The recently rejuvenated rotation took a step backward against the Twins Wednesday night. Mike Mussina left with a strained hamstring after only two plus innings as the Yanks fell to Minnesota 5-1. So far, Torre hasn't placed the 38-year-old righty on the DL, but he will most likely miss his next start.

The Bombers never mounted an offensive threat as Ramon Ortiz shut down the Yanks hot bats with eight innings of one-run ball. The game was tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth when Kyle Farnsworth came in and stunk out the joint.

The Good:

Sean Henn. Henn is proving he was the right choice to be the team's second lefty out of the pen. He came in for Mussina with two on and nobody out in the third and didn't allow a run (key play: Jeter made a beautiful over-the-shoulder catch to double up Luis Rodriguez). His final numbers: 3.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K.

Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod didn't homer (how dare he!), but he did drive in another run and now leads the league with 16 RBIs.

Johnny Damon. Damon went 2-4 with a stolen base and scored the Yankees lone run. He seems to be fully healed from that strained calf.

The Bad:

Mike Mussina. Mussina looked shaky even before he removed himself from the game. His fastball was mediocre and his breaking pitches lacked their usual bite. Maybe his hamstring had something to do with it, but he just hasn't looked like the Moose yet.

Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth entered the game in the eighth and promptly walked the leadoff hitter Luis Castillo. Next pitch: stolen base. He struck out Nick Punto, but then Joe Mauer singled to give the Twins a 2-1 lead. It went downhill from there. Farnsworth added in a wild pitch before he was done and finished with this putrid line: 1/3, 4 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  He was tagged with the loss.

The Ugly:

Even though Mussina and the Yanks think (at this point anyway) that Mussina's hamstring shouldn't put him on the DL, his injury is still a concern. So far (and yes, it is VERY early) Mussina has looked old. My brother and I were discussing the state of the Yanks and he brought up an interesting and perhaps troubling comparison to David Cone. Cone pitched a perfect game against the Montreal Expos in 1999 and then was never the same. Sometimes your skills don't diminish over time, they just vanish. Hopefully, my bro and I are very wrong about this.

Thursday is an off day for the Yanks as they travel to the left coast to battle the Oakland A's. Kei Igawa will try and prove his first start was just an aberration (an awful, distressing aberration).  The A's will counter with Dan Haren. Haren is 0-2 even though he sports a microscopic ERA of 0.69.

Let's see if the Yanks can knock that up a bit.

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