Yankees 6 Pirates 1- The wrapup

This is coming a little late, but I had to recover from the torture that I subjected myself to earlier. If you aren't planning on reading that voluminous post (and I don't blame you, it's probably as painful to read as it was to write) let's summarize:

• I hate Michael Restovich. A lot. He's an awful excuse for a baseball player.
• Lloyd has lost faith in his players saying they're "just not good enough to take two from the Yankees". I have a lot of problems with this statement. First off, Lloyd is not manager because he knows how to handle players and strategize a game. He's simply not good at it. He tries to make up for this by being a good motivator and making sure his players never quit. Comments like "we're not good enough to take two from the Yankees" after a loss facing the prospect of Randy Johnson the next day is not a motivational statement, and it's not likely it caused anyone to play harder today. I don't care if it's the truth or not (which it most definitely is not the truth, they are NOT that much better than us), if that's how Lloyd really feels, then it's absolutely time to show him the door. Your manager cannot go around saying things like that. You can try and argue with me on this, but I've made my mind up (Rory thinks that maybe it was taken out of context, if it is, I want an explanation).
  
• Randy Johnson was dominating tonight, as as observed by Bob Walk, is actually pitching (changing speeds and locations) more than he ever has in the past, though his velocity is down a couple mph.
• Perez came into the game a little jumpy, was immediately penalized for it, and never settled down. He just had no clue where the ball was going when he let go of it. Throw in terrible defense behind him and you have the recipe for a bad loss.
• The plan to stack the rotation for this Yankees series has terribly backfired, like I secretly feared it might. I love Josh Fogg, but the prospect of him and Dave Williams followed by Kip going against the Sox has "sweep" all over it. Simply, Fogg and Williams are great if you're playing well behind them because they can keep you in games. If the team is in a funk, however, you're going to be in trouble with two on the mound.
• Despite getting destroyed with little hope of comeback against Johnson, Lloyd used three relievers tonight. The only reliever not used in the last two games is Meadows. Fogg followed by Meadows against the Red Sox has 13-0 written all over it.
• All that hope and excitement about the team I felt last week is gone. We're playing good teams for the rest of the month, and after Sunday, they're all in first place (one of whom we can't beat to save our lives, the Cardinals). Remember losing 21 of 25 last year? I'm bracing myself for that feeling again.