Chapter One: Innings 1-2: A tight, well pitched affair highlighted by John driving Melky in from 2nd base. (IMO, Melky's walk last Saturday against Wagner was a massive step in his maturation and portends a very good season. Please give him more at bats Joe.)

Chapter Two: Innings 3-8: Wang's troubling inconsistency swerved from inning to inning last night as the Red Sox created an insurmountable lead. The most concerning moment was in the 3rd on an 0-2 count against Ramirez. Jorge wanted a "waste" pitch letter high or higher. Wang threw a meat pitch approx. 18-24 inches lower than Jorge's target, which ended up in the centerfield seats for a 4-1 Red Sox lead. Three innings later, (bottom 6) Wang appeared to toy with Ortiz and Ramirez before putting them away. Puzzling.

Wang and Colter Bean combined to surrender 5 more runs for a 9-1 Sox lead going into:

Chapter Three: The Cruel Tease. I quickly switched back from Jack Bauer being chloroformed by Chinese intelligence and missed Alex's shot fly into the seats by about 15 seconds. Sadly, the remainder of the Yankees offensive output was:

"A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -Macbeth.

24 wins, 19 losses.

Do not worry excessively over this team. A big offensive weapon will return soon in Sheffield, and I believe that an Aaron Small circa 2005 performance is around the corner from Jaret Wright, who has been solid in his last 3 starts.

Time is not yet short for this season...Cashman's restructuring of the Yankees senior hierarchy (and reduction of backchannels to Mr. S) was widely reported in the offseason. I believe he forced those changes to have better control in a situation like this. In 30-45 days, we'll know if it was effective.