Finishing Line; RIP 2008 Yankees

BLUE JAYS 6

YANKEES 2

There is not much left to say about the 2008 Yankees, their collapse is as complete now as it was three weeks ago when the completed a 3-7 road trip that took them from Toronto to L.A. to Minnesota.

It is amazing that a franchise with a $210 million payroll could be playing for peanuts come September 1, but that is life in Yankee land right now.

The Yankees who were five back of the Red Sox when the week started, are now seven back. They are also 11.5 and pushing 12.5 games back of the first place Rays. If you don't call this lackluster performace from this week as giving up on the season, then I don't know what you call it.

The Yankees never gave themselves a shot today against the Blue Jays, as Andy Pettite continues to be one in a long line of overpriced All-Stars to struggle here in the last two months. In the first inning Pettite walked Marco Sutaro to start the ballgame, and then gave up a single to Alex Rios. Vernon Wells then came up and poked a single to right to drive in Scutaro for a 1-0 lead. All of this with one out in the inning.

Rod Barajas then doubled to left,driving home Rios and Wells to give Toronto a 3-0 lead. The game was virtually over then, because with Blue Jay's Ace Roy Halladay on the mound the Yankees could ill afford to give up more than two runs. Well they did and it was too late.

Halladay once again mastered the Yankees, beating them for the third time this year. He went seven innings, surrendering eight hits and two runs. It was not like the Yankees didn't have chances they did, and left 16 men on base in the process. The most guilty parties being Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano, who each left three men on base.

So lets start playing TAPS for these Yankees. Their season is over. The clutch performers like Jeter, A-Rod, Matsui, and Giambi are not doing enough. A-Rod has had a strange year - as ususal, failing to produce in key situations and looking distracted. Andy Pettite looks old, Mariano Rivera is being overused, and can't seem to get out of games that are tied without giving up more runs to the opposing team to break that tie. What a disaster - if the elder Stienbrenner was still running the show and not his two idiot sons, then someone would be fired.

I'll try to keep talking about the Yankees in the month of September, but it is getting hard to do. The Yankees are quickly not becoming a stroy anymore. They are now a story for the comics section. With the Mets racing for a division title, and NFL football about to start, the Yankees are not important anymore. I apoligize, but the Yankee players and manager leave me no choice.