Good morning, good afternoon or good evening to you friends - whichever of those three apply. Welcome to the final August edition of The Gospel According to "L". For those of you that are counting - we have only five more regular season Gospels left in 2004. This week, as usual, we're going to talk about three subjects - one of them being the six-game road trip this past week. If you're ready, I'm ready, so let's hop to it!

Let's begin with the first and only visit to Cleveland this season. I’ve just gotta tell you, every time I see Jacobs Field on TV I get more and more impressed. Back in the late 1990's I used to hate seeing the Jake, especially after 1997. But nowadays, as was the case when I first saw it after being forced to see the Cleveland Municipal dump, I sort of love it - it has its beauty. Monday and Tuesday were basically the same exact game - Yankees win in the ninth against Bob Wickman and Tom Gordon gets the win. Monday night the Bombers blow leads of 3-0 and 4-3 - on Tuesday night they come back from a 4-1 deficit to win. Now Monday night was Mike Mussina's first start coming off the DL, and it wasn't exactly something to be thrilled about. Five innings, three runs, four hits, and three walks! This is a guy - just like Jon Lieber - who barely walks anybody! And then Flash Gordon blows the lead in the eighth, but thankfully Sheff does his thing and hits one toward the Gund Arena to give Mariano a chance to close it out. We're going to talk a bit more about Flash and the pen a bit later on. Tuesday night it was 4-4 going into the ninth and then Hideki Matsui made sure another come from behind win would be added to the total. Then on Wednesday night Kenny Lofton gets his 2,000^th hit, a squirrel decides it wants to see the game and mingle with the Yankee infield (right between Jeter and A-Rod) and then an overused Flash allows the Tribe to take the lead and win. If you call this a good series, you're either in denial or delusional. This was anything but a great series - the Yankees could easily have been swept. Then again, the Yankees could also have easily swept this series. This is another one of those eye of the beholder situations. But the one factor that I choose is that the Indians were in a long losing streak and quickly falling back to earth where these punk kids belong. I just wish the Marlins could have done the same thing last October.

Now let's talk about the four games up in Toronto. On Thursday night I remember hearing Charley Steiner say that this could be a long night for Job Lieber after he was beaten up for four runs in three innings. I actually love it when they're wrong times like this - Lieber settled down, and the Bombers ended up tying it by the sixth, and then scored three times in the ninth against what is supposedly the Jays' closer - Jason Frasor. Friday night Esteban Loaiza pitches - and you could feel it coming my friends. He had a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth, and even that wasn't enough to nearly blow it. If it wasn't for Tanyon Sturtze and Paul Quantrill, and the fact that the Yankees did add some insurance runs in the seventh, it could have been a disaster. C.J. Nitkowski then comes in and immediately Carlos Delgado hits one towards the Northwest Territories with two men on. Just imagine if the Bombers had not scored two more runs - they would have lost this game and the lead in the East would be even smaller! Now onto Saturday - that was truly a game to enjoy come the ninth inning. Tony Clark hits three moonshots, Ruben Sierra hits a grand slam right off the hotel, and the Jays need Frank Menechino to pitch after leading Kevin Brown 4-0! And this was with Ted Lilly on the mound! Now this was the first time I ever got to see a position player pitch - I remember Alvaro Espinoza did it for the Yankees back either in 1991 or '92 in Chicago, but I never did see that. Menechino comes in with his junk - and Jorge Posada singles, as does Matsui. I'm thinking please let's score twenty runs! I'm not into "let's not embarrass the other team - to hell with that!" You should go out there looking to take the enemy apart limb from limb! Then up came Ruben Sierra, again. He lined one, and I thought all right another run. Nope, Chris Woodward catches it, and the party ends. Kevin Brown got the win - first time a starter has won since August 15 - that's nearly two weeks! In the next segment we'll talk more about that. Now onto Sunday - I remember I slept in till about 1:30 and I thought to myself damn I'm missing the game! Well I turn on YES, and I see This Week in Baseball is on (I have not enjoyed watching it since Mel Allen died.) I thought how could this be? How the hell can there be a rain delay at SkyDome where the roof opens and closes? Maybe the roof got stuck, I don't know. Well I turn on WCBS radio, and the newsperson says it's being delayed thanks to a power outage in the area. Oh goodie - it's nice and dark in there. Then I figure ok we'll have baseball soon - wrong! A tribute to Blue Jays' radio announcer Tom Cheek. I have no problem with that - I only have a problem with them not informing us! Well the game starts at about I think 2:35 - something like that. This was one of those games that actually bored me. I usually never get bored watching the Yankees, but today, for some strange reason I did. Well the Yanks fall behind 1-0, then A-Rod ties it up with an opposite-field shot, then they take the lead in the fifth on a ground out. I'm thinking ok, we're going to get ourselves a nice little sweep. Thanks to the Communist - Carlos Delgado, I was wrong. Then the Jays score another run it is now 3-2 Toronto. I walked away form the TV and didn't bring my radio for some reason. Well, by the time I get back, it's 6-3 Jays. Miguel Batista is on the mound so we are in a world of crap now. Well eighth inning comes - A-Rod singles with one out, then Matsui singles, and then Bernie singles to make it 6-4 with out and two men on. John Olerud flies out and then El Indio Sierra has the chance to tie the game or at least make the score very close. Well he just stands there and looks at strike three and the hope is lost for the moment. Well then comes the ninth - Jorge Posada pinch hits and sends one towards Quebec to make it 6-4 with nobody out against Jason Frasor - remember Thursday night. Well Tony Clark comes to pinch hit and grounds out, then Kenny Lofton strikes out, and then Jeter walks and A-Rod singles. All right, tying runs aboard, with two out for Godzilla. He just pops on up, and there's Orlando Hudson to make the catch and the Bombers fail yet again to sweep a four-game series up in Canada's media capital. The road trip overall was 5-2, but it could easily have been 6-1 or 7-0. The Red Sox have been winning, and now the lead is down to four-and-a-half. We're going to talk more about this starting right now.

I want to first talk about something the Yankee bullpen. For those of you who have yet to read the above paragraphs - Paul Quantrill and Flash Gordon are on pace to set personal records for appearances in a season. Now Quantrill is a sinker pitcher, therefore it might not matter how many times he comes into pitch. However guys like Gordon and even Scott Proctor are fastball pitchers, and the more they are used, the more tired their arms get, and therefore their pitch speed drops. When a power pitcher loses speed on his pitches, they either become wild or get hit hard! Look at Pedro Martinez - at one time he was unhittable. Now he still is pretty much unhittable, but he is more vulnerable than before simply because of his physical frame.

This tells us many things - but one thing this tells us is that the rotation is not doing its job. Kevin Brown has been a little bit shaky, Javy Vazquez seems to have been somewhat figured out by the AL, Jon Lieber is on and off, and then Mike Mussina appears to be a bit more vulnerable than before. I could be wrong about Mussina - I mean the man did just come off the DL not too long ago. The only pitcher who has been very good is El Duque. I told you last week - the fact that he reinvented himself as a changeup artist has turned him into an almost unhittable pitcher. And then another problem is Esteban Loaiza. This is one guy the Bombers should never have acquired! I remember wondering why the White Sox even gave him up in the first place. Well now we know why - he was a one-year wonder! Thankfully he is coming out of the rotation this coming week.

Now you remember Flash Gordon got all the decisions in Cleveland, and the Yankee starters didn't win a game from August 15-27. The bullpen is wearing down, and it will kill them come the Division Series, nevermind the ALCS or World Series, if they make it that far God willing. Remember that in baseball, offense puts behinds in the seats, and starting pitching wins you a division. However all that combined with a solid bullpen wins you a World Series. The Yankee rotation isn't an over-powering one like the Marlins of last year. However it has to be able to pitch to its maximum ability, otherwise nothing will go right. If you have to over depend on your bullpen, you're in a heap of trouble. Why do you think John Wetteland was let go after 1996? Because the Bombers couldn't keep using Mariano Rivera for two innings every game. Look what happened in 2001! They used Mo for two innings almost every time he had a chance to save a game, and it ended up costing them in game seven in the desert! Make no mistake about it - if the bullpen doesn't get sufficient rest, it will be tired come the postseason, and that will cost the Yankees big time! Speaking of postseasons, let's get on with our final topic.

And now I want to somewhat continue one of last week's topics. Remember how I told you that the AL East race is not over? Well the Red Sox have now come a bit closer. As of today - Monday August 30, 2004 - the Yankees only lead the Boston Red Sox by four-and-a-half games! The lead about 2-3 weeks ago was over ten games! All the baseball pundits, including those on YES, we're all saying that the Red Sox should now focus on the Wild Card instead. Well now in late August of 2004, the Sox are within striking distance of the Yankees! And these two play six games this coming month - three in the Bronx, three in the Fenway section of Boston! I thought last year was scary, but this time, with the Bombers vulnerable in pitching, it's even scarier! "Oh but Cat the Sox have always rallied late and fallen short," yeah but eventually that could all change. You cannot keep relying on history. If that was the case the New York Rangers would still hear "1940" in NHL arenas. Now since 1969, the Yankees have never ever blown a division lead - as a matter of fact they're the ones who have either caused or nearly caused teams to blow division leads - the 1978 Red Sox, and those that fell short in '85 and '93 against the Blue Jays and the '86 Sox.

Until the Bombers have officially clinched the division title, the teams below them in the standings must still be watched carefully. Remember what I said last week about the Tortoise and the Hare? It will hold true until the Hare reaches the finish line. Once you see the Yankees opening up the champagne bottles celebrating their seventh straight AL East title, you have to be concerned with what the Sox are doing. And I'm not saying all this so that Red Sox nation can say "you see, Yankee fans are worried! Ha, we got them right where we want them." We will not worry until the division lead is gone completely, however we also cannot get too cocky. Anything can happen my friends. Until next week, take care.