Afternoon Baseball

To try and not focus on Alex Rodriguez (lately, only for good reasons) is almost impossible. Yet, it's important to note the contributions from the whole team today.
Darrell Rasner wasn't terrible. Yes, he and everyone else will need to start giving decent innings, but he kept them in the game. Ditto for Myers, Bruney and even Farnsworth. Vizcaino gets a pass since it was his 9th appearance in 14 games. The bullpen wasn't going to keep that sub-2.50 ERA all year, after all.

Then, the offense. Josh Phelps, who has been mocked briefly here and surely elsewhere, delivers a 2-out home run. The top of the lineup does their magic (is there ever a better spot for Jeter than late, a couple guys on and only a single needed?), especially Bobby Abreu, who clearly was positioned to go opposite way (stepping waaay into the bucket on the pitch he fouled off before his hit). There was no adjustment from Joe Borowski, who admittedly may not have been able to do much, given his age, injury history and lack of biting pitches.
And then, A-Rod. Last year, it was a derisive pattern of "Walk to get to A-Rod." This year, you're a fool if you don't walk him. Why he keeps getting down-the-middle pitches is astonishing.

On the other hand, it's not THAT surprising. After all, the new king of New York is a once-in-a-generation player.

The point of this long post? That the Yankees need wins like this one because no one player or component is going to carry them to postseason success. Ideally, they need all the components (ahem, starting pitching and defense), but when something fails, the rest can't fold.