacrifice fly by Bradley.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, the Yankees began the bottom of the 6th with a 38 percent chance of winning the game. That seems a little low, considering A, how they've been hitting lately; B, the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium; and C, the quality, or rather lack thereof, of the Red Sox bullpen.

Young led off the inning with a single. A-Rod doubled him over to 3rd. Then Sox manager John Farrell -- a native of New Jersey, a graduate of Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch, and himself a former pitcher and pitching coach, so he darn well should have known better -- pulled a blunder that might have come right out of Joe Girardi's Binder Full of Strategies. After just 5 innings and change, having thrown 96 pitches, he pulled Owens for a reliever, Robbie Ross.

Big mistake. Teix singled home young to tie the game. Brian McCann doubled home A-Rod to give the Yanks the lead. Carlos Beltran grounded to 3rd, and Sandoval couldn't hold the runner. 4-2 Yankees.

Sandoval put the Sox right back in the ballgame by leading off the top of the 7th with a home run. Girardi relieved Tanaka with Justin Wilson, but he allowed a hit and a stolen base, so Girardi replaced him with Dellin Betances, who immediately made things worse with a wild pitch, a walk, and a stolen base. But he struck out Holt to keep it a 1-run ballgame.

It didn't stay that way. As with a non-baseball hero of the old Yankee Stadium, 1937-48 Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis, knocking the 2015 Yankees down turned out to be the worst thing the opposition could have done. It didn't knock 'em out, it only made 'em mad.

The Sox ended up using 3 different pitchers in the bottom of the 7th, just like the Yankees in the top of the 7th. Unlike the Yankees, they did not hold their opponents to just 1 run.

The Sox began the inning with Jean Machi on the mound. Jacoby Ellsbury grounded to short, and Bogaerts made a bad throw. Young drew a walk. A-Rod singled home Ellsbury. 5-3.

Farrell brought in Craig Breslow to pitch. (Another soap-opera name.) He struck Teixeira out. Then McCann crushed a home run down the right field line, his 18th dinger on the year. 8-3, and the game was effectively over. According to Baseball-Reference, at this point, the chances of the Yankees winning the game had soared from 38 percent to 99 percent.

But the winning wasn't done -- far from it. Beltran doubled. Chase Headley doubled him home. 9-3. Breslow got Didi Gregorius to fly out, but he walked Brendan Ryan, and now the Yankees had batted around. Ellsbury singled home Headley. 10-3.

Farrell brought in Alexi Ogando. (That sounds more like the name of a girl from a teen drama like One Tree Hill or Pretty Little Liars.) Chris Young welcomed him to the game with a drive down the left-field line. Home run, his 13th of the season.

Then Ogando walked A-Rod, before finally stopping the bleeding by striking Teix out. There were 3 outs in this massive inning, and 2 were Teix Ks. (Don't be mad at him, though: He, along with A-Rod and the protection he provides in the lineup, has been the biggest reason the Yankees are in 1st place.)

13-3. In the inning, the Yankees had scored nine times in the inning. How many times, Ed Rooney? "Nine times!" That's 9 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and an error.

The TV cameras caught starter Owens in the dugout, in tears. His major league debut, for one of the iconic teams in baseball, against another, in the greatest rivalry, in the most famous stadium, and he'd done very well for 5 innings... and it had all fallen apart, through hardly any fault of his own. And now, so had he.

As anyone who's observed the Red Sox since at least the 1970s can tell you, Jimmy Dugan of A League of Their Own was wrong: There is crying in baseball.

Branden Pinder pitched a scoreless 8th, and Nick Rumbelow a scoreless 9th -- the 2nd game in a row that he's pitched a perfect 9th. And the Yankees sent Rumbelow back down to Scranton this morning, to make roster space for tonight's starter, the much-hyped Luis Severino. "Nice job, kid, now go back to Scranton, and try not to spill any bananas."

Yankees 13, Red Sox 3. We crushed The Scum. WP: Tanaka (8-4). No save. LP: Owens (0-1).

*

I saw the Yankees beat the Red Sox 13-3 once. Live. It was July 30, 1999, and it was at Fenway. My favorite live game ever. (My favorite game of any kind remains the one the Yankees played at Shea Stadium on October 26, 2000.)

Lisa Swan, the tasteful half of the Subway Squawkers, got to see last night's game on a friend's dime. She enjoyed it, as you might guess. She paraphrased Robert Duvall's line about napalm in Apocalypse Now: "I love the smell of defeated Red Sox in the morning. It smells like... victory!"

This may be the 1st time the words "smell," "Sox" (especially the Red variety) and "love" have ever been used in the same sentence. Certainly, I wouldn't have expected any Yankee Fan to use that combination! Unless he -- or, as in this case, she -- is a big fan of Apocalypse Now.

As for what Red Sox fans think, "The horror... The horror... " Or, as the guys behind Sox blog Monstah Mash put it:

I’m sure even the kind folks at Subway Squawkers can agree that this was not a game, or evena massacre–this was a 10 kilaton atomb bomb dropped on the collective hopes and dreams of an entire fanbase. The Yankees could have stopped at six or seven runs to thoroughly humiliate us, but no in typical arrogant Yankee fashion they wiped the baselines with us and it has left me standing still with my mouth gaping open in agony and confusion.

Well, boo-hoo, poor you.

The series continues tonight, with Severino making his major league debut, and Steven Wright -- not the existentialist comedian, though he is from Massachusetts and is a big Red Sox fan -- starting for the Red Sox.

Come on you Pinstripes!

Yankees REALLY Mess With Texas, Then Come Down to Earth

The Yankees really messed with Texas on Tuesday night. Although, at first, it seemed like it would be the other way around.

It was like Super Bowl XXII, in 1988, when the Denver Broncos scored on their 1st play from scrimmage, tacked on a field goal, and Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams got hurt, with the Broncos leading 10-0... And then, as the Sports Illustrated article on the game was titled, "And the Rout Was On!"

Chris Capuano, as you may be aware, is a bum. He once won 18 games in a season for the Milwaukee Brewers, but that was 10 years ago. He missed the entire 2008 and '09 seasons due to injury, and since that 2005 season when he won 18, he hasn't had a plus-.500 season again.

He was 2-3 with a 4.25 ERA for the Yankees last year. This year, he's 0-4 with a 6.97 ERA. On Tuesday night, he allowed 5 runs and was replaced before he could get out of the 1st inning. Yesterday, he was designated for assignment. He will never disgrace the Pinstripes again.

5-0 Rangers. And the rout was on... the other way!

Top of the 2nd. Yankees batting against Rangers pitcher Martin Perez. Chris Young led off with a double. Chase Headley singled him home. John Ryan Murphy singled. Didi Gregorius was hit with a pitch, loading the bases with nobody out. Brendan Ryan doubled. Jacoby Ellsbury singled. Brett Gardner singled. Alex Rodriguez doubled. Tie ballgame.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister pulled Perez, and brought in Wandy Rodriguez. That worked for a moment, as he struck out Mark Teixeira. But now, the Yankees had batted around. Young drew a walk. Headley singled. Murphy struck out. But Gregorius hit a triple, and Ryan a double, making it 11-5 Yankees before Rodriguez struck out Ellsbury to finally stop the bleeding.

11 runs on 10 hits. There was a walk and a hit batsman. No errors. No home runs, either. Usually, in an inning anywhere near that big, there's at least 1 error and at least 1 homer.

There was a homer in the 3rd, a grand slam hit by Young, his 12th of the season. There was an error in the 4th, leading to the 16th Yankee run.

By this point, I wasn't the only Yankee Fan thinking, "Hey, guys, we're playing the Red Sox next week. Save some of those runs."

The 6th was another big inning. Gardner led off with a walk. A-Rod struck out. Teix was hit with a pitch. Young struck again, doubling home Gardner. Garrett Jones brought in to pinch-run for Tex. Headley sruck out, but Murphy singled. 19-5.

It wasn't over. In the 9th, Ellsbury opened by reaching 1st on that rare play, catcher's interference. And Gardner hit a home run, his 11th.

Diego Moreno relieved Capuano. It was only the 3rd major league game for the 28-year-old Venezuelan, all for the Yankees this season. Technically, it wasn't a start, but if it had been, the Yankees might have won 21-0. He pitched through the 6th, and allowed just 1 baserunner, a walk. He was brilliant. With CC Sabathia looking done, and Michael Pineda going back on the Disabled List (scratching him from tonight's start), we need another starter. Maybe he's the one.

Adam Warren pitched 3 perfect innings to close it out. Therefore, according to the rule, he gets credit for the save even though he came in with a 14-run lead. I guess the rulemaker figured, 3 innings is enough to wipe out even a 14-run lead. Certainly, nobody figured the Yankees would score 11 in the 2nd.

Yankees 21, Rangers 5. WP: Moreno (1-0). SV: Warren (1). LP: Perez (0-2).

*

Last night's game wasn't nearly as much fun. Masahiro Tanaka did not have good stuff. He pitched 6 innings, allowing 4 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks.

Carlos Beltran led off the 2nd with a home run, and singles by Gregorius, Stephen Drew and Ellsbury led to another Yankee run that inning. But that 2-0 lead did not hold, as Tanaka gave back 3.

The Yankees did not score again. The Rangers did. Rangers 5, Yankees 2. WP: Colby Lewis (11-4). SV: Shawn Tolleson (18 -- son of former Ranger and Yankee infielder Wayne Tolleson).LP: Tanaka (7-4).

The series concludes tonight. CC goes against Yovani Gallardo. Then the Yankees had for a real baseball city, Chicago, to take on the White Sox, before coming home and facing The Scum.

*

The trading deadline is in about 20 hours. The Rangers got Cole Hamels from the Phillies. The Toronto Blue Jays got David Price from the Detroit Tigers, thinking he's the last piece to get them into the Playoffs. (He's not.) The Pittsburgh Pirates got Tiger closer Joakim Soria.

The Washington Nationals got our old pal Jonathan Papelbon from the Phillies for a Double-A pitcher. That's how far Papelbum, and the Phillies, have fallen.

The Royals got Ben Zobrist from the Oakland Athletics and Johnny Cueto from the Cincinnati Reds, and didn't give much up either time. They are serious about defending the Pennant they won last year.

Well, this time, they'll have to go through the Yankees.

Yanks Start 2nd Half By Sinking Mariners

The 2nd half of the Major League Baseball season is underway. The schedule is set up so that 41 of the Yankees' last 74 games are at home. This included last night, when the Yankees opened a 3-game home series against the Seattle Mariners.

Remember when the Mariners were supposed to be a Playoff contender, led by ex-Yankee Robinson Cano and "King" Felix Hernandez? Right, Cano's batting .249. with a .287 on-base percentage. Meanwhile, Hernandez -- who is 29 and has still never seen a postseason game except on television, so he's no king -- is having another great season, but he can only pitch 1 game out of every 5.

And remember Jesus Montero, whom the Yankees gave up for the oft-injured Michael Pineda? Lots of people (I'm not naming names) thought that was a horrible trade. Now, Pineda is 1 of the 5 best pitchers in the American League, while Montero has made 27 major league plate appearances in 2014 and '15 combined. His weight and his attitude have been issues.

If Pineda is 1 of the 5 best pitchers in the AL, so might be Masahiro Tanaka, who started for the Yankees last night. He pitched 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. The 3 runs came on a pair of home runs by Kyle Seager. Tanaka was not brilliant, but he was effective.

The game was tied 3-3 when Hiro threw his last pitch. They scored single runs in the 2nd, on a home run by Chris Young (his 11th of the season); in the 4th, on a double by Young and a single by Chase Headley; and in the 5th, on a single by Alex Rodriguez, a walk by Mark Teixeira, and a single by Brian McCann.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 7th, A-Rod came up, and crushed a home run to to the opposite field. It was his 19th of the season, and the 678th of his career. (That's 36 behind Babe Ruth, 77 behind Hank Aaron, and 84 behind Barry Bonds. I don't know if taking a year and change off helped him, but passing the Babe and threatening Hank and Barry is still within the realm of possibility.)

Dellin Betances pitched a perfect 8th, and Andrew Miller a scoreless 9th. Yankees 4, Mariners 3. WP: Tanaka (6-3). SV: Miller (19). LP: Joe Beimel (0-1).

The series continues today, with with Pineda starting against Hisashi Iwakuma and his 5.22 ERA. Sunday's starters haven't been announced, so the Yankees may end up avoiding "King" Felix.

*

Many people have complained about various aspects to Yankee Stadium II. But the lights work better than at Nationals Park in Washington (3 power outages resulted in last night's game being suspended), and the lack of the dome still leaves it better off than Chase Field in Phoenix (the retractable roof leaked last night, which sounds odd those of us not used to hearing about rain in Arizona).

And All-Star Game MVP Mike Trout kept up his hot hitting by launching a walkoff homer for the Whatever They're Calling Themselves This Season Angels of Anaheim.

Come, Michael. Come to the Light Side of the Force.

Yankees Split 4 In Houston

The Yankees began a Western roadtrip with 4 games in Houston against the resurgent Astros. The Astros haven't made the Playoffs since their 2005 Pennant. Their last winning season was in 2008 -- 7 years ago. Their last 4 seasons, they've lost 106, 107, 111 and 92 games.

It's rare for a team to lose 106 or more games, especially if it's not an expansion team. The Astros did it 3 years in a row. They're not an expansion team. Nor did they suffer a catastrophe that cost them the services of several key players. (Thankfully, that has never happened in North American major league sports. There's never been an analogue to the Munich Air Disaster of 1958, which killed 8 Manchester United soccer players, and injured 2 others to the point where they could never play again.) Nor do they have problems maintaining an old, dysfunctional stadium: Minute Maid Park is in its 16th season, and no one is suggesting it be replaced or even upgraded.

Nor is the club having Mets-type financial issues: They've kept payroll low, but that was a choice. After the aging of the generation that got them to 6 Playoff berths in 9 seasons from 1997 to 2005, including Hall-of-Famer Craig Biggio and should-be-Hall-of-Famer Jeff Bagwell, Astro management figured it would be better to rebuild than to reload.

It took a few years, but they're doing it. They gained 19 games from 2013 to 2014. The switch from the National League Central to the American League West didn't help in '13, but maybe it did for '14. At the conclusion of this series with the Yankees, they are 44-34, 4 games ahead of the Whatever They're Calling Themselves This Season Angels of Anaheim, and in all of Major League Baseball, only the Missouri teams, the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals, have a better record.

*

On Thursday night, they didn't pound Yankee starter Adam Warren. More like sliced him, and then reliever Chris Capuano, who actually pitched one of his better games since coming to the Yankees. They scored single runs in the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th innings, none with the use of a home run (although 3 of the 4 came as a result of doubles -- either the run scorer had doubled, or a double drove him in).

Dallas Keuchel -- a pitcher for Houston named Dallas? Is somebody trying to "mess with Texas"? -- pitched a complete game, throwing 116 pitches, which probably bothered Joe Girardi more than the defeat, seeing as how he sees the pitch count as more important than the score. He allowed just 6 hits and 1 walk, and it wasn't until the 9th inning that the Yankees even got a runner to 2nd base.

The Yankees did load the bases in the 9th, and did get the tying run to the plate. With 2 outs, Alex Rodriguez singled, Mark Teixeira walked, and Carlos Beltran singled, but A-Rod couldn't get home. That left it up to rookie Jose Pirela. If he'd hit one out, and Minute Maid Park is a hitter's park, it would have tied the game. Alas, he grounded into a force play. He will have his moments for the Yankees, but this past Thursday night was not destined to be one of them.

Sometimes, you lose a game because you've blown it. Sometimes, you just get shut down by a pitcher who's on, and there's little you can do about it.

Astros 4, Yankees 0. WP: Keuchel (9-3). No save. LP: Warren (5-5).

*

On Friday night, the Yankees fell behind 2-0 after 6 innings. Vincent Velasquez had the Yankees handcuffed, every bit as much as Keuchel had the night before.

Except, this time, the Yankees found a Harry Houdini escape from those handcuffs. With 1 out in the top of the 7th, Beltran, the Astros' postseason hero of 2004, singled. Garrett Jones followed with another single. Will Harris came in to relieve, and Chris Young said, "Abracadabra!"

Had he merely sawed the Astros' lead in half, with a single to make it 2-1, I would have been fine with it. But no, he made the lead disappear, with a home run over the short left-field wall with the CITGO sign, the Astros' poor attempt at copying Fenway Park's Green Monster.

Yes, I know, in New York baseball, the word "magic" is more often associated with the Mets. As is "miracle." With the Yankees, we more often use words like "pride," "tradition," "destiny."

At any rate, Nathan Eovaldi had pitched well enough to win, but until the 7th, he hadn't gotten the run support he needed. Beltran, Jones and Young (sounds like a law firm) got him off the hook, and Girardi brought in Chasen Shreve, who struck out the side.

Naturally, Girardi refused to leave in a cruising pitcher (I will never understand his bullpen maneuvers), and brought in Justin Wilson. He only got the 1st 2 outs in the 8th, and Dellin Betances had to nail down a 4-out save.

Yankees 3, Astros 2. WP: Eovaldi (7-2). SV: Betances (5). LP: Harris (4-1).

*

The Yankees played the Saturday game as if they'd had enough of not scoring in the Astros' rinky-dink modern retractable-roof stadium. (The Astrodome, mostly vacant since the Astros left after the 1999 season, and with no firm plan for what to do with it, was a pitcher's park, which was rare for the old-style domes.)

Brian McCann hit a grand slam in the top of the 1st inning to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead before the Astros even came to bat. They got 2 of those runs back in the bottom of the 1st, but the Yankees took them right back in the top of the 2nd, thanks to another Young homer. (McCann's 12th homer of the season, Young's 10th. Remember, we haven't yet left June, much less reached the All-Star Break.)

But Masahiro Tanaka fell apart, and in the 5th, allowed the Astros to tie it at 6-6. Girardi brought in Bryan Mitchell to pitch the 6th inning, and he got through it and into the 7th. Shreve finished that inning off.

Brett Gardner led off the top of the 8th with a walk, Young reached on an error, A-Rod flew out, and Teix doubled home Gardner and Young. Chase Headley added an insurance run in the 9th, with his 8th homer of the year.

Yankees 9, Astros 6. WP: Shreve (5-1). SV: Betances (6). LP: Pat Neshek (3-1).

*

Things started out well for the Yankees in the Sunday game, too. With 1 out in the top of the 3rd, Stephen Drew, well, drew a walk. A wild pitch advanced him to 2nd, and Gardner singled him home.

But that was the last good news of the day, as Gardner giveth, and Gardner taketh away. In the bottom of the 4th, Carlos Correa hit a drive to center field that Gardner misplayed, allowing him to get all the way around the bases and score the tying run. In the 7th, Correa struck again, leading off with a double, and coming home on Evan Gattis' triple. The Astros added an insurance run in the 8th.

Michael Pineda pitched decently, but, again, the Yankees didn't generate enough runs, as Collin McHugh shut them down. Astros 3, Yankees 1. WP: McHugh (9-3). SV; Luke Gregerson (18) LP: Pineda (8-5).

The Yankees move further west, to begin a series against the Angels in Anaheim.

O, Say, the Yankees Do Yet Wave

After dropping both halves of a rain-forced doubleheader to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday -- a shocking extra-inning collapse in the opener, and then a miserable, feeble-hitting nightcap -- they Yankees needed a win yesterday afternoon. Not just to keep alive their hopes for the Playoffs, as thin as those were, but just to put the previous day's disaster behind them.

Shane Greene started for the Yankees. At this point, any pitcher who starts for the Yankees has to go in thinking, "We're not hitting, we're not scoring enough runs, and Joe Girardi is going to take me out too soon and use umpteen pitchers in relief, so does it really matter how well I pitch?"

Greene pitched as though it does matter: 5 1/3rd innings, 2 runs, 7 hits, only 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts.

How many pitchers does it take to hold the Orioles to 2 runs at Camden Yards? If you're Girardi, the answer is, apparently, 5: Greene, Esmil Rogers, Josh Outman, Shawn Kelley and David Robertson. In 3 2/3rds innings, the bullpen shut the O's out, allowing just 2 hits and 1 walk.

But the Yankees needed 3 runs to overcome the Orioles' 2. They all came in the top of the 2nd, which must have been a big (pardon the choice of words) relief to Greene. With 1 out, Brian McCann smacked a home run to right field, his 19th round-tripper of the season. Mark Teixeira, a native of nearby Severna Park, Maryland who still gets booed by Oriole fans for choosing the Yankees when he was a free agent (nearly 6 full seasons later), drew a walk. Chris Young struck again, doubling Teix over to 3rd. Rookie September callup Antoan Richardson singled Teix home. Zelous Wheeler struck out.

Jacoby Ellsbury was up. Girardi, in one of those moves that makes you wonder how a guy so smart on offense can be so dense with handling pitchers, called for a double steal. It worked: Richardson broke for 2nd base, and it drew a throw from Oriole catcher Caleb Joseph, enabling Young to steal home.

Yankees 3, Orioles 2. WP: Greene (5-3). SV: Robertson (36). LP: Gonzalez (9-8).

The series concludes tonight, as the ESPN Sunday night game. Hiroki Kuroda starts for the Yankees, Chris Tillman.

*

Today is the 200th Anniversary of the most important moment in Baltimore's history: On September 14, 1814, in the key moment of the War of 1812, the British fleet retreated, recognizing their inability to pierce the defenses of Fort McHenry, and sailed off.

With the capital of Washington, D.C. already abandoned by the government and burned by the British, had Baltimore also fallen, it would have meant defeat for America, and likely a curtailed, possibly even a totally revoked, independence. (It was certainly possible for a nation to lose its sovereignty: Poland had lost its own about 20 years before.)

Seeing the garrison flag over the fort from a prison ship, where, as a local lawyer, he was negotiating a prisoner exchange, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem. He titled it "Defence of Fort M'Henry." The British spelling "defence," still used to describe hockey "defencemen" in Canada today, was still in place in America then. This was before the publication of Webster's Dictionary, and before "defense" with an S, not a C, became the more common American spelling of the word.

("M'Henry"? As late as 1968, when Denny McLain won his 30th game of the season for the Detroit Tigers, The New York Times put "M'LAIN" in a headline.)

The publisher he sent it to decided it would make a great song, and, to the tune of (ironically) an old English drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven," retitled it after a line Key used at the end of each of the 4 verses (only 1 of which is remembered by most Americans): "The Star-Spangled Banner."

(Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet of the 6th Century BC, known for his songs about drinking, wenching, and other carousing. It was natural for an educated man who fancied himself a composer of drinking songs to pay tribute to him. He lived long enough to see the victory in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.)

Baseball, as much as anything else, is responsible for making "The Banner" America's National Anthem. As late as World War I, it was simply one of many well-known patriotic songs that were occasionally sung. During the 7th inning stretch of one of the games of the 1918 World Series, a band, seeing everyone standing, began to play it. In the patriotic fervor of the time, everyone sang along.

The war soon ended, but the song began to be played before special-occasion games. The U.S. Marine Band, directed by John Philip Sousa, played it at the opening of the original Yankee Stadium on April 18, 1923. In 1931, Congress passed a resolution declaring the more-familiar-than-ever song to be the National Anthem.

But it wasn't until World War II that it began to be played before every major sporting event. There have been exceptions: Occasionally, the Yankees have played "America the Beautiful" instead, and the Philadelphia Flyers have used Kate Smith's recording of "God Bless America" as a good-luck charm, while the Yankees save that recording for the 7th inning stretch, before "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

On occasion, at least since their run to the 1979 American League Pennant, the Orioles have raised a copy of the Fort McHenry garrison flag, complete with 15 stars and 15 stripes, at their ballpark, first Memorial Stadium and, since 1992, Camden Yards. I suspect they will do so again today. (The original flag now resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, while the "Flag House" where it was sewn is a museum in Baltimore.)

The Orioles have already clinched at least a Playoff berth, and will probably win the AL Eastern Division for the 1st time since 1997, putting them in a great position to win their 1st Pennant and World Series since 1983.

But with 15 games to go, and 5 behind the 2nd AL Wild Card berth, the Yankees are still alive in the hope of reaching the Playoffs, where anything can happen. Their probability of making it is only 1.2 percent.

But you never know. Strange things happen in baseball, especially late in the season. O, say, the Yankees do yet wave, in this land of the free, in this home of the brave.

Yogi Called. He Said, "It's Over."

After last night's rain-forced doubleheader with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, I wouldn't have been surprised if Yogi Berra had called and said, "It's over."

The 1st game was bad enough. Brandon McCarthy pitched the 1st 7 innings, allowing no runs, 4 hits, and no walks. Dellin Betances was a little shaky in the 8th, David Robertson in the 9th and 10th. But after 10 innings, the O's hadn't scored.

Neither had the Yankees. It was pathetic: The New York Yankees should be able to score at least 1 run in 10 innings, especially at the Baltimore Bandbox.

Then, in the top of the 11th, Chris Young, the previous night's walkoff home run hero, struck again, with his 10th home run of the season (3rd as a Yankee). One-nil to the Bronx Bombers.

Then Joe Girardi thought, "You know what would be fun? Giving Uncle Mike a stroke by putting Adam Warren in to close this out."

And this is what Warren allowed: Walk, sacrifice bunt, hit-by-pitch, strikeout, walk, 2-RBI double.

Orioles 2, Yankees 1. WP: Brad Brach (7-1). No save. LP: Warren (3-6).

*

Whether the 1st game was our most depressing loss of the season or not, the 2nd game was probably the nail in the coffin for our postseason hopes.

The Yankees sent Bryan Mitchell, with all of 2 major league innings under his belt, out to start this game. He didn't pitch badly: 5 innings, 2 runs, 6 hits, 2 walks.

At this point, the Yankees only trailed 2-0. The game was still very much in reach, even for a Yankee team that can't hit water if it falls out of a fucking boat. (Yes, that was a Bull Durham reference.)

Then Girardi thought, "You know what would be fun? Not letting the kid who's cruising try to prove himself with a 6th inning. Let's wear out the bullpen again."

Josh Outman pitched a perfect 6th. Did Girardi leave him in, to prove his name apt? Is the Pope Buddhist? Girardi sent David Phelps out to pitch the 7th. Boy, has Phelps dropped off the map. He allowed 2 more runs, and the game, and the season, was essentially over.

Orioles 5, Yankees 0. WP: Bud Norris (13-8). No save. LP: Mitchell (0-1).

The Yankees only got 4 hits. In 19 innings yesterday, they scored exactly 1 run.

*

The Yankees are now 5 games out of the 2nd Wild Card berth, with 16 games to play. It's over. Done. Fugeddaboutit.

The series continues this afternoon. Shane Greene starts against Miguel Gonzalez.

For all the good it will do to play this game, and the 15 after it.

Yanks Come Roaring Back On 9/11 Eve

It's difficult to have, and more difficult to generate, good feelings on September 11, especially as close as I am to New York City.

On September 11, 2001, I stood on an overpass over the New Jersey Turnpike, and saw the plume of black smoke rising from where the World Trade Center stood, and saw it trail off into the distance, seemingly forever.

Between the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a currently official total of 2,977 victims died -- which now includes people who died from lung illnesses from breathing the toxic air at the rescue site.

The New York Tri-State Area's sports teams rallied around their community. Yankee center fielder Bernie Williams saw one woman at a relief station and said he didn't know exactly what was wrong, but she looked like she needed a hug.

A one-week delay was exactly what was needed. After that, we needed something to take our minds off the constant bombardment of images of destruction and death. We needed to be uplifted, and we were. While new games were not a priority, the people in these organizations proved that it is never "only a game."

*

That said, the Yankees did have a remarkable win last night, which provides some good feelings.

It didn't look likely. Chris Capuano was tagged for 4 runs by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Joe Girardi lifted him before he could even get a 2nd out. Chase Whitley pitched through the 3rd inning, Preston Claiborne the 4th and the 5th, Adam Warren got through the 6th and the 1st 2 outs of the 7th, Dellin Betances finished the 7th and the 8th, and Esmil Rogers pitched the 9th.

Between them, they allowed 1 run on 7 hits and 3 walks in 8 2/3rds innings. And if we had gotten that from the Yankees' starter, we would have been thrilled.

Of course, if the situation were fully reversed, then our closer would have allowed 4 runs in 1/3rd of an inning.

Down 4-0 before we even came to bat, the situation looked grim. But Brian McCann hit a home run in the bottom of the 1st, his 18th of the season. He then singled home 2 runs in the 3rd, to make it 4-3 Tampa Bay. (This got his batting average up to .242.) Chris Young, whom we picked up last month as a free agent after the Mets dumped him, homered in the 4th, his 1st home run as a Yankee, his 9th overall this season. Tie ballgame.

The Yankees picked up 2 runs in the 5th, and 2 more in the 8th; RBI hits by Mark Teixeira, Chase Headley, Ichiro Suzuki, and... oh to be... Young again. 8-4.

Rogers allowed a home run to Evan Longoria in the 9th, but that was as close as the Rays got. Yankees 8, Rays 5.

WP: Claiborne (3-0), as he was the pitcher when the Yankees took the lead. No save, as Rogers had a 4-run lead when he entered the game as (as it turned out) the final Yankee pitcher. LP: Jake Odorizzi (10-12).

With 19 games left to play, the Yankees are 4 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers for the 2nd American League Wild Card berth.

The series concludes tonight, with Michael Pineda starting against Alex Cobb. The Mets will also be at home tonight, playing the Washington Nationals at Citi Field.

There's usually a few days a season when both teams are at home -- not counting Interleague games against each other, of course -- but this is the 1st time since the attack that both teams have been scheduled to play at home on a September 11. Either one or the other has played in The City on every September 11 since 2001, except in 2008. But this is only the 2nd time since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009 that the Yankees have been scheduled at home on the day.

Both teams will have special pregame ceremonies tonight.

*

Hours until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 27, tomorrow night, away to Piscataway, a team we haven't beaten in 24 years. No, that's not a typo: Twenty-four years, nearly a quarter of a century. I had previously thought they were playing a week ago, a Thursday night, but that was a scrimmage, a preseason game.

Days until Arsenal play again: 2, this Saturday, 7:45 in the morning our time, home to Manchester City. The Gunners beat the Citizens 3-0 in the preseason Community Shield, the annual season lidlifter between the defending Premier League Champions (City) and the holders of the FA Cup (Arsenal). But neither side was exactly fielding its preferred starting lineup, and Arsenal have serious injury issues, and both teams struggled in their last League game. We'll see.

Days until the Red Bulls play again: 2, Saturday afternoon, at 3:00 PM, away to the Philadelphia Union, at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. Last night, they beat arch-rival D.C. United 1-0 on a 90th-minute goal by the usually useless Lloyd Sam. The Playoff race is heating up, and Metro really needed that goal to get those 3 points.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": The previous answer is the last one for this season, barring a Playoff matchup.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 2, this Saturday at 8:00 PM, in their Big Ten Conference debut, home to old enemy Penn State. BEAT THE SCUM!

Days until Derek Jeter's last regular-season home game (barring injury): 14, on Thursday, September 25, against the Baltimore Orioles. Just 2 weeks, and (in all probability, and not counting Old-Timers' Games) Derek Jeter will never play at Yankee Stadium again.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 15, on Friday, September 26, at 7:00 PM, at Fenway Park. It is the last series of the regular season, and will be Derek Jeter's last series against the Sox -- and probably his last against anybody.

Days until the next North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham: 17, on Sunday, September 28, at the Emirates Stadium.

Days until Derek Jeter's last regular-season game (barring injury): 17, on Sunday, September 28, against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Days until the Devils play again: 28. They open on Thursday, October 9, away to the Philadelphia Flyers. Just 4 weeks. They once again get screwed by Commissioner Gary Bettman and his schedulemakers, this time having to play 4 road games before their home opener, on Saturday, October 18, at 7:00 PM, vs. the San Jose Sharks.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: See the previous answer. The first game against The Scum is Tuesday night, October 21, at the Prudential Center. The first game against the Islanders is Saturday night, November 29, at the Nassau Coliseum. The Devils' last trip to Uniondale, before the Isles move to Brooklyn, is Monday night, December 15.

Days until the U.S. national soccer team plays again: 29, on Friday, October 10, at 7:00 PM, a friendly, home to Ecuador, at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut. Under a month. The following Tuesday, they will play another Latin American team, Honduras, in a friendly at Florida Atlantic University's stadium in Boca Raton, Florida. There will be one more match in the calendar year, another friendly, against the Republic of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (built on the site of their former home, Lansdowne Road), on Tuesday afternoon (evening, local time), November 18.

Days until Game 7 of the 2014 World Series -- the absolute latest you can ever again see Derek Jeter in a competitive game: 48, on Wednesday, October 29. Under 7 weeks, and no more Jeter -- not as an active player, anyway.

Days until the next East Brunswick vs. Old Bridge Thanksgiving game: 77, on Thursday morning, November 27, at 10:00 AM. Only 11 weeks.

Days until New York City FC make their Major League Soccer debut: Unknown, but a new MLS season usually begins on the 2nd Saturday in March, which would be March 14, 2015. That's 184 days. A little over 6 months. Whether it will be a home game, and thus at the new Yankee Stadium, is yet to be determined.

Days until Alex Rodriguez is eligible to play for the Yankees again: 202 -- presuming, that is, that 2015's Opening Day is on April 1, and wouldn't it just work out that way, that A-Rod is again allowed to play a regular-season game for the Yankees on April Fool's Day? Anyway, that's under 7 months.

Days until the New York Islanders' last game at the Nassau Coliseum: 212, on April 11, 2015, at 7:00 PM, against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Exactly 7 months.

Days until the Islanders' first home game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn: Unknown, but an NHL regular season usually begins on the 1st Friday in October, which would be October 2, 2015. That's 387 days. That's under 13 months. Or, to put it another way, "387 Sleeps Till Brooklyn." Until then, even with their 4 straight long-ago Stanley Cups, they're just a Small Club In Hempstead.

Days until Euro 2016 begins in France: 639, on Friday, June 10. Under 21 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 696, on Friday, August 5, 2016. Under 23 months.

Days until the next World Cup begins in Russia: 1,369, on Friday June 8, 2018. Under 4 years.