The Yankees should not be doing worse than two out of three when it comes to Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina. The rookies are another story. But even if the Yankees were in first place, you would expect roughly that performance from those three pitchers, the offense and the bullpen. But being a country mile back, of course, it becomes mandatory.
Tonight delivered the first part of that set. It was good to see the Yankees take a page out of the Mets book and run on a tandem that deserved it. Tim Wakefield/Doug Mirabelli threw but one of five out. Derek Jeter is at 16 games with his hitting streak, too. I have to mention it every game, I'm sorry.
And who knew Alex Rodriguez hit best against the Mets and Red Sox? Nice game for him tonight, even with the caught stealing. If he's not quicker than last year, he's acting it.
As far as losing goes, I'm not taking too much of what Bob Klapisch seems to think is a rift between Jorge Posada and Jeter vis a vis their reactions to the "losing mentality" cited by recent legends Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez. Jeter seemed simply to think there was no point in judging the season until the team's fate was more certain, and he did acknowledge frustration. Posada said roughly the same thing, just in different words. Avoiding a losing mentality, or shaking any signs of it, is not the same as succumbing to such a mentality.
I don't know that any current or former Yankee has said that.
