Mo Blows game but he is not to blame

The story of the game will be that Mariano Rivera blew a two run lead with two outs in the ninth giving up a two run homerun to Jason Bay to tie the game and lead to a walkoff homerun in extra innings and the Yankees losing the game. I don't think anyone ever expects Mariano Rivera to blow a save especially a two run save with two outs but he is human and the Red Sox know him better then any other team. The real story of the game is the Yankees continued inability to score runs with runners in scoring position. The New York Yankees coming into the game were third worst in the league with runners in scoring position and then went out and were four for nineteen last night with runners in scoring position. This is unacceptable and just shouldn't continue to happen for this team, they don't do the little things right, I like the fact that Joe Girardi trys and steal, hit and run and bunt when he can but when they need a sac fly they don't get it or when they need a ground ball they don't get it. I blame one guy and that is the hitting coach Kevin Long, I still don't know how this guy has a job as I think he is just horrible, last year was bad and he had the excuse of the injuries but there is no excuse this year, No A-rod I know but they have everone else and this just can't continue. I think this team is too focused on hitting homeruns and not the little basehit or sac fly. A perfect example was last night in the ninth inning when they had a 4-2 lead and the bases loaded and no outs. Robinson Cano was up and instead of hitting the ball in the air what does he do, hits it to second with the infield in for a 4-2-3 double play. How can Cano even think of hitting the ball on the ground, because he is trying to pull the ball through the hole and getting two rbis, Kevin Long should be telling him before he comes up, you need to hit a fly ball. I know he is a major leaguer and shouldn't need to be told but what is the hitting coach for then. I just think it is the whole approach and he doesn't drill into these guys the little things like that, if they hit two fly balls and take a 6-2 lead instead of 4-2 then they win the game but once Boston got out of that mess they felt they had a chance and took advantage of it. I don't know how much longer this can go on but at some point this season if this continues I wonder if the talk of Kevin Long getting fired will heat up, Don Mattingly would never let this happen but I don't think he would come back.

AJ was Dealing

AJ Burnett for the second time in as many starts picked up Chien-Ming Wang by getting a win. AJ Burnett was just simply dominating, he had a no hitter through six and then hit a hiccup in th seventh when he gave up 3 straight singles and a sac fly to tie the game at two. The Yankees gave him back the lead three to two right away and he came back out and finished with a one-two-three eight inning. He had one walk and nine strikeouts with those three hits and two runs he gave up. Brian Bruney came in for the ninth and was as dominant as I ever saw him striking out the side. Brett Gardner had a good game driving a couple of balls and getting a big rbi double in the eighth inning. He ended up with 3 hits, Nick Swisher hit a homerun after taking a ball near his head and also had a double. Derek Jeter had 3 hits and 3 rbi, Mark Teixera had a sac fly, Robinson Cano, Xavier Nady and Melky Cabrera each had a hit. There was breaking news after the game coming from Peter Abraham on his lohud Yankees blog http://yankees.lhblogs.com Xavier Nady had sharp pain in his elbow and will have a MRI tomorrow. The Yankees will go for the series win tomorrow with Andy Pettitte facing Andy Sonnastine at 4:00PM tomorrow. They also will go for the winning roadtrip before the home opener on Thursday.