The House that Smelled Like Garbage

This is why it is impossible to completely buy into the Yankees making any kind of a run at the AL East or wild card leads. We saw this in June too. Get a great run going, then fall apart. The Yankees won 11 of their past 14 games entering last night. But after being humiliated by the Devil Rays last night, 14-4, the Yankees suddenly find themselves with a 2 game losing streak. To compound matters, the Yankees and Devil Rays play two today, with the Yanks sending out the shaky duo of Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo.

That's what made last night's game so crucial. The Rays sent out Edwin Jackson to the mound, he of the 1-9 record and 7-plus ERA. But as we've seen so many times in the last few years, when Mike Mussina needed to come up big, he came up small.

It didn't appear that way at first. Mussina breezed through the 1st two innings, barely breaking a sweat. But the 3rd inning lasted a lifetime and with no punch from the Yankees' offense, the game was all but over. After Greg Norton's lead off single, Dionner Navarro, the former Yankees prospect, hit a drive to deep right. In a scene replayed many times over, Bobby Abreu hesitated as he neared the wall and the ball hit at the base, resulting in a double. Instead of a man on 1st with one out, the Rays were suddenly cooking with 2nd and 3rd, and no one out.

Akinori Iwamura's sac fly brought home the 1st run, and Carl Crawford followed with an RBI single to right. B.J. Upton then put an exclamation point on the inning with a home run into the 1st row of the upper deck in left. It was Upton's 10th HR of the year, and one of two he hit on the night, and gave the Rays a 4-0 lead. The inning would go on even longer though, as Mussina uncharacteristically walked the bases loaded before getting Norton on an inning ending ground out.

The Yankees put two men on in each of the first 2 innings, but came up empty in each case. Hideki Matsui flied out to end the 1st inning, and Shelley Duncan, making his major league debut, K'ed and Johnny Damon lined out to end the 2nd inning threat. Duncan failed again in the 4th, again striking out on a pitch out of the zone, to strand 2 runners.

A game that was still in reach became a blowout in the 5th. Upton lead off with a double before Mussina (4-7) retired the next 2 batters. But Brendan Harris stroked an RBI double to the gap in right-center to give the Rays a 5-0 lead, and Joe Torre decided it was time to call it a night for Moose. But things would only get worse.

Torre called on rookie Edwar Ramirez who hadn't pitched in 2 weeks. The layoff showed. K-Ram became W-Ram, walking Ty Wiggington and Norton. Then Navarro hit the crusher. A grand slam into the right field seats for an insurmountable 9-0 lead. It was Navarro's 2nd HR of the season, and 1st career grand slam. Ramirez then walked Iwamura and Crawford before Torre mercifully came out to get him.

Jackson (2-9) left after 6 scoreless innings and the Yankees finally got on the board when Andy Phillips (2nd) homered in the 7th to make it a 10-1 game. Duncan would later pick up his 1st major league hit and RBI, but this game was all about the Devil Rays.

...

Ramirez is expected to be sent down before the 2nd game in order to call up DeSalvo. The Yankees might be better off sending Brian Bruney down at this point. Bruney continued his awful pitching last night, retiring only 1 of the 5 hitters he faced. He was charged with 3 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks, and a wild pitch.

Hideki Matsui went 0-5 to end his hitting streak at 14 games.

Ron Villone threw only 11 pitches in 2/3 of an inning, but Torre felt compelled to use Scott Proctor...again. Proctor served up Upton's 11 HR and 2nd of the night.