The Big Unit was effective in his return after missing a start last week, going 7 innings on 2 runs and 5 hits, but the Yankees could not hold the lead for him and they lost to the Devil Rays 4-3 in 11 innings. The Yankees were up 3-0 when Eduardo Perez launched a two-run shot off of Johnson. In the bottom of the 9th, Perez did it again, this time against Mariano Rivera to tie the score at 3 (geez, how many guys can even dream about one day telling their grandkids they homered off Randy Johnson and Mariano Rivera in the same game?). Rivera was good for two innings aside from the home run as he pitched a scoreless 10th inning, but Scott Proctor entered the game in the 11th and had control problems once again. He walked 3 batters in the inning (albeit one intentionally) and recorded only one out before walking in the winning run.

The Tigers also blew a late lead against the Red Sox, so the Yankees' loss puts them 4.5 behind the BoSox for first place in the AL East. Fortunately, however, the Yanks didn't lose any ground on the A's in the wild card race as they lost to Baltimore for the second day in a row, so the Yankees still stand 1.5 games behind them. The Angels also lost to the Blue Jays by a score of 4-3 (currently 3.5 games better than the Yankees).

Well Yankee haters will gloat now that Rivera has blown his 2nd save since Saturday, but hey, what can you do? He pitched pretty well except for that one pitch that was hit hard by Perez and barely cleared the wall (Rivera disputed after the homer that a fan interfered). Anyway, I still expect him to go out there and shut the Rays down tonight if the game is close again.

The Yankees will close out this road trip tonight in Tampa as Al Leiter will take the mound to face Mark Hendrickson. This one could be a 4-hour slugfest as both pitchers have an E.R.A. over 6.