DO I HEAR THIRTY ONE?

Another game lost on offense--once more against a non-descript lefthander-- and to one of the sorriest teams in MLB. Actually the Yankees managed to lose the series to the Pirates this year--after sweeping them each of the last two. Only 2 runs scored, and you have to put part of this loss on Giardi. He seems to think that just putting nine players out there in pinstripes is sufficient to score and win. Given that you have neither Damon nor Matsui, can someone tell me why the single most productive bat in the lineup, Giambi, is sitting on the bench. I have in the past railed against the offensive futility of Jose Molina, complaingin that the crater sized hole in his bat disqualifies him as a viable back-up catcher. Can someone tell me when and why he became the Yan kees' number one catcher. Game after game Posada either DH's or plays first base, while Molina weakens the bottom of the order. Bad enough. But without the Dh, when playing no way Jose means sitting Giambi or Posada, when it means a bottom third that reads Christian, Molina, Mussina (who had one more hit than Molina by the way), then I don't see why Giardi dopesn't put Posada behind the plate. What's the worst that can happen? He commits a throwing error? Well Molina had one of those as well. Tonight the Yankees' failure to break the two run barrier (which should have a catchy name like the Mendoza line) was less about choking with RISP than fielding a really weak lineup.

Having said that, the weak line-up does put added pressure on the one superstar uniquely unable to handle it. I refer of course to AROD (Reggie had a candy bar named after him; I suggest Alex go with an ice cream treat: Mr. Softy. The last time I lambasted Mr. Softy, Anonymous complained that Abreu had failed just as badly in the same clutch situation. Since then, Abreu has hit a game winning double yesterday and driven in the only two runs tonight while AROD has done...nothing (Mussina had one more hit than he did too). In fact, once Abreu had tied the game in the seventh tonight, AROD cam up with two out and two on and a chance tto get the Yankees the lead or even bust the game open. He bounced out to raise his left on base number for the evening to four. He's just not the kind of superstar that lifts all boats, which is why you cannot surround him with a subpar line-up and expect him to deliver victories.
With the Rays losing again, the Yanks had a chance to get them selves right back in the East division race, and they blew it against a AAA level club. There are no real solutions here, easy or otherwise, but they really need right handed bats.

Last point: it didn't matter tonight, but when Giardi hhas noone to hit after the number six guy, he should bat Cano fifth and Posada sixth. Cano runs well enough to score on a Posada hit, Posada will still be out there on the bases after a Cano hit, waiting for the likes of Molina to push him home.