John's Takeaway Points from Last Night's Horrifying Defeat

1. The Yankees have a big decision to make about Hector Noesi. (Suzyn wholeheartedly agrees.) He's shown he can pitch in the majors, and he deserves a shot as a starter, but right now he's not getting the innings. The team might send him back to Scranton, so he can stretch out his innings and be ready if a starter goes down. Starting pitching is everything. The starting pitcher has an enormous impact on which team will win the game. (Suzyn agrees.)

2. Maybe it's just John, but in the 9th inning, with a team down by four runs, couldn't Mark Teixeira have simply slapped the ball to the left side and gotten on base, which is what the Yankees needed. The Blue Jays were in a huge right side overshift, and if Mark hit toward third, he could have jogged to first. But if it was easy, everybody would do it. It's not easy. Jason Giambi couldn't do it. (Suzyn noted that big hitters often fear changing their swing will cause slumps.) (Suzyn later noted that Mark  has been hitting for 20 years now, so it's hard to imagine one swing causing a slump.) It's not easy, though. What do we know?

3. The Yankees have dug themselves a hole in this Toronto series, because they'll face tougher pitchers today and tomorrow. Last night was a game in which they seemingly had an advantage, but it didn't work. (Suzyn agrees.) Starting pitchers are important to each game. The team with the better starter has a huge advantage.