00:00The argument that Joe and I had during the first hour of the show, and I understand you were probably asleep at the time,
00:05was I thought this roster, this pitching staff was terrible, and the fact that they actually got to the playoffs was, you know, good enough for me.
00:15Joe comes back over the top and says, it's the Yankees, you should be angry this morning, which side do you land on?
00:21Well, look, here's what I would say. They were obviously beaten up by the time they got to this stage.
00:32At the same time, the way they lost should leave a sour taste in your mouth.
00:37So I can tell you that you're both right. The way they gave up those runs in that inning where, you know, the defense let down early,
00:48and that was all in the fourth inning, they let them down. The mistakes that we saw all year were there, John.
00:55They, you know, stupid plays. A ball falls into right center field that never should have.
01:01The first baseman fails to field the ground ball, and a couple of ground balls got through the infield with Trevor Story's inability to knock one down,
01:10ranging to his right, and Romy Gonzalez unable to make a play go into his left.
01:14So I think there's all kinds of stuff to look at. Now, the Story play, you know, we can excuse that one a little bit more,
01:23because Story overall had a good year, and, you know, it's not as if he made an error on the play.
01:28The one at second base, I thought Nick Sogar should have been playing second last night,
01:32because he's a better defender than Romy Gonzalez, and then the one in the outfield, to me,
01:38is completely, totally inexcusable, which is the one that started the whole thing.
01:43So they were an imperfect team. We saw the kind of stupid stuff that they did all year long
01:50in terms of bad defense, bad base running, inability to move runners or get bunts down, things like that,
01:59which is another thing. They struck out 13 times last night.
02:03Now, the guy, again, going against them, this one's a little more excusable than some of the others,
02:08because he was so damn good. But, you know, the team is not a championship-caliber team.
02:14We know that, and we knew that it would probably come back to bite him in the ass at some point,
02:20and it did. Last night it did. But, you know, did they accomplish what they set out to do for the season?
02:26Yes, it was a step in the right direction. I wouldn't call it a great year.
02:32I'd call it a relatively productive one. And they look like they're on the rise again,
02:37and that's a good sign.
