Forgive us, o Yankee juju lords, for we hath sinnethed

Mmm-mm-mm, a loss.

A delightful, masterful, wonderful, perfectly and strategically placed loss.

Like an Arnold Palmer three-wood, shot between the nylon wickets of a Sports Illustrated cover model, 300 yards and into the cup. Bingo. Our second magnificent loss in a row. We're heating down, making our deadline stretch walk. A loss to Tampa, not an easy thing to do. A loss in front of Moneybags Steinbrenner, who surely watched from the home theater at his Florida death star, "Hal-A-Lago."

A beautiful loss. A dominating loss. We got behind early - the first Ray up homered - grabbed ourselves by the neck and never let go. We hammered those nails into our coffin - from the inside. The game was never in doubt, thanks to Ivan Nova, known as "Old Unreliable."

Today, the papers say Ivy has probably thrown his last game in Yankee stripes. If so, it was his greatest. Let the record show that Nova exploded when it counted: He gave up five runs in four and a third innings, a towering hiccup in a "must lose" series - arguably the most important in this decade. With Nova pitching "lights on," this game was always in jeopardy. Bravo.

But last night's loss was a team effort. When you tally 10 hits, you run the risk of randomly clumping a few together, causing dangerous runs to score. Fortunately, the Yankees placed them surgically. They did no damage. Every starter but Chase Headley left at least one runner on base. Jacoby "2021" Ellsbury left five. (I shudder to think where we'd be if he gets injured.) Also, Mark Teixeira had a huge night: One for four, lifting his average to .191.

We came through. We lost. We're back to two above .500, five losses down in the Wild Card, and behind four other teams. We're back to nowhere, going nowhere, from nowhere.

Yesterday, the Tweet world exploded with the "rumor" that the Washington Nats have decided to cough up their all-world pitching prospect - Lucas Giolito - for Andrew Miller. I guess it's a start. Cashman will wheedle for more - (last July, when the Yankees wanted San Diego's stopper, Craig Kimbrel, we offered our then top prospect Jorge Mateo, plus several others) - but my guess is it's all over but the negotiating. We certainly won't trade Miller for one kid who might tomorrow become a Tommy John stat, but the fact that the news was leaked means we're in negotiations - and hopefully, the flood gates will open.

Last night, if Hal had any remaining hopes about some 2016 Hollywood miracle, they went up in a super nova. Thank you, Old Unreliable. You came through in the clutch.

All right, let's make it three in a row.