A rainy night in the Bronx marked by The Letter, Sevy, Rizzo and "Joey-Joey-Joey..."

A non-harmonic convergence, you could call last night: Themes running concurrently and in-reverse. Our vaunted bullpen twice nearly blew huge leads against baseball's softest lineup, one seemingly made for a Charmin commercial.  Even at the end, with 12 runs on the scoreboard, El Chapo threatened to walk the tying run to the plate. And this was Baltimore, not exactly a preview of October. 

Still, we won amid a crossfire of emotions:

1. Rob Manfred's letter. Houston's "smoking gun" of Yankee impropriety was finally released to the public. So much for all our self-righteous piety, whining about the Astros and Redsocks. Turns out, the Death Barge was fined $100,000 for trying to cheat, sorta, but doing a lousy job, back in 2015 and 2016. 

So the Yankees weren't as guilty as Houston, who stole signs with electronics after being specifically warned against it. But they weren't virgins, either. 

I wonder who in the Yankee front office thought it a good idea to fight the public release of this letter for the past four years? Seriously, they had to know that it would come out someday - via the court or by leak - and make them look like hypocrites - which, I guess, they are.

Of note, this quote by Brian Cashman, three weeks ago. I mean, in terms of an "Oops, did I say it?" moment, this ventures into Margery Taylor Greene territory. Here's what Cashman told The Atlantic. 

"I get offended when I start hearing we haven’t been to the World Series since ‘09. Because I’m like, ‘Well, I think we actually did it the right way.’ Pulled it down, brought it back up. Drafted well, traded well, developed well, signed well. The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off... People are like ‘Oh, we haven’t been to a World Series...’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think that’s as true a statement as it could be.’ We had a World Series team.” 

As George C. Scott would scream, TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF! I've always considered Cashman to be media-wise. Did he not think those words would haunt him? 

2. Barring injuries, this could be Anthony Rizzo's greatest season. He's off to his best start and seems perfectly built for Yankee Stadium. 

So... if this is his career year, what might we expect?

In 2016, age 26, he hit 32 HRs, drove in 109 runs and batted .292 for the Cubs. Damn, those are Mark Teixeira-in-his-prime numbers. 

It's been a while since a savvied LH hitter tailored his swing to the RF porch, but that's Rizzo. Last night, all three HRs just barely made it. I suspect that none would have been out in many parks. (Certainly not in Camden Yards, with its new dimensions.)  

This bodes well. There's a reason why Rizzo wanted to stay in NY, and it wasn't the low crime rate, the abundant fragrance of flowers, and the traffic-free roadways.

3. The way the YES team touted it, you'd have thought Luis Severino was hurling a perfect game into the eighth, rather than the fifth. Still, I get it. 

Sevy is a talisman for the 2022 Yankees. If he is truly healthy and restored to former glory - thus far, small sample - the Yankees are a completely different team on a truly hopeful trajectory. We would have two No. 1 starters - and maybe even three. That would be incredible.

4. It warmed our hearts last night to see Joey Gallo return to the Yankee dugout after his first HR of the season. In case you missed it, the team gave him the silent treatment, a move often reserved for rookies and hangers-on. After he walked the length of the dugout with barely a handshake, his grin widened as the ruse became clear. Then Gallo's teammates mobbed him. A great moment. 

Gallo seems to be well liked. In the end, maybe that will save him. When he came to bat later, the fans actually chanted "JOEY... JOEY... JOEY..." You could feel the stadium come alive. And then he struck out. 

I don't enjoy writing nasty things about Yankees. And to his credit, Gallo hasn't dogged it in the field. But his HR-or-nothing style adds little to the Yankee attack, and it hurts to see a guy so unable to adapt to an over-shift that we're supposed to hope for a rule change next year? Nah. 

On a team with no power, like Baltimore, Gallo might be a key addition. But the Yankees need singles and  doubles, not tape measure solo shots. Somewhere, there has to be a LH slugger who looks at Anthony Rizzo and thinks, "That could be me. I don't need to hit them 400 feet, but into the right place." Gallo isn't that guy.