The Sox were up.  The crowd was up.  Javy Vazquez's pitches were up.  That's why the Yankees beat the White Sox 6-4 last night at The Cell.

After a three up, three down first inning, the Yankees started toying with Vazquez scoring one in the second, two in the fifth and finally chasing the Sox starter with a three run outburst in the sixth.

Meanwhile, the Sox were totally handcuffed by 109 year-old right hander Mike Mussina who went seven strong innings and gave up two runs.  No longer a hard thrower due to advanced age, Mussina threw an assortment of junk worthy of Fred Sanford. 

The Sox did get homers from Joe Crede and Carlos Quentin, but as so often is the case with the Sox, they were solo jobs.  The Sox did have a chance to tie it in the eighth with two on and two out, but Mariano Rivera got Jermaine Dye to pop out to end the threat.

The Sox and Yankees conclude the series tonight with the Sox looking to Pink Gavin Floyd to stop the skid.  I think Floyd is going to get beat up early tonight.  As good as he's been, he hasn't faced a lineup this good all year (the Tigers were in full suck mode in his two wins against them.)

The Sox are now 11-9 after twenty games, one game off the pace for a 90 game win season (12 out of 20). 

I'm not really surprised the Sox have lost to the Yankees.  They have had the Sox number the last couple of years and quite frankly, the Sox are not as good as the tongue waggers thought they were a couple of weeks ago.  Their defense and pitching seem to be better than a year ago and the bullpen, when you can steer the game to Scott Linebrink and Bobby Jenks, seems a little more dependable.  But the hitting issues continue with the Sox continually leaving important runs on the bases, scoring early but not often and hitting home runs with the bases empty continue.  Against teams like the Yankees, this will kill you.

Lightning Round

• In the sixth inning, ESPN went to an in-game update where they showed highlights of a homer by Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki and Milwaukee's Prince Fielder.  When they cut back to the game, announcer Dave O'Brien opined "two great young sluggers, one in the National League and one in the American League."  Apparently Dave never received the memo that the Brewers moved to the National League in 1997.  That is inexcusable for a guy on a network to make a mistake like that.  Give credit to his partner, Joe Morgan, for having the class for not correcting him.  Either that or Morgan assumed the Crew played in the American League too.