The New York Yankees finally ended their 21st game in 20 days, as the streak ended just as it began: with Alex Rodriguez struggling. I really feel like he’d be beating a dead horse if I went on and on about how lousy A-Rod has been, both in the field and at the plate; I’ll forgive him and all of you and just say the guy hasn’t been playing as well as he’s capable of. All of this bad play can easily be erased if A-Rod has a successful September and October, just as his great season last year was erased by a poor postseason showing.

But I digress. The Yankees went 11-10 in this stretch of three straight weeks without a day off. The streak was saved by a five-game sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway, so people don’t really get upset about how poorly the Yankees played in this streak, let alone that Red Sox series.

Other than the Boston series, the Yankees did not win a single series the entire stretch. They started out losing 2/3 to the White Sox, split a 4 game series with the Angels, lost 2/3 to the horrible Baltimore Orioles at home, lost 2/3 to the Seattle Mariners who had previously lost 11 straight games . and then losing 2/3 to the Angels. As mentioned above, all of these losses are forgotten because of the beating the Yankees gave Boston.

I’m not trying to downplay the Boston series, because in my wildest dreams I didn’t think they would sweep the Red Sox, but you can’t miss the rest of the stretch. Unfortunately for the Yankees, they don’t play the Red Sox every game. If the Yankees had it like that, then we’d win the division in 30 games, at the rate the series is going this season.

The most disappointing aspect of this stretch was the way they finished, losing to the Anaheim Angels, a team that seems to dominate the Yankees. Randy Johnson will need to pick it up, because even though he’s giving them innings, giving up four to five runs per start is just unacceptable. Jared Wright hasn’t been pitching as well anymore, and Moose is on the disabled list. Chiang-Ming Wang can carry this rotation for the last month of the season. It’s time for the Yankees to step up, starting with this midweek series against the Tigers, to cement a postseason position.

On a lighter note, despite losing 4/6 to the Mariners and Angels, the Red Sox were unable to gain ground on the Yankees’ divisional lead. They’re 6.5 games ahead and Boston appears to be dead in the water. On a better note, the A’s have been playing pretty well and remain 5.5 games ahead of the Angels, a team that would rather not make the playoffs.