FIGHTING FOR A DUD

When you see a fork in the road... take it.  Yogi Berra said that once. Tonight, no matter how many obstacles were in the Yankees way, when they saw an opportunity, or a fork, they took it.  But then... in the 14th, the Rays took the game.

This game had everything dramatic about it.  There was no question that the Rays are good.  Well, the Yankees are too.  It was a prize fight. I was literally falling asleep at my keyboard trying to get this post up for you... but it was killing me because it was back and forth all night and I was just getting mad tired.  At one point on Twitter, I asked if we could please have a walk off.  Then, 2 times in extra innings we were set up... only to not bring the runner home.  I was getting crankier and crankier. It was clear, the Yankees had this game right? It was like getting geared up for the school dance. You put on a nice outfit. You knew you looked good, only to hope and pray you'd see the pretty girl, but when you walked into the gymnasium, you saw her see her kissing Tommy Colucci. The wind came out of your sails.  Trust me, no one wants to see any girl kissing Tommy Colucci.  Tonight... The Rays were Tommy Colucci... and I was crushed.

The pitching tonight was pretty good. I mean, you have to remember that we are against a good hitting Rays club. Usually, they score runs, but the Yankee pitching held them well.  Vidal Nuno gave up all his runs in 4.2 innings.  He also gave up 5 hits. True, he was NOT outstanding, but the pen was, for a while. Nuno was followed by Dellin Betances, Preston Claiborne, Matt Thornton, DRob Shawn Kelley and Adam Warren. All of our relief was outstanding.

Then Chris Leroux gave up 5 runs in the 14th.  Yup... not good. I didn't want to see that happen and I know you didn't want to either. Secretly though, I was ready for bed...

The Yankee hitting was exactly what we've been looking for the past few days.  Jacoby Ellsbury was 4-5 and Alfonso Soriano was 3-5 tonight.

 Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Alfonso Soriano each had homers.

In fact, the Yankees tied it 4-4 in the 9th with that Soriano homer.  Then after the Rays made it 5-4, the Yankees came back again with Jacoby Ellsbury singling home Brian Roberts. 5-5 at that point. But then it stopped. Sure, we had base runners but we couldn't get them home.  We teed them up pretty good, but no matter what we did, be it being in a pickle to advance a runner or just not knocking that big hit, we could not hit them home. Disappointing.

In the end, both teams battled, but Tommy Colucci got the girl, and all us Yankee fans now have bags under our eyes and alot of aggravation.

Final: Rays 10 - Yankees 5

Crap...

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