Splitsville in Anaheim; The Royals Loom

Angels 3, Yankees 2
Yankees 10, Angels 1

Two games back to back that pretty much sum up this team.

Saturday, Randy pitches pretty well. Not Randy Johnson well, but well enough to win most games. But for another game the bats are dead. Solo homers by Jeter in the first and Matsui in the ninth, and nothing in between.

Today, Colon didn't have it, Posada put on a personal highlight reel and it was over early. Mussina with six good innings. Mariano finally gets in a game, by the way, pitching a scoreless ninth. Flying home tomorrow; the home opener Tuesday is against KC.

What really bothered me about Saturday's loss was something that bothered me all last year. And that's the total lack of patience at the plate. The first couple of innings, the Yankees were taking a lot of pitches; after that, with the exception of Giambi and Damon, they were hacking away, making Santana's job a lot easier.

Announcers are constantly telling us how much video these guys watch, and how great that is. What are they watching video of -- their home run swings? The offensive formula of the Yankees' most recent championship teams was very simple: Take a lot of pitches. Get into the other team's bullpen as early as possible. This works becasue the bullpen, especially the middle part of the bullpen, is the weakest part of most teams; it's what they spend the least money on and it's where talent overall seems to be thinnest.

Since 2002 or so the Yankees have pretty much abandoned that approach. This pattern of one huge game, then a number of games where they can't seem to score at all, happened a lot last year and is going to be repeated this year unless they adopt a more patient approach and get the cheap runs that patient-hitting teams get.

Looking forward: 2-4 isn't great, but it's not terrible, and that's one West Coast swing down already. The starting pitching, my biggest concern, was actually pretty good overall. The bullpen still worries me (am I the only person who thinks that we shuoldn't have gotten quite so entranced by Farnworth's one good year last year?). So a lot is still up in the air.

As to playing KC this week, this is the sort of team that the Yankees can have trouble getting motivated to play, even on Opening Day. And it's too early for KC to realize that they don't have a chance this season, so they're dangerous. The fact that they're all day games (meaning I'm going to miss them, being at work) could be a blessing in diguise. If they turn out to all be glorious wins I can catch them on Yankees Rewind at night.