John's Takeaway Points from Last Night's Debacle

1. There's no denying that tight now, Rafael Soriano is not a popular Yankee among the fans. He's had a bad month. But it's a long season and, hopefully, he'll get it out of his system. A lot of players, when they come to New York, go through rough patches, and that's part of being in New York, that a lot is expected of you, and if it were easy, anybody could do it, but it's not easy.

2. The unanswered question: Are Floyd and Humber really that good, or are the Yankees just not hitting? Until we know the answer, no lead is safe and secure, and to keep your family safe and secure, visit New York Life. For more than 60 years, New York Life has been keeping families safe and secure. That's New York Life... the company you keep.

3. It's a cliche, of course, to say that baseball is a game of inches, but -- well -- it IS a game of inches. Inches! A-Rod almost hit it out. And then Robbie's line drive nearly cleared the bases. It's a game of inches. Inches! And you can't say it enough, even though it's a cliche. It's a true cliche. And a lot of cliches are true. But they're cliches. You can't deny that. But it's a game of inches anyway. Where were we? The Hebrew Home at Riverside. It's like a college campus..

4. The Yankees got a little good luck on Jeter's swinging bunt hit in the ninth, but then they got bad luck on A-Rod's long shot to the wall. But you can't take anything away from their rightfielder, who made two magnificent plays. You might watch baseball until the end of time, but won't see a no-name rightfielder make two plays like that in the ninth inning with runners on base to save a ball game on consecutive batters against the Yankees with Arod and Cano at bat. I don't care what anybody says. You won't see that happen for a long time. Although, actually, it could happen tomorrow. That's baseball!

5. It's a long season, and of course, the media wants answers about everything, and that's what the media does, and that's why New York is New York, and the media is the media, and yes, we're members of the media too, and we want answers about everything, and sometimes there are no answers, and that's why it's so much fun to watch, but Ivan Nova had a great outing, which is big.