Shitty Loss: Yankee Stadium Edition

I guess it was too good to be true. After the bullpen shut down the Yankees in the first game of the series, it would have been too much to hope for that Jesse Carlson didn't shit the bed 2 nights in a row. The Matsui homer was a no-doubter, but in Carlson's defence, the Posada shot is probably an out in 29 other ballparks (I guess I shouldn't complain too much, though, since Randy Ruiz's (!) home run was a 314-foot Yankee Stadium special). And, all things considered, I guess, I'd rather the Jays blow it in the 8th than have to put up with another annoying Yankee walk-off win.

Encarnacion's first Blue Jay home run was a bomb, so that was nice, and the Jays did their routine of making things look interesting in the 9th. But again, you can't really expect to come back off of Rivera (no matter how many times the announcers bring up Scutaro's home run off of him in Oakland 23 years ago).

I wonder what it's going to take to end Cito's love affair with Carlson, though. As awesome as he was last season- and he was- he just doesn't have it this year. I'm not going to pretend to understand why, but it's tough watching him get trotted out there almost every time there's a big at-bat against a lefty late in the game. Maybe because there were other, sometimes better, options against lefties out there last year (Downs, Ryan, even Tallet), but it seemed like Carlson was put in similar situations as tonight late in games a year ago and didn't piss himself in the process.

I realize that none of this really matters, as the Jays are already playing for next season, but you'd at least like to see some glimmers of hope that some of the problem areas that the team has had this year are at least looking to be turning the corner heading into the off-season.