24 innings of baseball

over the last 28 hours. I'm too tired to write much now, but let's see what comes out:

Very well pitched game by Darrell Rasner, who went 5.1 innings and allowed no earned runs. A Jeter throwing error in the first enabled Oakland to score three times that inning, but all the runs were unearned. After that, Rasner buckled down, pitching another 4.1 scoreless innings. His fastball topped out at 89 mph with pinpoint control, and he showed solid command of his curve and changeup.

The bullpen came through in fine form - 7.2 innings of scoreless, two-hit ball. In order, Henn, Proctor, Myers, Vizcaino, Farnsworth, Mo and finally Bruney (again). Yes, every single reliever on the team was used, and they were the true heroes tonight.

On the offensive side, Robbie Cano had a stellar game - it wasn't just the three hits, but that he actually drew two walks (again) tonight. After not walking in the first eight games, he's drawn four in the last two! Is it new found discipline, or is it just poor Oakland pitching? We'll see...

I personally would have pinch-hit Posada for Nieves in the fifth when the Yanks were down by one with two on and two out. Nieves popped out. Posada was inserted in the seventh with Cano on first and lined a curve into the right field corner that tied the game.

Horrible defense (again). Four errors (two by Jeter, and one by Abreu and Cano). They're lucky to win this game with defense like that.

On the flip side, Melky has been playing a spectacular left field in Matsui's absence. He gunned down Bobby Crosby at home in the first inning (which turned out to be a huge play - that run would have won the game for Oakland had he scored).

On the postgame show, Bruney said he enjoyed striking out Travis Buck to end the game because he had slammed his helmet down after scoring the winning run the previous night. He specifically said 'it wasn't classy.' Personally, I didn't have a big problem with it. He's just a rookie who was excited - but hey, if it makes Bruney pitch better, then I hope he takes offense to everything.

I can't believe there's another game in 14 hours, and I can't believe I was able to write this much (a lot of incidental 'agains').

4-3 Yanks (much needed)