Upton’s cycle dispatches Yankees, puts me to sleep

This fantastic picture taken by Andrew Fletcher of Scott Proctor’s Arm perfectly sums up the perspective of a Yankee fan watching tonight’s game against the Rays. And if you didn’t know, that beautiful chap in the photo is the creator of this blog.

B.J. Upton hit for the cycle before the 5th inning(!) ended as the Rays (83-77) routed the Yankees (102-58) 13-4. CC Sabathia missed out on a chance for his first career 20-win season, and was flat-out awful.

Quick ‘Cap:
The night started out all wrong when Mark Teixeira was thrown out by starter David Price in the first inning, in what appeared as a retaliation pitch to Sabathia ending Carlos Pena’s season in September. Then, Teixeira made an error with two outs that led to four unearned runs. And it didn’t get any better for the Yanks.

The Rays were up 12-1 through five innings, and the Yankees had already used three pitchers up to that point. It took New York seven pitchers to get through the night, and it was only eight innings. It was an ugly night for Yankees fans. Full box score here.

Thoughts:
This is a night the Yankees have to forget. Refer back to my standings update earlier today. The Yankees are still ahead of the Rays by 19 games! It’s baseball, and any team can beat any team on any given day. I can’t say that enough.

Line of the Night:
Upton: 5-for-5, HR, 3B, 2B, 6 RBI, 3 R. You can’t get much better than that. Congratulations for becoming the first Ray ever to hit for the cycle.

Up Next:
The Yankees look to even the series Saturday night with Andy Pettitte (14-7, 4.11) on the mound against Jeff Niemann (12-6, 3.94).