WAIT A MINUTE
MAYBE MY EARS ARE CLOGGED OR SOMETHING
MAYBE I’M NOT UNDERSTANDING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I’m a bit reluctant to come down on a guy without knowing all the details, but if the Yankees had an agreement in principal and then the Mariners backed out because they were “concerned about David Adams’ ankle,” as Joel Sherman (who has been all over this story like yellow feathers on Big Bird) reported, then Jack Zduriencik is without honor. First of all, just how severe an ankle injury was it? Was his foot separated from his leg? Hell, was it such a high sprain that his head was separated from his neck? Short of something really radical like that, an ankle injury seems like too transient a cause to derail a trade. In addition, the Yankees had other infielders

WISHCASTING
If the Mariners trade Cliff Lee in the next 24 hours, the Yankees wouldn’t have to face him on Friday.

A FINE KETTLE OF FISH
Yesterday, I wrote about the Marlins making right-handed outfielder Cody Ross available to potential trading partners. Subsequently, it was reported that the Fish might also make 26-year-old closer Leo Nunez available as well. Nunez isn’t expensive by the standards of most teams, but he’s arbitration eligible and the Marlins don’t do arbitration unless literally forced to by the Commissioner and the players’ union. It’s a bit odd that their owner thinks they can win a pennant while not actually paying anyone but Hanley Ramirez, but that’s the way his mind apparently works -- hence the firing of Fredi Gonzalez.

Nunez,

It was the Yankees’ misfortune to suffer bad timing, to encounter Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, two of the best pitchers in baseball even if they are on a bad club, with two pitchers who were not up to matching their aces taking the mound in opposition. Since pitching seven shutout innings against the Tigers in his sixth start on May 12, Hughes has made eight starts, four of them quality, four of them factory rejects (there is no accepted term for a “not quality start,” but “irregular pants” or “mismatched socks” would do fine). His ERA for the period was threatening to crest the fragile barriers that hold the oily 5.00 water out at sea, and he finally did swamp the lowlands in tar against the M’s; his ERA since May 12 is now 5.33 in 49 innings.

ALMOST DID IT AGAIN
The Mariners let the Yankees make it interesting, but a 7-2 deficit in the ninth is too big a mountain to climb, even against a bad Mariners club and a tiring Cliff Lee. At the risk of seeming hypercritical (although that’s an official part of my job description, and yours as fans) given that it’s not exactly shameful to lose to Cliff Lee -- some days you’re just not going to get the bear, so just tip your cap and, as Casey Stengel would have said, try to get out gracefully -- but the game might have at least been competitive if not for a Coffee Joe moment in the sixth inning.

Let me say in advance that you can debate this one; it’s not as clear-cut a miss as was the decision to let A.J. Burnett complete his journey to the century of the Earth