Thoughts About Last Night and Next Week

Last night's win wasn't one of the better wins in recent memory. Mo blew his fifth save of the year, the Yankees sleeping bats almost wasted a solid start by Phil Hughes, and Jorge Posada throws like a girl. Still, whether it was a "good" win or not is irrelevant because it was an important win.

Had the Yankees gone on to lose that game 3-2 last night, all of Yankeeland would be losing its collective mind right about now, and they'd probably be justified. I wouldn't be feeling to good about things right now if the Yankees were just one bad series in Toronto away from a do-or-die series in Fenway this weekend.

Luckily, that didn't happen. They responded to Mo's blow save by tying the game off Jonathan Papelbon in the 9th, and then literally walking-off in the 10th. The magic number is down to one, the fears of an epic collapse are gone, and thanks to a surprising Mariners win the division is even still in play (although still a long shot).

It's not easy for a fan like me to forget all that horrible baseball we've had to endure over the last two month, but I'm going to try. For now I'm going to hope that it was just a slump, something like that bad September the 2000 Yankees went through before easily winning another ring. And who knows, maybe this slump could actually end up being a good thing. That all depends on which team you feel more comfortable playing in the ALDS, Texas with homefield or Minnesota without homefield.

So who do you feel is the better matchup for the Yanks?

....Also, I know I didn't mention A-Rod's homer, but is anyone else amazed that he's now just one homer shy of 30 again?