Yankees' bleak performance

The Yanks had a distinct edge in Toronto today and couldn't exploit it. Andy Pettitte riding a wave of ace level performances matched up against the Blue Jays' enigma A.J. Burnett. The Toronto righty features high-octane stuff and an ERA of 5.23 (6.36 at home.) Peter Abraham of LoHud gave us a preview: "Did you see the Toronto lineup? Eckstein (1 HR) is the DH. Rod Barajas (8 HR, 28 RBI) is hitting cleanup and Mench (.210/.290/.282) is hitting fifth. A.J.Burnett is tough, but you have to win this game."

Nothing is easy for this team, final score Toronto 4 Yanks 1. The game wasn't as close as the score would indicate. Burnett shutdown the anemic order, an occurrence that is becoming routine. An inside perspective from the beat reporter, " The only approach this team seems to have at the plate at times is to get the game over with quickly."

Want more dire straits? "The Yankees are on a pace to score 742 runs. That would be their fewest in a full season since 1992, when they went 80-82. The record eventually caught up to the offense last season. That’s not going to happen this time around unless there is some sort of complete turnaround. The Yankees are a generally listless team that plays with very little consistency. They have a bunch of guys hurt, a bunch of AAAA players on the roster and a manager and coaching staff with little experience.
Today would be the seventh shutout of the season (one fewer than all last season) and the 33rd time they will have scored two or fewer runs. That’s 35 percent of the games.
As the boys like to say, it is what it is. And what it is isn’t very good."--LoHud.

Now that it's no longer a secret, we get to see how the brothers Steinbrenner react to a few lingering questions: Is the plan working? Actually, a better question would be, exactly what is the plan? Are Sidney Ponson and Eric Milton part of the youth movement? There has been a lot of rhetoric about competing for a championship. Talk's cheap. Time to answer some questions with actions.

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