Good morning, again, from the 7:41 express to Grand Central Station. It seems the 40 minute train ride is about the extent of my available blogging time lately.
If not for the olympics, the level of frustration with our team would probably have caused me to blow a blood vessel. I'm sure you feel it too. The frustration on my end comes not from the fact that we are losing, but how we are losing.
We should have been expecting this swoon from the Yanks. A 'ro that includes Ponson, Geise and Rasner is not winning many series let alone winning a playoff spot. The frustrating thing is, though, that it's not the starting pitching that's causing the losing.
The starters have actually done pretty well. Ponson has probably earned himself a multi year deal from someone (not us), Geise has been very good, and Rasner...well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
The offense, however, looks more akin to a team playing for a spot in the Little League World Series then the real one. Our 1000 run bombers will be lucky to crack 800 for the year!
A big part of the problem has been the Yankee O perpetually failing with RISP. They know it, Gen Joe knows it, and we know it- which is a bad thing. Team-wide offensive frustration is a syndrome- failure breeds frustration, frustration breeds pressure, pressure breeds failure. And round and round it goes.
Frustrating as well is that the 'pen, our biggest strength through the first 100 games, has fallen apart.
I could understand the losing if we were getting beat 8-6 every night. 4-0 against a mediocre (at best) pitcher is just unacceptable.
Any way you slice it, unless we get out act together quick and go on a 22-4 tear, we'll be watching the first round only to root for whoever plays the Dread Sox.
