Knowing that the Red Sox and A's had both already lost during the afternoon, the Yankees had an excellent chance of moving within 3.5 of Boston for the division lead and only a half game behind Oakland for the wild card. Things were looking good in the 6th inning as Al Leiter gave us a pretty solid start and left the game with a 5-2 lead. Aaron Small came in and gave up 3 runs in relief, although one was unearned as Robinson Cano made a costly error in the 7th. The Yankees retook the lead on a base hit to right field by birthday boy Jorge Posada, but that went to waste as well as Tanyon Sturtze pitched an ineffective 8th inning. A ground rule double by Alex Gonzalez tied the game at 6 and Jonny Gomes scored on a wild pitch.

So, instead of inching closer in both the division and wild card races, the Yankees still stand 4.5 games behind the Red Sox and 1.5 against Oakland. I'm not one usually to throw a lot of "what-ifs" out there, but had the Yankees won those last two games in Tampa as they should have, they would currently hold the lead in the wild card standings and would be only 2.5 games behind Boston for the division.

The Yankees are off today before heading to Chicago for a three-game set against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. The A's are off today as well. The Red Sox are in Anaheim tonight facing the very talented Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Oh well, I guess I have nobody to blame for this but myself. This is the 7th consecutive game I recapped in which the Yankees lost.