The Yankee season has now reached DEFCON 3.

The Yanks dropped their 4th in a row, this time in Toronto to the Blue Jays 7-2, and have fallen seven games under .500 and into a last-place tie with the Devil Rays in the AL East.

The Yanks used their "formula" for 2007 on Memorial Day: poor starting pitching, terrible relief and a stagnant offense.

The Good:

Hideki Matsui.  Matsui belted a two-run homer in the eighth, his fifth of the season, which helped the Yanks avoid the shutout.  

The Bad:

Matt DeSalvo.  DeSalvo started strong, but faded quickly.  He gave up single runs in the third, fourth and fifth inning before being replaced.  He has tremendous movement on his pitches (especially his off-speed stuff), but still lacks the refinement to control it.  He dropped to 1-2 on the year with this: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR.

Ron Villone.  Villone has been solid since being recalled from Triple A a few weeks ago so you knew he was due for a bad outing.  Tonight was the night.  Even though it looked like the Yanks were dead facing a 3-0 hole, Villone made sure to extinguish any hope by allowing the Jays to break the game wide open.  Villone's line: .1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 2 BB.

The anemic Yankee offense.  The Yanks might as well go up to the plate wielding toothpicks because their bats are useless right now.  Toronto starter Dustin McGowan entered the game sporting an 0-2 record and an ERA of 7.17.  Well, the Yanks made him look like the second coming of Pedro Martinez as McGowan pitched 7.2 innings of sparkling baseball to pick up his first win of the season.  There is no way the Yanks will turn this season around if they can't hit mediocre (and I'm being kind here) pitching.  McGowan pitched well, but there have been too many times this season where a run-of-the-mill pitcher has shut them down.  At this point, it's beyond disturbing.

The Ugly:

Dustin McGowan's mutton chops.  At first, I wasn't sure if McGowan was trying for the chops or was just one of those guys who has trouble connecting the beard.  After careful examination (and counsel from my brother and his girlfriend) I realized he was gunning for the chops.  I'm all for nonconformity, but he needs some work on his "statement."  Maybe a few weeks will help those things grow in nice and bushy; the way it's supposed to be.

Andy Pettitte will try and break the losing skid on Tuesday night and will go against Shaun Marcum.

The DEFCON watch continues.

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