It was a tough loss last night, but there is a glimmer of hope for the rotation: Andy Pettitte threw a successful bullpen and will hopefully return in time to tune up for the postseason.
The Yankees are still in first place, they still have the best record in baseball (tied with the Rays and a game over the Padres), and they still need any combination of 30 Yankee wins and Red Sox losses to clinch a playoff spot.
But the Red Sox are now 5 back in the loss column. A week ago they were 7 back. If the Yankees play .500 through the end of the season (17-17), the Red Sox need to go 22-11 to overtake the Yankees. That's .667 ball, just about what the BoSox have been playing since they beat the Yankees 2-1 to avoid a sweep August 9.
The Yankees could use a hot streak to break the tension.
Hard to have a hot streak with Francisco Cervelli (3 for 26, .115/.179/.115) and Ramiro Pena (8 for 32, .250/.265/.313) in the lineup.
But maybe I shouldn't pick on the little guys: Jeter is 2 for 20, Cano is 4 for 19, and everybody else is hitting just around their season average. Hopefully everyone clicks at once and surges deep into October.
Ivan Nova is in some trouble. There's an allegation that Nova and minor leaguer Wilkins de la Rosa injected each other with B-12 while they were teammates in Trenton. B-12 isn't banned, but MLB is investigating to find out why the two would inject each other, rather than have trainers do it with proper supervision and medical record, and to make sure that their B-12 wasn't like Miguel Tejada's B-12.