TEIXEIRA ROBBED IN BALTIMORE; LEAVES YANKEELAND REELING

No one knows what would have happened if Jerry Meals, the first base umpire, called Mark Teixeira safe tonight in the top of the 9th inning.  My feeling is the momentum would have went the Yanks way and they probably pull that game out and win.  That didn't happen though and it should be noted that it may have been the worst call I've seen since Armado Galarraga lost out on his perfect game from umpire Jim Joyce back in 2010.

You know why I know this call was a shot in the heart to Yankeeland tonight? Because Mark Teixeira is one of the most poised, professional guys in the clubhouse after any game. Tonight, he was spitting bullets and spoke to the media voicing exactly just our stupid that call was.  Believe me, he needed to.  Jerry Meals should be ashamed of himself, but more on that in a moment.

Tonight was another heart breaker.  Sometimes scoring first means nothing these days if you're the New York Yankees. Look, the Yankees did the right thing, they struck first and "grinded it" to the very end, but the Yankees could not stop the Orioles and Mark Reynolds from hitting in runs and winning yet another game.  I'm puzzled by the Mark Reynolds hot streak.  This is a guy that's just OK, he's nothing spectacular. In fact, there was a great video of him a while back on Deadspin of his strikeouts, 100 strikeouts in 2 minutes, it was brilliant.  Why can't the Yankees get this guy out?  His swing has plenty of flaws, anyone can see them with the naked eye, yet, the Yankees are serving up a nice pitch to this dude every time.  It's unbelievable and because of it, Reynolds is riding high on the confidence train and so are the Orioles.

Now look, if CC Sabathia was on tonight, we win this game. But CC Sabathia is not healthy.  That's what I'm thinking... there's no other explanation for him not being able to hold teams down in his last 3 starts as well as something Fangraphs brought up and that's CC's fastball numbers... they're down to 92 mph from 93 mph last season.  Kind of weird, something's up.  Tonight CC went 6.1 IP, allowed 8 H, 5 R and only struck out 5.  He also gave up 3 home runs which is totally not like CC.  I'm telling you, CC wants to be out there pitching because he's a gamer, but I have a strange suspicion that something  is not right.  He may be hurt, he may be grinding through it because that's what we expect or maybe he's just putting that extra pressure on himself because he wants the team to win, who knows? But guess what, we'll never know, because CC's tough as nails and he wants to be on the mound every 5th day. What are you gonna do, tell him not to get out there? Then who do we have as our ace, a bunch of inconsistent pitchers? I take my chances with CC every time, I just hope he's OK.

Alex Rodriguez looked good again tonight hitting #17 on the year.  I've said it a few times now, Alex is back and he's contributing, you gotta love that.  Derek Jeter had 3 more hits today and his average is up to .323. The Captain is just leading this team so well, now we just need him to have a "Posada" type closed door meeting to light a fire under the asses of the rest of our club! Ichiro Suzuki was 2-4 tonight.

The "heart and guts" award goes to Mark Teixeira and Russell Martin.  I love the way these guys are playing and Martin, while batting .203, seems to really be in the ballgame lately, I love the passion. Keep it up Russ.

Again, that 9th inning final out call by Jerry Meals was absolutely horrible.  It's not only a tough way to lose a ball game, but if the Yankees weren't battling before that out, they sure as hell will be full of anger tomorrow and will treat tomorrow's game as a must win. Meals blew it and he should, much like Jim Joyce did, come out and say as much. It's ironic that many are suggesting that Mark Teixeira may get fined to talking trash about Meals and his terrible calls. I would suggest Meals should get fined a few bucks for not doing his job...just a thought.

Look, the Yankees need to win tomorrow, not only do they then split the series against the Orioles, they leave Baltimore with their heads high as they head to Boston and try to sweep the Sox.

Final Score: Orioles 5 - Yankees 4

Tomorrow, the ONLY goal the Yankees have is to win. That's it. That's a must.  After that, the Yankees play the Rays and Athletics, both with winning records and the rest of the teams have losing records, like the Red Sox, the next series they play.  That was courtesy of Michael Kay. That brings hope because if the can get some confidence for the rest of September, we will make the playoffs.  If we implode...well, let's just say I won't happy.

Go Yanks!

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