Oh, Ye of Little Faith

You see the game is 9-0 in the second inning, you get discouraged.

When I left the office, the title of this piece was going to be "Chacon: It's What's for Dinner."

So far, Shawn Chacon's 2006 has been bad to good to bad again. At least, I think it's fair to say that after he was run out of the Red Sox game in the fifth last time out, and tonight giving up eight runs, seven of them earned, in one and a third. Aaron Small was better, only two runs through four and a third.

And somehow, the Yanks came back.

For most of this, I'm just going off the MLB.com Gamecast. Jeter's got four hits, four ribbies, and is the triple away from the cycle; Posada and Cairo have three RBIs each. The Yanks actually had the lead before Joe Torre brought in his new favorite toy, Scott Proctor. Memo to Torre: You might be leaning on a guy too much when Jim ("Back in the old days, we didn't believe in pitch counts. We used to pitch nine innings, then throw a few hundred pitches in the bullpen to cool off afterward.") Kaat is saying "That Proctor's seen a lot of work lately, looks a little tired."

That's kind of like a normal person saying "Oh my God, his arm's about to fall off!" If you need some context, that is.

Speaking of Torre's favorite toy, the last guy to hold that title, Tanyon Sturtze, got some bad news yesterday. Not only does he have bursitis in his pitching shoulder, but there's a small tear in his rotator cuff, as well.

I'd previously suggested that Sturtze's injury was a fake by the Yanks, keeping Tanyon on the roster while keeping him away from the mound in the Bronx. Turns out instead that Sturtze, like some other rocket scientists out there, may well have been hiding a serious injury all along.

My bad, yo.

Speaking of my bad, no sooner do you open a blog entry with "Ye of Little Faith" than the Rangers manage to rake Mariano Rivera. After a year of unhittability last year, Mariano looks mortal this season. In May, at least. It's one run that scores, and the damage could have been much worse.

Last licks for the Yanks, who haven't won any games in their last at bat at home this season, and (according to the announcers) have never come back from a 9-0 hole. Can that possibly be right?

Damon lashes a ball off of Teixeira--er, Texiera, or, um, Tiexera...I give up. Anyway, the tying run's aboard with no outs, and Jeter's up with a shot for the triple to tie the game and get the cycle...OK. How about a tapper to the mound, instead? High praise for advancing the runner from Kitty and Singleton, no mention of the potential for a cycle.

Rodriguez first-pitch swings, putting decent wood on the ball, but the catch is made in short left-center by Gary Matthews Jr. Two outs.

Up comes Posada, the Yanks' last hope. He takes three straight balls, and one strike from Akinori Otsuka. Then, on 3-1, Otsuka throws a fat one, middle-in. Jorge's eyes light up, then his bat connects for the walk-off two run homer.

I can't wait for tomorrow so that I can see this thing on MLB.tv (damn local blackout restrictions...)