Yankees run into Kazmir, fall 6-4

Scott Kazmir is a very good, young pitcher. The Yankees were able to get his pitch count up by working a lot of deep counts, forcing him out of the game after six innings and 117 pitches. They had three innings to feast on the supple meat of the hopelessly terrible Devil Ray bullpen, but came up a bit short despite back-to-back jacks from Jorgey and Godzirra.

Clemens looked a bit flat and took the loss. After the game, Torre predictably blubbered about how "These last two games, he has given us so much more than we could've ever expected." Really, Joe? I don't know what you expected for a pro-rated $28 million, but I expected the Rocket to throw a no-hitter every night while riding around the diamond on a unicycle and simultaneously juggling flaming torches and knives. Well, maybe not, but to imply that he's performing above expectations when his ERA is 4.20 is unreasonable.

Speaking of Joe, is he really going to bat Melky out of the two-hole indefinitely? It's such nonsense. I love the Melkster as much as any other Yankee fan, and pointing out his shortcomings sort of feels like hitting a puppy dog, but the man has an OBP of .331. The optimal run-producing top of the order at this point would probably be Abreu-Jeter-ARod-Posada-Matsui, but as long as Torre's at the helm, we're going to see a decrepid Damon and a still-developing Melky take at-bats away from the more capable hitters.