Bring on the Sox (Postgame Notes 5 August 2009)

Admit it, because I will: at the start of this game, it would have taken a coin flip to decide which mix was more volatile: ammonia mixed with bleach or Sergio Mitre on turf.

While Mitre didn't exactly pitch well--and that's a generous assessment as he could not make it out of the fourth--he did, however, limit the damage to three Toronto runs.

The Yankees then got some help from Alfredo Aceves, Phil Coke, Phil Hughes and David Robertson--all of whom were excellent, and, once they grabbed the lead in the seventh, seemed to cruise to an 8-4 victory.

The Yankees struggled to score runs early, but, as they have done so often this season, did their damage in the latter innings--scoring six of their runs tonight in the seventh inning or later.

What does it all mean?

The past three games, the Yankees have played some great baseball after playing some rather bad baseball in the first three games of the White Sox set.

The offense seems to tailor its performance to exactly what's needed, scoring runs at the right time, and not all in the same way, either.

Make no mistake, the upcoming four-game set with Boston is huge, and the biggest game of the series is tomorrow. Win the first game of that set and they will automatically excise the Boston demons. Win tomorrow and the Yankees are assured that no matter what else happens they'll still be in first place on Monday morning.

Win tomorrow and Joba Chamberlain can continue to prove all us naysayers wrong.

Win tomorrow and much will be well.


One game in a baseball season rarely changes everything, but sometimes it can mean just that little bit more.

That's tomorrow's game.

It's too late in the season for excuses.