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Pitching didn’t lose this series – the offense did. A-rod, Tex, Swisher, Jeter and Martin were absolutely terrible in this series. Posada and Gardner were the only fairly consistent players. Cano had a lot of offense but he was crushing mistakes and they pitched around him because A-rod and Tex were so pathetic.

Ops and Obp are overrated. Did we need a walk when Tex was up late with the bases loaded? No. They needed a hit. Girardi stubbornly kept the same lineup out there every day even though they consistently failed to do anything. Leyland switched his lineup based on gut calls, including changing his number 2 hitter to great success (Santiago and Kelly). Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Ergo, Girardi is insane.

Last two points.

CC can opt out if he wants to. He has not been as advertised in the post-season. I’m all for keeping him, but if he wants to hold the Yankees up, no thanks. Not enough post-season success and too much weight.

If there is an option on Swisher’s contract, it should not be exercised. 3 years of post-season futility is enough.

Posada- battling to the end (his possible career end as well), breaking down after the game, that’s a Yankee.

A-Rod- Hollywood dating, recovering steroid using choke artist. Mild profanity from him in his post game interview. I kidded about it last week, but the guy deserves to bat eighth.

Bad for me, my daughter’s getting married next month to a Tigers fan. An authentic Tigers fan. I’ll hear about this for a while.

I know yesterday I wrote that I had a good feeling about the offense, but we all know that if we don’t hit… that’s it. It seems for two seasons now, we’re just always searching for pitching. I mean, that A-Rod bases loaded at bat was the whole season, I knew it. Jeter’s ball in the 8th, a few years ago goes out. I thought Hughes finally had some good velocity, but for him….. it’s a little late. We needed Hughes to have that velocity a while ago.

I’m tired of having no pitching. The priority has to be pitching. Swisher, a nice guy good to have on your club, but guys like him are important in the post season because he’s going to come up with men on base time and time again because the pitchers are going to navigate the lineup. Why not convert Montero to a right fielder and let him just be all he can be as an offensive player. He may have to go in a deal though for a pitcher, but honestly, I would just like to see these young arms be developed – and stick with it this time! Kennedy is pitching game 5 for Arizona. Stay with it, don’t give up so quickly. We need to get younger.

I’m not going to get on Girardi so much – he said Nova tightened up, can’t expect him to go longer with him. I thought he had a pretty good plan for the game. It was close – he accomplished his goal and put the team in a position to come back. The hitters failed. To think this team could only muster 2 runs at home (without Verlander pitching) —– is a complete failure.

Don’t know why – I have confidence in Nova. I think the bats will bring it home.

Fister. I know his record in the second half is very good, good ERA, everything. His record came against second division teams, and here’s the key part: The Yanks have seen him and saw him five days ago. This is not the unknown pitcher the Yanks have never seen and therefore “don’t know how his ball moves.”

Just a feeling. I think A-Rod has a good night. He’s close.

What no one talks about is that lineup is tailor made for Burnett. Righthanded up and down, he should be able to navigate that lineup. However, I give him credit because he would have been vilified and driven right out of town had he not pitched well.

The thing I always worry about with a win like that, is when the bats get going, you don’t want a day off. Paul O’Neill used to say that. We want to keep it going let’s keep the bats hot.

Granderson, what else can you say? The guy is what you would call a “gamer.” If we can keep this going, I see big things from him – I love the way he’s playing the game. We’ll work on those strikeouts in the off season.

And, where has this defense been? Even without the Granderson grabs, the defense overall is performing very well. I haven’t counted how many double plays there have been overall, but it seems like they’re turning them every other inning. They are playing defense as a cohesive unit. I like it.

Burnett got the win. Facts are facts. He walked too many, threw too many in the dirt (he’s going to shorten Russell Martin’s career), and got lucky when wickedly hit balls were fielded. But he got the win.

I listened to Sterling (no time delay with 880 radio and TBS for some reason). I did not realize Waldman despises Burnett so much, assume his cheerful demeanor has given her problems when she has tried to do her job and interview him in the past.

I know Granderson probably originally misjudged that first big catch, but that was some catch, better even than the great stretch out catch later. Curtis was channeling Tommy Agee from 1969 World Series.

Let’s just say that Gerry Davis had an interesting interpretation of the strike zone. It widened when he punched Swisher out on strikes, but it was tight for both guys.

AJ tonight —- oh boy. Getting my Psych 101 book off the shelf tonight.

We’ve got to forget all that. Look, this was a weak pitching staff from the get-go. How they won 97 games will be one of life’s eternal mysteries, like the popularity of the Golden Girls, or the Bay City Rollers.

It boils down to this. Granderson- Cano-A-Rod-Tex. That’s it, that’s all. Bring the lumber or do the slumber. Grip it and rip it. For one night, and one night only do not make the game complicated. See the ball, tee it up and hit it some place hard. That is the only way out of this. I can’t believe I’m saying this but —- get it back to Nova on Thursday. I like Nova, but that tells you something right there.

If the situation calls for it, I think we’re getting a Valverde meltdown though. I’d prefer the score to be 8-2 Yanks, but if Valverde has to go through the Yanks’ meat of the order to close out the series, now that would be something!

Let’s face it – more often than not unless we draw the Twins in the first playoff round – if it’s the Tigers or Angels, the Yanks do not fare well. CC left his best stuff in the two innings in the rain storm Friday, and the strike zone last night was as small as a shoe box – both Darling and  Smoltz were thinking “glad I’m not pitching today”. If the TBS side box showing the strike zone was even 80% accurate there were a MULTITUDE of crappy ball/strike calls. That size zone favors a fastball right hander, not a lefty with a wide arm action approach to the zone.

Summary – younger harder throwing arms by the opposition have been the Yanks downfall in the playoffs many recent years, I’m not throwing in the towel, but the pattern is here for this year too.

Our fate is in your hands, AJ.  I was listening to B&C this morning and they had John Flaherty on.  He expects AJ to be pulled after only 3 innings tonight.  Throw in Hughes and Wade to try to get to Robertson and Mo.  That’s a rough prediction, though he does expect the Yankees to have the lead.  I expect more form AJ.  I believe he’s going to surprise us and have a good game…   6-7 inning, 1-2 runs.  Redemption for a poor season.

That’s all I have to say.