AGAIN,

with the fundamentals.

Between the accolades for their hitting and questions about the strength of their opponents, what people seemed to have missed about the yankees recent run of success was how fundamentally sound they were, particularly in the field. Well, everyone should notice now because their record is heading south in direct correlation with their fielding. If you set aside the 12-o blowout, which we can pretty much blame on the decision to pitch Karstens (who hasn't been even mediocre since the broken leg), the losing streak is built on key miscues. Yes, Mo blew up in the 4-3 loss but if it hadn't been for a costly error by Jeter and an absolutely unforgiveable failure on hughes's part to cover first (cost 2 runs), extra innings wouldn't have even been necessary. Last night of course AROD turned an inning ending DP into a prelude to a Slam with one wave of his glove. As Bauer correctly points out, the 4 run result had alot to do with Moose being Moose, i.e. a fragile, pouty prima donna just looking for the lack of support necessary for him to fail in peace. But still,, you put him on the mound, as they have elected to do, then it becomes all the more important to be impeccable so as to not give him any excuses.

I've been following yankee baseball a long time and the only team I can remember that approached this one in streakiness was the Mattingly teams of the mid-80's and you know how that turned out. I am ready to make this prediction, with absolute certainty. the Yankees mat play October baseball, depending on what the momentum dynamics prove to be, but their string of division titles is at an end. The Red Sox are much better at avoiding the losing skein, are much more consistent, that is to say, and with a healthy, if not enormous lead, that fact alone will be determinative.