There's not much analyzing to do here. Darrell Rasner simply stunk up the joint last night, in what was his first bad start of the season, and the Yankees lost in Oakland by a score of 8-4. The Yanks are now in a three-way tie for third in the East, 5 games behind Tampa Bay for the wild card and 7 games behind Boston for the division lead.

The Yankees went ahead 1-0 in the second on Jason Giambi's 15th home run of the season, but a disaster third inning blew the game open for the A's. A throwing error by Jason Giambi allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base, and that would open the flood gates as Rasner got knocked around to the tune of of six runs (five earned) in that inning. Rasner would leave the game in the 4th inning, finishing with a line of 7 runs (6 earned) off 9 hits in only 3 and 2/3.

The bullpen did a solid job the rest of the way, allowing only a run in the final 5 and 1/3 innings, but the damage had already been done. The Yankees made things a little bit interesting in the top of the 9th, scoring 3 runs, but it was too little too late.

So the Yankees will play the rubber game of this series in familiar territory, at .500. Andy Pettitte will face Joe Blanton, who surprisingly is 3-8 but has pitched better than that. Game starts at 10:05 E.T.