CHILLS, A LOSS, ANDY PETTITTE & EXIT SANDMAN

On a day when it had to matter most... On a day where Andy Pettitte was pitching and Mariano Rivera Day was thriving... the Yankees were supposed to win. Not to mention... there's a thing called the playoffs, and we'd like to be there. Trust me... it was the way the storybook read... but that's not what happened. It didn't matter about the lose though... today was glorious. 

First though, the recap. Andy Pettitte gave a huge effort. 7 innings... he gave up 2 hits and 2 runs. He struck out 6 and did 1 thing... he gave up a home run. Probably his only mistake. The difference is, on a team that is capable of scoring runs, we should have picked Andy up.  We didn't score more than 1 run the entire day.  Today was it, the last day we will ever see Pettitte in pinstripes. It was a great ride. It was a tremendous ride... thank you Andy. Sorry we couldn't do it for you today.

The Yankees run scoring consisted of a Mark Reynolds homer in the 3rd.

There's not much more to say about the performance... scoring runs wasn't their effort today.  We're running out of time... it should have been their top priority.

Final: Giants 2 - Yankees 1

The other part of the day was incredible and I get chills as I write this...Mariano Rivera Day.  There was a buzz, excitment and a sadness today.  It was a day to celebrate the greatest closer of all time.

In an incredible move, the Yankees retired Mariano Rivera's number 42 on the spot on Sunday.  Metallica was in attendance and the stadium was on fire, giving it their best Roll Call of all.  It wasn't the Bleacher Creatures or some leader guy leading organized yelling of Mo's name.  No... it was a packed Yankee stadium. It was millions of us even at home watching on TV in the tri-state area and from around the world. We were all yelling Mo's name, we were all cheering, all crying and all applauding true greatness, (click HERE.) That's what Roll Call is... Yankee fans... all of us. Today it was evident.

I get all sappy thinking about how great Mo was for us.  With some of his former teammates present, with his family present, it was the perfect day. MLBSI.com reports: " former Yankees G.M. Gene Michael, then Jeff Nelson, then David Cone, then John Wetteland, then Hideki Matsui, then Tino Martinez, then Paul O’Neill, then Bernie Williams, then Jorge Posada, then former trainer Gene Monahan, then Joe Torre" helped make the celebration perfect.  Rachel Robinson was there, a truly symbolic gesture and wonderful for any baseball fan knowing that Mo would be the last to ever wear Jackie's #42.  Over all, it was just plan terrific.

Over the next few days Bleeding Yankee Blue will present some perspective to just how great Mariano and Andy Pettitte were to the New York Yankees.  Look for the pieces... enjoy them, share them and know we're sincere.  We as fans enjoyed a great era in Yankeeland... and some time very soon... we turn the page and start a new. Don't worry... we'll do it together... we're the Yankees, we're family.

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