The saddest thing in life is wasted opportunities.

OK, I bastardized a line from A Bronx Tale  and maybe I'm being a tad over-dramatic.  Still, the Yankees had their chances against the Oakland A's Friday night and failed to capitalize, falling in 11 innings, 5-4. The Yanks left 23 runners on base and could have blown the game open in the third, sixth and eighth innings, but failed to do so.

The Good:

Kei Igawa.  Igawa really deserved a better fate.  I was listening to John and Suzyn (God, help me) so I didn't physically see Igawa pitch (although I did catch Eric Chavez take him deep on Yankees Encore), but his second start in pinstripes was light years better than his first.  I was able to read Ron Guidry's lips on his visit to the mound in the sixth (it's a gift) and he told Igawa to go after Chavez and get through the inning.  I don't know if Igawa understood him, but he did challenge Chavez.  Unfortunately, he left a fastball up and Chavez burned him.  Still, a solid outing: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R (2 earned), 2 BB, 3 K.  I'll take that from Igawa every time.

The Bad:

Kyle Farnsworth.  Farnsworth is the enigma out of the pen.  He's got terrific stuff, but he can't control it.  He's like Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back.  He entered the game in the seventh to protect a one-run lead and blew it.  Let's hope he finds his "force" before Torre drops him in the pecking order.

Situational Hitting.  The Yanks had a chance to (in essence) win the game not once, not twice, but thrice!  Bases loaded with no outs in the third and the Yanks come away with only one run (on Abreu's sac fly).  They had Dan Haren's pitch count up and the meat of the order coming up and failed to deliver the knockout blow.

Sixth inning.  With the score tied at 1-1, the Yanks once again had the bases loaded.  True, they scored 3 runs, but they could have blown the game wide open against an ineffective Alan Embree.  Doug Mientkiewicz grounded into a double play, which did score a run, but it really destroyed the rally.

Eighth inning.  Second and third with no outs and then bases loaded with 1 out yielded zero runs.  This was the last real scoring opportunity for the Yanks.  Once again Mientkiewicz failed to deliver an RBI.

The Ugly:

Carl Pavano.  The drama.  Pavano will not pitch Saturday due to "muscle soreness in his right elbow and forearm."  I happened to catch Joe Torre "break the news" on Mike & The Mad Dog.  Torre didn't seem concerned and believed it could be due to Pavano using muscles he hasn't used in a while.  OK.  Pavano should be taking the hill on Tuesday.  Conspiracy theorists believe that Torre could be issuing a cover-up story.  Only time will tell.

Darrell Rasner will take Pavano's place Saturday night against Joe Blanton.  Hopefully, Rasner won't waste another opportunity to impress.