But enough of that. The sooner we forget tonight’s 13-4 debacle, the better off we are. Mussina didn’t have it; David Robertson didn’t have it; Kyle Farnsworth picked a good game to give up a few runs; and the Yanks got shellacked. It happens. We move on.

So instead of waxing philosophic on the Yankee loss, how about we look at some longer-term trends from our boys in the Bronx right now? We’ll start with the offense. Offensive numbers are through Sunday night’s game.

Melky Cabrera since May 6: 275 plate appearances, .233/.283/.289
Bobby Abreu since June 1: 205 plate appearances, .258/.341/.396
Jason Giambi since June 18: 112 plate appearances, .216/.375/.364

Interestingly, Cabrera and Abreu have both been hot, short-term, as the Yankees’ bats have come alive. What these numbers tell us, however, is that with Jose Molina in the lineup perpetually, the Yankees are facing decreased overall production from a number of key offensive spots. Center field has been a black hole of offense for three quarters of the season, and Abreu has scuffled since hitting a line drive off of Nick Blackburn’s face. We all await a Jason Giambi hot streak.

On the pitching side, let’s play around with this idea. According to long-time RAB reader and frequent commenter Jamal, statistically, Edwar Ramirez is having a better season than Francisco Rodriguez. You’d never know it though because Francisco Rodriguez is challenging the all-time single-season saves record while Ramirez is just some middle reliever.

Edwar Ramirez: 38.1 IP, 21 H, 10 ER (2.35 ERA), 15 BB, 44 K. That’s 10.33 K/9 IP and a K/BB of just under 3/1.
Francisco Rodriguez: 47.1 IP, 31 H, 13 ER (2.47 ERA), 28 BB, 49 K. That’s 9.32 K/9 IP and a K/BB of 1.75/1.

Of course, where these two relievers differ is in the type of innings pitched. K-Rod has faced 127 batters in high-leverage situations while Edwar has faced just 18. To that end, K-Rod’s OPS against in those situations is actually .100 lower than Edwar’s. At the same time, K-Rod has faced opponents with a combined .754 OPS while Edwar has faced opponents with a .727 OPS. As K-Rod has pitched more innings than Edwar, he has the edge but not by much.

Now make of this what you will, but it’s interesting to see that, in age that has seen the save devalued, Rodriguez will earn a very large contract in the off-season based on that one stat. Meanwhile, Edwar Ramirez is showing that other, low-cost relievers can put up similar peripherals to the elite closers. When the Angels opt to let K-Rod walk instead of signing him to a $10-million-per-year contract, they’ll head into 2009 with a new closer, and one that will do the job just as well. Yet, teams will race to sign K-Rod. Such are the state of things.

Anyway, those are my random musings tonight after a boring Yankee loss. Feel free to muse on anything in the thread tonight. Nothing — within reason — is off-topic.

Right now, I’m getting that lovely DNS error above when I try to access a few certain sites on the Internet.

As Tommy said, “At least it’s not the most heavily trafficked site on the net or anything, you know, cause if it were, that would be inconvenient.”

Google’s Street View feature is a generally helpful tool. You can use it to get a visual on a new neighborhood; see what’s on the ground outside an unfamiliar subway station; or catch a crime in progress.

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t have much of a sense of humor about Street View so when weird sights and crimes pop up, the search engine giant is quick to remove the questionable material. But what about blocked views?

Last week, my sister and I were getting together for lunch, and she Google Mapped the restaurant. When she plugged in the address, she found out that we were going to be dining inside an articulated New York City bus. I don’t think that’s quite what these folks would like to know about their restaurant.

RIP, Rufus.

John McCain’s presidential campaign is running the above ad all over the Internet. While McCain thinks his opponent is a threat to common sense, it seems, John McCain is a bigger threat to something more important: the English language. So I’d like to pose a few questions to the senior Senator from Arizona.

1. Is it OK to split an infinitive?
2. Is it OK to capitalize randomly the first letters of some words but not others?

Elect a leader with good grammar.

Ben: i just got a spam filter notification at my work e-mail address with the subject line “Update your Penis”
Ben: best spam subject line ever
Ben: i should have upgraded to penis 2.1 ages ago. what have i been waiting for
SR: lol
SR: new patch available
Ben: 2.1.1?
SR: security update
Ben: does it have a code name? like Leopard? Penis X
SR: lol
SR: ok thats too funny
SR: i’m still laughing
Ben: me too
Ben: i crack myself up.
SR: hehehe
Ben: perhaps this penis upgrade is still in beta
Ben: that’s a risky proposition
SR: yeah you don’t want to be a beta-tester of that upgrade
SR: don’t want the system to crash

And an old headline tip-o’-the-hat to a classic Celebrity Jeopardy.

Reporting was contributed by Charles V. Bagli, Russ Buettner, Sewell Chan, Glenn Collins, David W. Dunlap, Jason Grant, Christine Hauser, Corey Kilgannon, Eric Konigsberg, Jennifer 8. Lee, Trymaine Lee, Patrick McGeehan, Colin Moynihan, William K. Rashbaum and Paul von Zielbauer.

I guess they just stationed a reporter on every floor and watched Alain Robert and Renaldo Clarke climb. Good work, guys. It took only 16 of you to report this story!

(Hat tip to mom.)