The Yankees' tag team of veteran starters struggled yesterday in a 7-1 loss that sliced the Bombers' lead over the Mariners to one game in the wild card race. Boston defeated Toronto as well, extending their lead over the Yankees in the East to 7 games.

Roger Clemens struggled, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits before leaving the game after the 4th inning due to pain in his elbow. Clemens is now scheduled to have an MRI and Joe Torre said he might skip his next start just in case. Mike Mussina, who would probably start in his place, pitched 3 and 2/3 innings in relief and struggled as well, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits.

Aside from an RBI single in the 1st inning by Alex Rodriguez (now 130 RBI on Sept. 4), there wasn't really much offense generated by the Yankees, either. Rodriguez and Posada had two hits each, but they put up goose eggs in the last eight innings of the game.

Funny thing, 10 years ago you'd think that you'd only see Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina pitching in the same game for the same team if it was your team in some video game, and those were the things that made some people look at the games and say "Boy, these games are really rediculous."

The Yanks will try to bounce back tonight as they send Chien-Ming Wang to the mound to face Horacio Ramirez. Game starts at 7:05 ET.