Yankees 9- Mets 8

They are going to be talking about this one for a while.

Mets 8 7 1
Yankees 9 9 1

WP: Mariano Rivera (1-2)
LP: Francisco Rodriguez (1-1)

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Luis Castillo. Without him, the Yankees do not win this game. While it is obviously not on as big of a stage, but Castillo will now fall in with the likes of Bill Buckner.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Castillo's error. At this point there is no other play that even comes to mind.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: Derek Jeter stealing 2nd base on the Damon strike out. Jeter taking second opened up first base for the Mets to walk Tex and get to A-Rod.

GAME NOTES:

• If anyone out there teaches kids how to play baseball, they need to point at that play and say, "That is why you ALWAYS hustle." I made a point about David Ortiz not running out the popup that Damon dropped yesterday. Now Tex sprints all out on the pop up and scores from FIRST BASE!
• Well, before all the craziness happened, Joba did a very poor job of giving the Yankees a good outing. He needs to be more economical and get deeper into games. He just needs to learn to defer to the veteran catcher a little more, and I'm sure with Girardi being a former catcher, that will be addressed.
  
• Unlikely endings aside, the Yankees needed this game, ad not just because they got swept by the Red Sox. They had the better pitching matchup in todays game, and tomorrow's game. But on Sunday, you have Johan Santana going for the Mets. It's like winning your home games in a short series. You have to hold serve to keep home-field advantage. If they had lost tonight's game, it would have given the Mets a better chance of winning the series.
  
• Who would have thought, that with all those long shots to the wall, that a pop up behind second base would win the game.

MICHAEL KAY QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:
David Cone: "Do you have a blog, Michael?"
Michael Kay: "No, I have too many other things to do."
That's what we're here for.

TOMORROW:
Mets at Yankees
Fernando Nieve vs Andy Pettite
4 p.m. on FOX (I'm actually relieved I have work tomorrow. Now I don't have to listen to Joe buck and/or Tim McCarver all day. Sorry John.)

SEE YA!