In spite of this win, the fact remains that this team is once again underachieving big time. The eight-game win streak was nice and certainly much needed, but the reality is that it was the offense and bullpen that were carrying the team, and that combination won’t work for long, as the game ultimately is all about starting pitching. Inevitably the offense will go through slumps, and that’s exactly what is happening right now. Over the last four games, they’ve scored all of eleven runs, a 2.75 R/G clip. And over that same period, the starting pitching was giving up runs at the rate of 6.40 R/G. Easy to see how they came so close to being swept. But it wasn’t just recently that the starting pitching went to hell — as I noted, it was bad even during the winning streak. The last three times through the rotation the starters have averaged 6.13 R/G.  That ain’t going to cut it come playoff time.

The next week will tell a lot about where this team really is, as they’ve got road series against two playoff-bound teams, first Texas and then Tampa Bay. Hopefully the offense will come back around, but the real test will be with the starters, particularly Javier Vazquez and A.J. Burnett. Assuming Andy Pettitte is back and in mid-season form by the playoffs (something I’m not at all confident of), one of those two guys needs to be back to pitching the way they were earlier in the season.

Photo: ESPN

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So after compiling an impressive eight-game winning streak, the Yankees now have a very unimpressive three-game losing streak and are on the verge of getting swept at home by the team with the worst record in the league. How this team has the best record in all of baseball continues to boggle the mind. Anyway, it’s rookie Ivan Nova on the mound Wednesday to try to prevent this ultimate embarrassment. Go Ivan.

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With Brian Matusz starting for the Orioles, it would have taken the old Good A.J. in order to win this one, though. In three prior starts against the Yankees he’d gone at least six innings and given up only three runs in each one, with a combined ERA of 2.41. So the end result — three runs on five hits — shouldn’t have been all that surprising. And given that Matusz had lost those all three of those games in spite of having “quality” starts in all of them, you figured he was due for a win.  For whatever reasons, he’s one of these guys who doesn’t seem to have all that good of stuff, but consistently shuts down the Yankees. Not much you can do except move on. Fortunately, CC Sabathia starts Tuesday, so that should get the Yankees back on the right track.

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Offensively, the good news was that Alex Rodriguez was back in the lineup and looked healthy, actually legging out an infield single and getting another line drive single. But then there’s that odd little statistic that the media is having fun with, that with A-Rod out of the lineup the Yankees actually went 21-3. If you think about that one though, it kinda makes some sense. Rodriquez is definitely having an off year, no where close to his career numbers. In fact, of the regular players only Curtis Granderson is hitting for a lower average than Alex, and there are five regulars who have both higher SLG and OPS averages than Alex. So you could easily make the case the he should really be batting down at the bottom of the order rather than cleanup, and that indeed, that’s why the Yankees are actually a better team with him out of the lineup — in the cleanup position with the poor season he is having, he’s hurting them more than he’s helping them. Of course, now that he is back, he’ll be in the four slot come hell or high water — but it does make for an interesting discussion.

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Although Ivan Nova clearly out-pitched Morrow, he too wasn’t all that sharp, at least not compared to what we saw in his first two starts. He ended up going fewer innings and giving up more hits and runs than in either of those starts, and also not coincidentally gave up more walks and didn’t record a single strike out for the first time. This was the first time he’d pitched with a big lead, so maybe that was part of it? Or maybe this was just an off-day, and nothing more than that. Still you have to like his attitude — earlier there was the confrontation with Jose Bautista when he didn’t back down, and now it was the obvious (but appropriate) displeasure he showed at Joe Girardi pulling him with two outs in the fifth. Girardi made the right call there, for sure — Nova had let a 5-1 lead shrink to 5-3, and had then put the tying run on base with a walk, and had Lyle Overbay who had doubled on him in the previous inning coming to bat. But still you got to like the pissed off look on his face when he got pulled. Hopefully the rest of the starting rotation will finish the season strong, and there won’t be any need for Nova in the post-season — but he does look like a decent prospect for the future.

So the winning streak is now at seven — finally we do have a long winning streak!  And with what will hopefully be a rejuvenated Javier Vasquez starting today, maybe, just maybe we make it eight, the longest of the season.

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Even with CC’s great pitching though, this one still could have gone either way, as Dallas “Get Off My Mound” Braden was pretty much doing to the Yankee offense what CC was doing to the A’s. Through five innings, the only difference was Jorge Posada’s solo home run which gave NY a 1-0 lead. But then Braden cramped up in the sixth, so Oakland had to turn to their bullpen, and that was that as far as the pitchers’ duel was concerned. Curtis Granderson immediately homered off of Jerry Blevins, and then got a 2-run homer in the seventh, and that was all the offense the Yankees would need. The verdict is still very much out on Granderson and his new hitting approach, but after a short slump he does appear to be back in a groove as he finished the Oakland series going 5-for-15 with three home runs.

So now the win streak is at six games, and Toronto is in for a 3-game series. So far this year, the Yankees have struggled somewhat against the Jays, going 5-7 to date — so this will be a good test to see just how well the team is playing right now. Ivan Nova gets his third MLB start Friday, which should tell us a lot about just how good he is. And Javier Vasquez, after proving himself with a short stint in the bullpen, gets a chance Saturday to prove that he has his act back together. And then Phil Hughes starts the series finale. Between those three pitchers, we might learn a lot about just where the starting rotation is going in to the final stretch. Everyone knows exactly what we have in Sabathia and A.J. Burnett — it’s the rest of the rotation that’s the big question mark right now.

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And good thing that he did, as the Yankee offense took a short breather after scoring 20 runs in the last two games. In fact, three of the four Yankee runs came after pitcher Brett Anderson’s error in the second inning and were thus unearned. Without that one blunder, Good A.J. probably takes an L here. The offense didn’t exactly go ice cold, though — they did manage 10 hits, with Mark Teixeira continuing his hot pace with a 3-for-4 night (albeit two of those hits were somewhat flaky), and Curtis Granderson maybe getting back to where he was a week or so ago with a 2-for-4 night. Only problem was that they ended up going 1-for-9 with RISP, leaving RISP stranded in five different innings.

So now it’s actually a 5-game winning streak, and with CC Sabathia on the mound today it could easily reach six games along with a rare 4-game series sweep. That would certainly get September off to a good start.

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And it’s a good thing, too, as Phil Hughes had yet another mediocre outing. Once again he had a hard time putting away batters, and once again struggled overall with his control, walking five while striking out just one. He did end up giving up just two runs in five innings, so you can’t complain all that much. But where he fits in to the overall rotation in the stretch run, and particularly in the post-season, seems to be quite the puzzle. You really, really need three solid starters to be successful in the playoffs, and at this point, particularly with the emphasis on his innings limit, I just don’t see how Hughes makes that list. So from that perspective, if he can just keep pitching the way he has, that should work. Of course, that means the Yankees are still looking for two other starters to step up their game. The last month of the season should be interesting to see how all that does shake out.

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Poor Joe Girardi has some tough decisions ahead of him once Alex Rodriquez returns to the lineup. Does he really want to mess with the 3-4-5 punch he has right now in Teixeira-Cano-Swisher? Collectively they went 9=for-11 with 7 RBIs and 2 HRs and 3 doubles. And what does he do with Lance Berkman when he gets back? Marcus Thames continues to hit just like you want your DH to hit, getting a 3-run home run, making it 6 HRs in his last 6 games. As they say, I guess those are the types of problems you like to have.

And there was even a bit of good news on the pitching front, as Javier Vasquez put in his second good relief appearance in a row. Over those two games, he’s pitched nine innings and given up just two runs on four hits. Still a small sample size, but he’s starting to look more like the Javier of mid-season form. Combine that with Ivan Nova’s two good starts, and maybe, just maybe, there’s some hope for the starting rotation.

Anyway, this is obviously just one game — but let’s hope this is the game that finally got the Yankees out of the lethargy they’ve been in for the last month.

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Meanwhile, Joe Girardi has quietly slipped back in to his habit of playing Russian roulette with the bullpen, going through Boone Logan, Kerry Wood, Joba Chamberlain, and of course Mariano Rivera in order to get the last ten outs. With pretty much everyone in the bullpen pitching well now, he can get away with this mix-and-match strategy, but at some point I’m afraid it’s going to backfire on him. It only takes one or two of these guys to hit a slump, and this strategy will blow right up on him when he takes someone out who’s pitching well and brings in someone who all of a sudden can’t get anyone out. We’ve seen it happen too many times in the past.

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