Blow-pen (Postgame notes 25 Sept 07)

The score is one that would seem fitting for an Igawa game, but the cruel irony is that it wasn't Igawa that gave up any of those runs.

In fact, Igawa pitched...what's the word for it...all right. Sure, he walked a few too many for comfort, but his five innings were shut out innings and at the beginning of the sixth, the Yankees had a very comfortable 5-0 lead.

I had to go do an interview for a class assignment, so I missed part of the game. When I left my apartment, the Yankees lead 5-0, and I was in a great mood. Sure, I'd had an absolutely horrible morning, and it's 90 degrees outside in Syracuse in the end of September...but the Yankees clinching would make it all better...

...When I came back an hour later, I fast forwarded my DVR, and, as the horror that was the Yankees' bullpen tonight unfolded before my eyes, I tried so hard to press the rewind.

Maybe I was fast asleep. Maybe it was the hookah in that house I visited--me inhaling without knowing it and this is all a bad dream...but I pinch myself, and no, it's not.

Lost in all of this, a game which makes me want to break something really, really horribly, is the grand slam by Alex Rodriguez and Johnny Damon's 5-for-5 night.

I'm trying to be the optimist, and there certainly are good things to consider:

Igawa had five shut out innings (again, irony is the spice of life)
Farnsworth had 1-2-3 and actually pitched on back-to-back days
A-Rod finally hit another home run, and there were three men on base.
Damon went 5-5

However, there is no excuse for the bullpen tonight--and it's not all the 'pen's fault, either. The second Bruney walked in a run, someone else should have been brought in, but hindsight is 20/20...

Now, barring a miracle, we will not win the AL East. Stranger things, of course, have happened, but it's not something I want to contemplate, not when we were yesterday morning 1.5 back...


Anyway.

It's 81 outside and about 20 degrees warmer inside my air-conditioning-less apartment. I've got my fan on, but it's not doing much good.

There are thunderstorms coming my way, will probably be here in the 3 AM-5 AM part of the morning. I have a phobia of even mild thunderstorms and these look kind of bad.

I still have much of my geography paper to write.



You'll forgive me for not posting scores tonight--I'm sure you all know the important ones, anyway. If you're curious, Boston and Detroit won, Seattle's losing, Atlanta beat Philadelphia and the Mets almost staged an improbable comeback, losing 10-9 to Washington.


Here's to 26 September. I won't say tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes, so here's to 26 September and the Yankees clinching this the fun way, with a win.

Preferably in nine innings, by a margin of three or four runs.