IF YOU HAVE TO LOSE,

this is the way to do it: Mussina getting lit up on the way to the worst road shutout in team history. Why does this one hurt so good?

1. There can no longer be any dispute, Moose is done, if not for his career certainly for this season. the Yankees can no longer afford to give games away by putting him on the mound. torre is already said that it's tough with all that he has accomplished, but you know what, he never did all that much for the Yankees and he still has never won a ring.

2. If Torre does the play the sentimental old fool, a part for which he has shown himself perfectly cast, and decides to give Moose another chance, it will grease the skids for his own departure into the retirement home.

3. The Yankees, including this Yankee team, have always responded well to humiliation. I think the chances of their having a successful series against Boston and a good run after that were actually increased by the shameful way they collapsed last night.

Taken as a whole, however, this past series has ben little short of a disaster. The Yankees have altogether closed one of their routes to the playoffs and what may be worse they've opened the other route to some real competition, the Tigers themselves. I have been confident about the Yankees' wild card chances because I knew they would ultimately pass the Mariners. But the Tigers have 6 games left against the Royals, 6 games left against the White Sox (the wqorst team in all of baseball), and only three left against Cleveland. The Yankees could have put them away with a 3-1 victory in the series. Instead they're only a game back of N.Y. and looking like the favorites to take it.