Rocket broken

Roger Clemens' senior citizen bones are crumbling with every pitch, and now he's been removed from the Yankees' roster and will have sit out a championship series against the Red Sox, if his team can somehow come all the way back from 0-2 and get there.
Joe Torre has put Ron Villone on the squad in Clemens' place, reversing an earlier misstep he made in having no one to come out of the bullpen to pitch to Cleveland's lefthanded power hitters.

Ohlendorf on golf

With the Yankees' decision to leave Ron Villone off the post-season roster for this series, the team is left without a single lefthanded pitcher in the bullpen.
You can't blame anyone for not having faith in Ron Villone.
But rookie Ross Ohlendorf, who got the nod instead, isn't going to get it done for you either, at least based on last night's dismal performance.
Not having a lefty in the bullpen, George King of the New York Post pointed out Thursday, leaves the Yankees without a strong situational matchup in key spots against the three big lefthanded hitters in the Indians' lineup (Kenny Lofton, Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner).
The revenge-seeking former Yankee Lofton had 3 RBI against the bullpen in last night's game, and Hafner hit a solo home run.

Villone placed on disabled list with strained ERA

DETROIT (AP) -- The Yankees put left-handed reliever Ron Villone on the disabled list Friday and recalled right-hander Brian Bruney from Triple-A Scranton.
Villone injured his lower back covering first base Tuesday night at Anaheim.
"Talking to Joe (Torre) yesterday, I told him 'It's not good,"' Villone said. "I've got to do something, I guess rest a little bit. I'm hoping it will just take the 15 days.
"I don't think it's anything major, but maybe a strain that leads to a spasm."
Villone has a 4.42 ERA in 31 games, striking out 25 and walking 15 over 36 2-3 innings. He pitched in a career-high 70 games last season for the Yankees.
Bruney was 2-1 with a 3.40 ERA in 50 games. He struggled in July, allowing nine of his 18 total earned runs this season over 10 appearances.

Hilarious

Most teams can bank on a win if they end up scoring 9 runs in a game.

Not the Yankees. In fact, New York's pitching staff gave up twice that last night. Starting with Mussina lasting less than two innings and leaving the Yankees with a 7-1 deficit. Then Villone gave up 4 runs, Ramirez 2 and Henn another 5 runs with three innings of mopup duty.

One Angel, Garrett Anderson, hit the Yankees' pitchers like they were serving up beach balls and ended the night with 10 RBIs.

How quickly all the gloating about Joba Chamberlain's success and the Red Sox having bad luck with the acquisition of Eric Gagne gives way to reality.

And the reality is that the Yankees are 14th in team ERA, 21st in allowing walks, fifth worst in the Majors in striking batters out, second to last in saves and 20th in team ERA in the seventh through ninth innings. (thanks, Mariano, and good luck on that contract extension).

With victories by Boston and by Seattle, the Yankees drop another two games back in both the A.L. East race and the Wild Card.

Good times.