To quote the New York Daily News “Bring Back the Sox.”

The Toronto Blue Jays put an end to the Yankees’ 7-game winning streak last night exposing the Yankees only weakness: their 5^th Starter situation. But even this isn’t really a problem for the Yankees seeing as it was only Sergio Mitre’s first loss in 4 appearances for the Yanks. But as the season chugs along the absence of a true starter in the 5^th spot of the rotation will grow more and more blatant.

Girardi has claimed to have a lot of faith in Mitre who played for the Marlins during Girardi’s “Coach of the Year” season back in 2006. Mitre has given the Yankee’s what they’ve asked for; solid starts with opportunities to win. Yet yesterday, despite getting 5 K’s in his first two innings, he couldn’t slam the hammer and was hurt for 2 unearned runs thanks to a throwing error he made that looked like more of a lazyness error on Cano’s part.

After Mitre’s 5 innings, Alfredo Aceves stepped in as he has in all of Mitre’s starts and finished the game in impressive fashion. Arguably the Yankees best middle-reliever, Aceves threw 4 innings of shutout baseball allowing only two hits and walking none. He did everything he could do to keep them in the game but just wasn’t lucky enough to get any run support during those last few innings.

The starting line-up was a little irregular last night for the Yanks. They had Swisher hitting in the two-hole and Damon on the bench where he was joined by Matsui who was also taking the disgustingly humid and hot day off. Hairston Jr. took the reins in left field and went 1-3 with his one being the second half of back-to-back jacks in the 4^th inning (the first half was Cano). Posada was given the DH spot and Molina caught, but neither could get on base.

The most upsetting part of the game had to be the bottom of the 7th inning. The Yankees were down 1 run and in need of a little offence. Jeter led off the inning with his third hit of the game only to be stranded on first thanks to strikeouts by Swisher, Tex and A-Rod. Having the 2,3,and 4 hitters strike out after the lead off man got on base towards the end of a 1-run game was defusing. The worst part about these K’s had to be Tex and A-Rod going down looking. This was a problem for the entire team Monday night. Way too many fat Toronto pitches weren’t even graced with a swing.

It’s the kind of loss to be expected by a hot team in the dog days of August: a one run defeat with a makeshift 5th starter coming off an injury hurling for them. The Yankees can’t win every game, so after 7 in a row, including a 4 game sweep of the Red Sox (I like to bring that up as much as possible), its not bad if the Yankees dropped this one on a thigh-chaffing Monday.

Joba will take the hill tonight as he tries to improve upon his 8-2 record (4-0 with a 2.02 ERA since the all-start break). His control was lacking in his last start where he walked way too many Red Sox (7) and allowed 4 runs. He has been as hot as the weather lately and will hopefully find his control against the Blue Jays who are putting Scott Richmond on the mound for the first time since July 31st. Richmond looks to be pretty average but it’ll be interesting to see if his “sore arm” still bothers him tonight.

Despite Monday night’s loss I don’t think anyone is really worried in Yankee nation. Losses are inevitable and as far as they go last night’s wasn’t so bad. They lost because of a double-clutch throw to second base that, if thrown correctly, would have resulted in a double play but instead, resulted in the deciding runs. Botched plays happen, it’s just hard to swallow when it helps decide the end result. But this was more like a cup of slightly sour milk and less like a cup of broken glass so I’m not having too much trouble.

The Yankees should have no problem rebounding tonight and finding themselves embarking on another winning streak as they head to Seattle this weekend.