Suckered By the Yankees Again

"They brought in Joba?!!!"

There's a famous scene in the Godfather Part III - a horrible movie by any standard - that has stood the test of time. It's been repeated, re-phrased, re-imagined, and spoofed a 1,000 times over.

Al Pacino's Michael Corleone says with much exasperation, "Every time I try get out, they pull me back in!" When it comes to the Yankees, it's more like "Every time I try to get in, they pull me back out." Sunday was one of those days. Having already won the first two games of a three game series against the Baltimore Orioles, Andy Pettitte continued his August turnaround with six solid innings.

The Yankees led 3-0 when the first two Orioles reached to start the 7th inning. Joe Girardi sent for Shawn Kelley to face Matt Wieters. The Orioles' catcher singled to drive in Baltimore's first run of the day and then J.J. Hardy hit an opposite field 3-run home run to put the Orioles ahead for good.

Kelley gets a pass; though every game is a must win, he's been pretty solid all season. The next two relievers don't get a pass from though, especially one of them. Boone Logan replaced Kelley and gave up a hit and a walk. When Logan is on, he's fantastic and when he stinks, he smells worse than East River. There's no-in between for the left-hander.

Things got worse moments later when Girardi signaled for number 62 to enter the game. Joba Chamberlain should never be in another game in a Yankees uniform unless it's an Old-Timer's Day and he's buzzing  the head of a 70-year old Kevin Youkilis.  Rumors have it that Adam Jones could be seen drooling as he watched Chamberlain warm up from the on-deck circle.

Chamberlain retired Manny Machado on a failed bunt attempt, but Jones blasted one to deep center for a 7-3 Orioles lead that was three more runs than the O's would need. The Yankees had momentarily moved into third place, but slinked back to fourth place in the AL East after Sunday's sudden score change. They also dropped  back to 3.5 out in the wild card after Oakland won.

The Yankees now play a more inept Chicago White Sox team that swept a three game series with the Yankees in Chi-town in August. With this Yankees team, you just don't know what you'll get...except for aggravation.