A Heartbreaker In Baltimore

The Yankees got on the board early and staked Ian Kennedy to a 4-0 lead. Could he hold it? No. The Birds stormed right back and tied the score 4-4. Later they were ahead 8-4. Could reliever Ross Ohlendorf hold that lead? No. Once again, the Birds struck back to even the score at 8-8.

So they took this contest into extra innings where the Yankees managed to get a run on a clutch base hit by Hideki Matsui in the top of the 11th and retake the lead 9-8. Could reliever LaTroy Hawkins hold that lead?

I think you know what's coming...

No! The Birds scored 2 runs off of Hawkins in the bottom of the 11th to beat the Yankees 10-9.

When it was all said and done, this roller coaster ride in Baltimore was just one big heartache for the Yankees and their fans, ...

Additional Notes:

This was one messy affair of a baseball game-it was marred by shoddy play all around-pitching and defense...and a big mental error to boot-one of the rare instances where you saw Derek Jeter picked off at 2nd base...

The game also featured a combined 9 home runs...the Yankees had 4 of them: A-Rod, Damon, Giambi and Abreu...

But the big story here was the continuing struggles of Ian Kennedy who gave up 4 runs in the 2nd inning and the failure of the bullpen-or more specifically certain members of the pen i.e. Ross Ohlendorf and LaTroy Hawkins...both were just abysmal...Hawkins for the second day in a row...

Clearly the Yankees have bullpen issues...Only Mo who pitched two scoreless innings and Edwar Ramirez who had another good performance can be counted on at this point in my opinion...

Tomorrow we need a good outing from Andy Pettitte and Joba and maybe we can start another winning streak...

Go Yanks!!!!