This makes perfect sense.
Just when the Yankees seemed to be building some momentum, just when the two-steps-forward-one-step-back mentality might be dissipating, they fell on their faces at home in a 2-1 loss to the Mets on Friday night.
R.A. Dickey, Mike O'Connor, Jason Isringhausen and Francisco Rodriguez teamed up to hold New York to just four hits in the loss. Look at those names again. The Yankees dropped to 13-12 at home, unacceptable for any team with postseason aspirations. Worse yet, New York did nothing to change its reputation as a team that needs the homer to survive, struggling with runners in scoring position yet again.
The loss coupled with the Red Sox's seventh straight win dropped the Yankees behind their rival and into third place in the AL East.
Freddy Garcia certainly pitched better than his fate, allowing just two runs on five hits over seven innings. He dropped to 3-3 despite an impressive 3.12 ERA. Again, unacceptable to lose these types of games when your fifth starter is giving that effort.
Dickey had Yankees batters completely befuddled, allowing only Mark Teixeira's wall-scraping solo homer. Daniel Murphy's solo homer in the sixth seemed innocent enough, but it turned out to be the game-winning hit.