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It was a tale of two aces last night in the Bronx. Unfortunately for the Yankees, it was the best of times for the Rays, as David Price limited the Bronx Bombers to only two runs over seven innings. Meanwhile, it was another outing of discontent for CC Sabathia, who not only surrendered four runs to the anemic Rays' offense, but once again could not protect a lead. As a result, the Yankees dropped to 1-7 in games featuring the two lefties, and, for only the second time since 2009, lost a fourth consecutive game started by Sabathia.
Despite the disappointing loss, the Yankees were able to maintain a share of first place when the Orioles suffered a rare one-run defeat in Oakland. Meanwhile, the Angels moved to within 2.5 games of the Bronx Bombers in the Wild Card race thanks to a late game comeback over the Royals.
Eduardo Nunez made a costly error in last night's game, which, although a significant part of the Yankees' loss, really isn't newsworthy. Throughout his minor and major league career, Nunez has struggled to make routine plays in the field, so his costly miscue was simply the result of delayed inevitability. Nonetheless, Joe Girardi talked about trying to not let Nunez' frustration snowball, but at this point, if the short stop has any confidence left, it's probably already buried under an avalanche.
The Yankees haven't had much success as a team of late, but Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez continue to rack up milestones. In the fifth inning, Jeter took over sole possession of 10th (or 11th depending on whom you ask) place on the all-time hit list with a single, while Arod used a titanic home run in the eighth inning to pass Lou Gehrig for ninth place on the runs list.
The Yankees' rotation is starting to round back into shape with the return of Ivan Nova on Saturday and Andy Pettitte on Tuesday. Now, if only they could hit too.
Many Yankee fans haven't been happy with the depth of the team's roster, but at least they don't have to watch the Red Sox, who, according to their own manager, are composed of the weakest collection of players in the team's history.