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The 162-game grind of a MLB season tests everyone.  That's why even the best teams in the league have to bust their tails to play .600+ ball. Think of the big picture, the best teams average only a hair more than 6 wins out of every 10 games.

NYY finds themselves in the "dog days" of August and the month has not been kind to the Pinstripes.  They started off August dropping the series deciding game to Tampa Bay and followed that with a 1-2 series with Toronto. Up until last night's loss to Detroit, NY has been in "Splitsville"--as they halved a four-game series with Boston in the Bronx, two games in Texas and four in Kansas City.

The Yankee bats have gone into a bit of a slumber.  Sunday in KC a guy named Bryan Bullington earned his first career win, 8 years after being

How long can the Yankees afford to have a pitcher out there with a dead arm?

It's obvious that Javier Vazquez's last two appearances have been miles from his previous half-dozen.  Pitching coach Dave Eiland indicated last week that Vazquez has to work through that and they were going to adjust his work between starts.

It didn't work.

Is it worth running a guy with a dead arm out there, only with the hope that he can somehow be crafty enough for 5-6 innings  of work and your team is not down by more than a grand slam's worth when you yank him?

As great as last night's classic come from behind victory was over Texas, the bigger issue is Vazquez's arm and what the plan is to either get him right, or go to Plan B, and what is Plan B.

Vazquez had no fastball, hardly

Who do we celebrate more after last night's huge come from behind victory over Texas, Marcus Thames or Mariano Rivera?  That's a tough one, but I have to side with Thames as a guy has had a limited role, but one who stepped up big-time.

We have come to expect excellence and nerves of steel in the face of adversity from Mariano Rivera.  The bar he has set for himself is so high, sometimes even he can't measure up--which is unfair. But, last night trying to protect a one-run lead and having to face the beef of Texas' meaty order, he yielded a lead-off triple to Elvis Andrus only to respond by including three straight outs by Michael Young, Josh Hamilton (who already had three hits) and Vlad Guerrero.  When a team as potent as Texas can't somehow get a runner home from third

Whenever you hear a fan use the word "IF" after a ballgame, chances are their team didn't win.

That's what Yankee fans were saying after the opening of the four-game series with Boston.

In a 6-3 loss, "IF" NY pitcher Javier Vazquez and catcher Francisco Cervelli had communicated better, it's likely Boston would not have gone on to pick up three unearned runs in the game's second inning en route to the victory.  It was obvious that Vazquez was prepared and well-positioned to make the play on a medium high pop-up that was at the center of a Bermuda Triangle between the mound, homeplate and the first baseline.  But, as most baseball defenses are designed, the catcher takes just about everything he can in front of the plate.  In doing so he has to get his back turned