It's gone back to feast or famine with the Yankees.

The Bombers put up a four spot in the ninth, but it was too late to overcome a shaky bullpen and Miguel Tejada's four RBIs as the Orioles defeated the Yanks for the second straight night, 7-5 in Baltimore.

It really has become like a football season for the Yankees.  Each victory is huge and every defeat is devastating.  The Yankee offense has also gone from juggernaut to junior varsity.  The loss drops the Yanks 9 games back of Boston in the AL East and keeps them 5 games back of the Indians for the wild card.  

The Good:

Hideki Matsui.  Matsui smacked his 19th homer of the season and his 11th for July.  His dinger in the seventh cut the O's lead to 3-1 and his infield single to lead off the ninth triggered the Yankee rally.  His numbers for July are simply staggering: .337, 11 HR, 22 RBI.  Godzilla finished 2 for 3 with a walk, 2 runs scored and a run batted in.

Jorge Posada.  Jorgie's two-run bomb in the ninth cut the deficit to 7-3 and kept the Yankee train moving.  Posada is also putting together a hot little July, but it seems to be going unnoticed.  He's batting a healthy .316 for the month and is batting .330 overall.  Posada finished 2 for 4 with a run scored and 2 ribbies. 

The Bad:

Johnny Damon.  Damon had a hitless night and absolutely destroyed the Yankee rally in the ninth.  With the score 7-4 and runners on first and second with nobody out, Damon hit into a killer double play.  The Yanks would go on to score another run and bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Bobby Abreu, but Damon's twin-killing really took the starch out of the team.  Damon has been swinging the bat better lately (he's batting .370 in his last seven games), but picked the wrong time to ground into his first two double plays of the season.  Damon finished 0 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base and left six runners on.

Brian Bruney.  Bruney came into the game in the eighth with the Yanks trailing 5-1, and quickly poured gasoline onto an already raging fire.  He was hurt by an A-Rod error in the inning, but the blunder wasn't the sole reason for Bruney's terrible outing.  The Maltese Falcon's overall numbers still look respectable (2-1, 3.40 ERA, .248 BAA), but his July has been brutal.  His July numbers: 9.95 ERA, 8 hits and 5 BB in 6.1 IP, .348 BBA.  Bruney's night: .1 IP, 3 H, 2 R (1 earned), 0 BB, 0 K.  You're better than this Bri.

Bobby Abreu.  Abreu was up with two outs in the ninth with Jeter on second and the Yanks down 7-5.  He put together a gritty at-bat against a tough lefty in Jamie Walker and ran the count to 3-2 before striking out.  Hey, it happens.  If a guy throws you a tough pitch and gets you out, well, that's just baseball.  They're getting paid, too.  But, the thing that was so galling was that Walker hung a slider that Abreu simply missed.  Michael Kay thought it was ball four, but I thought it was a ball that could have been hit and hit hard.  Bobby finished 0 for 5 with two strikeouts.

The Ugly:

Right off the knee.  Melky Cabrera took a ball right off his right knee to lead off the third inning on Saturday night.  It looked pretty bad and I had visions of Cabrera making a visit to the DL at the worst possible time.  Melky is a tough guy and he eventually popped up and jogged over to first.  I love the Melk-Man's guts, but he's been beaten up lately.  I hope this latest "boo-boo" doesn't flare up and cause him to miss any time.  Cabrera finished 2 for 2 with a walk, a stolen base and an RBI.

The Yanks will try and salvage a game this weekend (I'm not counting the completion of last month's game on Friday night as a win in the series) with Chien-Ming Wang.  The Wanger has been the most consistent starter this season for the Yanks and has pitched into the sixth inning in every start this season.  He'll be gunning for his 12th victory on the year.  The Orioles will be going for the sweep and will send hard throwing Daniel Cabrera to the hill.  The 6'9, 270 pound Dominican Republic native has a 7-10 record on the year with a 5.04 ERA, but his stuff is better than that.  He's held righty batters to a .233 average on the season and has a 3.90 ERA during day games.

Let's see which Yankee team shows up on Sunday afternoon.