As diehard Yankees fans did we ever expect after twenty-eight games to be 11-17 and 7 1/2 games out of first place. In fact we are only one game out of last place. We can't beat Tampa Bay on a regular basis. Last night was truly pathetic. To give up eleven runs to a last place team is truly awful. The strength of our championship teams has always been our pitching, both starting and relief. Randy Johnson has pitched better than his record but missed last night's start as a precaution. Pavano is so-so. Mike Mussina has looked better of late, but is still not close to being an ace. Obviously, Jaret Wright has been a huge disappointment, even before he got hurt. But the worst of all is Kevin Brown. Do the Yankees need to just release him and eat the rest of his salary for 2005?

I now turn my thoughts to the bullpen. Even Rivera started awful but has been great the last few outings. He has lowered his ERA from over 10 to 2.70. Our big problem however, is getting to him. Tom Gordon came in last night to try and keep the deficit at two runs and on the first pitch gave up a homerun to a player that was just brought up from the minors. Did the Yankees pitch him out last year? Paul Quantrill hasn't been much better. Felix Rodriguez simply can't throw strikes. Buddy Groom has been for the most part a pleasant surprise. Last night while watching the game they showed Rivera warming up in the bullpen hoping the Yankees could rally and least tie, but they couldn't get it done again.

As fans we should still be hopeful. Sturtze will be back soon along with the Big Unit and Ruben Sierra. There is simply too much talent on this team to look this bad. The old baseball adage goes... Your never as good as you look when your on a hot streak and vice versa your never as bad as you look when your continually losing. Keep some good thoughts and look for positives. We need a win tonight and a good homestand. We were only 3-6 on the last homestand. We simply have to start putting the hitting and pitching together. The best case scenario is we win tonight and go to 12-17. We come home and win all six to go above .500 before our west coast swing.