"Everybody is going through the motions...

"Are you really only going through the motions?"

In keeping with our ongoing musical cavalcade, the above quote is from the great Elvis Costello's groundbreaking, This Year's Model album.

And no, it is directed in no way, shape, or form toward our heart throbs in pinstripes, who battled to a second straight loss in Arizona this afternoon.

Our boys still seemed to be giving their all, they just didn't have enough against a variety of pretty good pitchers, most of whom they had barely seen before.  They did their best.  Even Ma Boone managed to get fired up today—though his afternoon might have been better spent whispering from his "ejected" position just down the hallway from the dugout to have the speedy Cameron Maybin try to steal second base in the ninth.

Quibbles!  A 6-3 West Coast swing is still pretty damned impressive, no matter what happened today.

The only trouble is that all those wins came against two teams that were, indeed, only going through the motions. 

MLB, that awful entity, was once again shocked, shocked today to report attendance down—way down—this year, despite better weather so far this season.

Why this should surprise anyone is the real mystery.  The game as it is played right now is more boring than it has ever been, the fans are abused in every which way, and about half the teams are tanking.

The Yankees saw this firsthand—and took advantage.

The Angels of California in Los Angeles around the Hey Lady! showed occasional signs of life, but they were pretty much befuddled, and the Giants, well, I would've sworn the Giants were just stoned, stumbling around their beautiful park, staring out at the fabulous scenery and exclaiming, "It's all too beautiful!"  while the seagulls swooped and squawked, and assorted baseballs bounced off their gloves and noggins.

Hey, fair dinkum.  Always good to catch a team when it's swooning.

The problem was that, going up against a squad that was interested in playing the game, the Yankees Second Line was put away pretty easily.

Greinke is Greinke, but nobody else out there was exactly Nolan Ryan.  Closer Greg Holland is certainly an estimable veteran but he's not exactly a fearsome figure at this stage in his career.  Yet I had the feeling the Yankees could've hit against him for a full nine without doing more than grazing the baseball.

It's amazing that the Snakes or their fans are still interested, considering all the first-rate talent the team has callously discarded over the past couple years.  But their easy handling of us fills me with foreboding.

Playing the walking dead is one thing.  Going up against the Still Interested is another, and while the Yanks are finally coming home they face 7 straight against the lively Twins and Mariners, with home-and-away sets against Tampa after that, and a visit from the suddenly awakened Red Sox later in the month.

This to be confronted by a team that, as El Duque pointed out, looked very much today as if it had finally hit a wall.

By the time we got to leave Phoenix, we were staring several unpleasant realities in the face, not least of which is that we simply don't have the big No. 1 starter to lead any playoff drive.  Beyond that, we must concede that the dream of a bunch of unknowns hustling their way to a surprise pennants is exactly that—a dream.

Still—a fun trip!