Oh, no! The Yankees just suffered their worst postseason loss...in eight days!

Extra innings, in a crucial World Series game. The Yankees' bullpen was running low, but their manager still had options. Inexplicably, he chose to bring in an erratic starter who had not pitched in a month. Sure enough, minutes later came the walk-off home run that turned the whole Series around.

I'm talking about Game 4 of the 2003 World Series, of course, on October 22nd, when Jeff Weaver, who had pitched his way to a 5.99 ERA and had not thrown more than 1 inning in a game since Sept. 12th, and none at all since Sept. 23rd. 

Was a time when terrible Yankees losses in the postseason echoed down the decades, they were so few and far between. Grover Cleveland Alexander coming in to fan Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded, and Cookie Lavagetto breaking up Floyd Bevens' no-hitter and winning the game on one pitch, and don't get me started about that damned Mazeroski! 

Now? Yankees losses in October come fast and furious, numerous nut-twisters even in the same postseason. We hadn't lost a game as bad as last night's...since the week before in Cleveland.

Over the course of The Cashman Captivity, what is most striking is how the losses seem to repeat themselves. Unless we are trapped in hell or The Twilight Zone, this should indicate something. 

Submitted for your consideration: under Brian Cashman, the New York Yankees have suffered the vast majority of the worst losses in their postseason history.

By this I mean, in part, the literal worst losses: 9-1 and 15-2 (Arizona, 2001 World Series); 10-3 (Boston, 2004 ALCS); 6-0 (Detroit, 2006 ALDS); 12-3 (Cleveland, 2007); 8-0 and 10-3 (Texas, 2010 ALCS); 8-1 (Detroit, 2012 ALCS); 7-1 (Houston, 2017 ALCS); and 16-1 (Boston, 2018 ALDS). 

In case you lost count, that's 10 separate losses by 6 or more runs. Put the straight numbers out there, and it looks like this: 9-1, 15-2, 10-3, 6-0, 12-3, 8-0, 10-3, 8-1, 7-1, 16-1. I doubt if your New York Yankees lost 10 such postseason blowouts in the previous 98 years of the franchise.

But I digress. By "worst losses," I'm talking metaphorically, of course. I mean the most gut-wrenching, pineapple-inserting, mind-blowing losses in the team's history—the sorts of losses that you still think about twenty years later.

Many years ago, I read with sniggering voyeurism both Roger Angell and Pete Gammons going over how the Boston Red Sox' worst defeats over the decades, all seemed to run together in one long nightmare.

But no need for such schadenfreude any longer! Now, Brian Cashman—a sort of one-man, virtual-reality machine of disappointment—has enabled us to live through such an endless film loop of defeats for ourselves.

The all-time horrors, of course, the ones that will never be forgiven or forgotten, came in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series and Games 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS, with Joe Torre refusing to acknowledge that Mariano Rivera could be overworked—and refusing to pitch around David Ortiz. (Not to mention bringing in Esteban Loaiza in extra innings with the score tied—a triple crown to go with the Weaver and Nestor calls to the bull pen). 

There's also Mike Mussina failing to hold a 6-1 lead against the Angels in Game 3 of the 2002 ALDS—and Mike Mussina failing to hold a 3-1 lead against the Tigers in Game 2 of the 2006 ALDS.

There's Randy Johnson failing to win with 7 runs in Game  3 2005 ALDS, and The Little Unit failing to beat Kenny Rogers in Game 3 of the 2006 ALDS.

There's a bedeviled and confused Joba Chamberlain, devoured by midges, walking the Indians to victory in 2007, and there's Jake Cousins, bedeviled and confused by the enormous apple in his throat, walking the Dodgers to victory last night.

There's Nick Swisher, butchering a ball in right field in the 2012 ALCS against the Orioles (just minutes before Derek Jeter had to be carried off the field), and BOTH Gleyber Torres and Oswaldo Cabrera butchering balls at second base to hand the Dodgers a win last night.

Always the same mistakes. Always the same shortcomings, repeated over and over and over again. The wrong relief pitcher at the wrong time. The bumbling fielder. The clueless manager. The stupid economies that leaves us one player short, each year and every year? (Anthony Rizzo over Freddie Freeman: another great Hal & Pal "savings.")

Then there's Alex Rodriguez, failing again and again and again in the clutch, come October. We had to recreate him, too, with our new head case, who I shall call only, Mr. Bill, at least until he gets an actual big hit in the playoffs. 

Once upon a time, the idea that another team in October would have walked someone, anyone, in order TO pitch to our residing superstar—our Babe Ruth or our Joe DiMaggio, our Mickey Mantle or our Reggie Jackson or out Derek Jeter—would have been inconceivable. And if they had, they would have paid for it. 

I know, I know:  that's one we can't blame on Hal & Pal. But it's part of our wonderful new Yankees era—one that we're about to compound by letting the guy they walked, walk. 

Now that's something new!