John's Takeaway Points from Tonight's Loss

1. Of all the losses in this recent streak, this one hurts the most. When you go into the bottom of the sixth with a 5-1 lead, you have to win that game. You HAVE to win that game. The Yankees did not win this game. This is a tough loss. They have lost the last six, but none hurts like this.

2. Tampa Bay's pitchers retired 14 of the last 15 Yankee batters. Not one hit. The Yankee batters were absolutely ineffective, after they had chased David Price from the mound. It's hard understand, but that's baseball. Yes, that is baseball. Who can figure it out? But make no mistake: This has been a tough Yankee loss. A real tough Yankee loss.

3. The Redsocks are losing to Baltimore. Go figure. But you know what? That only makes this Yankee loss tougher. This has been the worst Yankee loss of all the six recent ones. This is a terrible Yankee loss. Wow, it is a really terrible Yankee loss. And Boston isn't done yet. Go figure.

3. "That's terrible for the Yankees. The beat goes on, the beat goes on, they have now lost six in a row... Imagine: They are now only ONE game over .500!"

4. It's hard to figure what is going on with the Yankees, but make no mistake: this was a tough Yankee loss. A real tough Yankee loss. Brutal. Of course, every loss you might say is a terrible loss. But tonight, it was really terrible. The Yankees had a 5-1 lead. You're supposed to win that game!

5. In the first four and a third inning, the Yankees had five runs. In the second four and two thirds - that's as close to half the game as you can get - they did not get a hit. NOT A HIT. That's really bad. How can anybody be happy about that? Well, nobody can be happy about that. This was a terrible loss. It's the worst one yet.