THIS IS JUST SICKENING

The Yankees split a 4 game series at home against the single worst road team in baseball. and once again, it came down to the fact that these are the anti-Yankees, a team that is at its worst when things are on the line. After another miraculous performance by a man with literally no stuff at all, the Yankees had a chance to win in the 8th and again in the 9th and failed to bring anyone home. Two lousy runs against mediocre Royal pitching is just plain unacceptable. And look Matsui is near the top of the baatting table, so is Damon, so is AROD, Giambi is on fire etc and still they don't score whe n they need to. And now a sad and intractable contradiction has become all too clear. I've been saying the Yankees need to play small ball for years, but now that they have a manager willing to do it--Giardi sacrificed at the perfect time in the eighth, they have a team so overtaken by therir own gag reflex that they can't cash the opportunites that brand of baseball survives. After the game, Giardi said, with a futility that recalled that other Joe, "We had our chances and we just kept battling." Translation: we just kept creating opportunites for ourselves to fail, and fail we did.