The best news to come out of the series against the Nationals is unfortunately Chien-Ming Wang’s ERA dropping to a healthy 12.65; the lowest its been since early April. That’s saying something considering the Yankees just lost 2 out of 3 to the worst team in baseball being the detour sign on the Nationals road to becoming the worst team in the history of baseball.

Despite how the standings read, the Yankees really haven’t been playing that well. They were swept by the Red Sox without giving them much trouble, got lucky against the Mets with a dropped fly ball to win that series, and just dropped 2 of 3 to the worst team in the majors. Alex Rodriguez has looked pretty much dismal, Damon has cooled off, Jeter is semi injured (we hope only semi), and Cano seems to be the only person on the squad into the idea of hitting recently, winning the only game of the Nat’s series himself.

I don’t know why the most exciting offense in baseball is taking its cue from the Bad New Bears but they are obviously conducting some sort of no-offense-winning experiment, and it’s turning out poorly. The pitching has basically been there. Joba looked pretty solid last night: 6 innings pitched, 6 strike outs, allowing only 3 runs, which nearly mirrors Wang’s numbers from the night before. AJ had his best start of the season versus the Mets and our bullpen hasn’t let up a run since Saturday against the Mets.   With the All-Star break right around the corner the Yankees have to get hot and stay hot. Although May was a strong month for the Bombers, we have to remember that a lot of that good streaky baseball has to be put towards a virtually terrible April. They also must realize that this is not the kind of baseball they can play if they want to keep up with their division foes. The sAWks have a strong team with a great pitching staff, if the Yankees expect to keep up with them all season and eventually pass them they’re going to need to win the games not against the sAWks, considering they haven’t put anything together against their rivals so far this season (0-8)   Florida is going to be quite a test for the Yankees. The Marlins normally play well against the Yankees (mental WS 2001 flashback here), and they are putting two of their star pitchers on the mound this weekend. If the Yankees can get past a feisty 6-foot-8 Sean West (2-1, 3.00) on Friday they’ll have to face Josh Johnson a young right-hander who is 6-1 with a 2.76 ERA and the Marlins have won 11 of his 14 starts so far this season.

As per usual the Marlins have strong young starters and the Yankees have a collection of ERA’s well over 3.5. CC has the lowest ERA, at 3.67; of any starter on the squad, which is significantly higher than either of the two starters they’ll be facing Friday and Saturday night.   Yankee fans have to be hoping A-Rod goes on some sort of hot streak during this next road trip that brings the Yanks through his home state of Florida, Atlanta and then Queens. He is hitting a stomach sinking .212 and has been looking plain awful with men in scoring position. If he doesn’t start hitting soon he’ll find himself in a lonely place—the Bronx without a friend, not even Kate.

The Yanks got spooked when they were swept for the third straight time by Boston and have been playing below their opponent’s level since. They cannot continue to play like this and expect to finish at the top of their division or league. Luckily for them this is baseball and not football. They have more than half the season left, including 10 games against the Red Sox, and can still be the dominating team they should be.

It would be easier to watch if they were playing good baseball, but they’re not; even when they win it’s ugly. And although that come-from-behind stat is nice and exciting to think about down 2 in the 8^th it means they’re losing a lot. I like that they have the most come-from-behind wins and walk-off in the majors this year but how ’bout they just get a lead early and keep it?

They should win a lot of games these next couple weeks, then again they should have won the Nationals series, should have won at least one game against the Sox this season and should be in first place. But as my father has told me time and time again—that’s why they play the games.