The Yankees yesterday recovered almost all of the ground lost the day before: Kuroda pitched a gem (GS 81) and while Peavy (GS 61) pitched well, several Yankee homers, including one by erstwhile pitcher Wise, did him in as the Bombers won 4-0. And with Boston (3-2 to Seattle), Tampa Bay (6-2 to Detroit) and Baltimore (11-5 to Cleveland) losing, the only team to hold their gain of Friday was last-place Toronto (11-2 over the suburb of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim).
Meanwhile the Dodgers, apparently, sold their soul to the devil earlier in the season, and are now paying the price that has come due: they were shut out AGAIN, 5-0 by the Mets and Johan Santana. In case the details are too bloody for you to have been following, this is now a THIRTEEN game stretch in which they are 2-11 (actually 1-11 because the FIRST game of the stretch was a 2-1, extra-inning win) and have scored 5 runs ONCE, 3 runs TWICE, 2 runs ONCE, 1 run 3 times and were shutout six times. It gets worse: they have been shut out five times in the last six games! Overall, in this stretch, they have scored 16 runs in 13 games. They are no longer in first place, trailing the Giants by a game, and their postseason chances, once nearly 90%, are calculated at 42% and estimated by most analysts as 10-1 against.
This post is a warning, though, to all non-Yankee fans out there, and an announcement to Yankee fans. The Yankees, despite injuries to Pettitte, Sabathia, Gardiner, Rivera and others, are about to embark on another winning streak. This is because I leave for the west on Wednesday, and will likely not be doing much blogging or even watching for the next two weeks. Historically, my not paying attention means that the Yankees will win very often. So look out!
Have a great trip!
If your correlation holds, come back as soon as you can
I’ll be gone until the 16th, so the Yankees may have an insurmountable lead by then!