Yankees lose 8-4

Though Chien-Ming Wang was only charged with one earned run, he gave up seven runs while on the mound in 1 2/3 innings pitched in the Yankees' 8-4 loss to the Red Sox in Fort Myers. He also surrendered six hits (two home runs) while striking out one. Mike Lowell and David Ortiz homered for the Red Sox.

Xavier Nady drove in two runs for the Yankees and Cody Ransom hit an RBI triple in his 1-for-3 night.

Brett Tomko pitched 3 1/3 innings of shutout ball, striking out five and only allowing two hits.

The Yankees have a split squad game tomorrow. A.J. Burnett will start in Tampa at 1:15 (on YES) against the Houston Astros. Phil Hughes will start against the Pirates at 1:05.

Joba is NEXT

Buster Olney wrote a piece on our very own Joba Chamberlain for ESPN The Magazine.

Basically, Chamberlain enjoys text messaging and UFC. Also, Mike Lowell was the toughest batter he faced last season.

Mientkiewicz will have wrist surgery next week

First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz will have surgery on his broken wrist on Tuesday following last Saturday's collision with Mike Lowell (source).

I love this quote, regarding Mientkiewicz's feelings on not wanted to wear a cast for 12 weeks: "If it's healed, fine. If it's not, fine, too. I think I'll be a homeless single father if I had to wait 12 weeks in a cast," Mientkiewicz said. "You can snap a bone in half and be back in 8-to-12 weeks. It's a little tiny piece."

In a way it reminds me of Latrell Sprewell's infamous "I've got a family to feed" quote.

The Alex Rodriguez double standard

Alex Rodriguez is hated among players and fans alike. He always seems to find his way into controversial situations, whether he wants to be involved or not. While I agree that some of his actions have been reprehensible (the "glove slap" in 2004), I feel that most of the hate for Rodriguez is unwarranted.

Boston Red Sox fans were crying foul after "the slide" on May 22 (pictured, right), involving Dustin Pedroia. Rodriguez seemed to lead with his elbow while sliding past second base after Pedroia had thrown the ball. People found this play to be dirty, and added it to the list of things wrong with Rodriguez's play.

Another instance came Wednesday night, when he yelled "hah" as he was running to third base. This had everyone, including his own manager Joe Torre, condemning his actions. Rodriguez shot back, saying this happens many times by the dugout on foul pop ups.

Today, there was a play involving Robinson Cano and Mike Lowell (pictured, left). Cano fielded a ball in the base path and went to tag Lowell. Lowell then lowered his head and shoulder into Cano, causing him to fall over. While falling over, Cano was able to bounce a throw to Doug Mientkiewicz to complete the double play.

Now, if Rodriguez was Lowell in this situation, especially in Boston, he would have been crucified. Fans on WEEI would be calling for his head and calling him a dirty player. Lowell's actions in this play were legal. However, think about how Rodriguez would have been received if it was him lowering his head into Pedroia.

Fans cheered Lowell, and Tim McCarver was applauding his actions from the NESN, I mean FOX booth. I wonder if McCarver would have felt the same way if the Yankees third baseman was in the play.

This season, the "slide" and the "hah" were both legal plays. However, analysts and fans voiced their negative opinions regarding Rodriguez's actions. A similar legal play by Lowell was called as such by McCarver, even though there was much more contact involved than there was in the "slide."

There is an obvious Alex Rodriguez double standard in the game today. Today's play involving Lowell only furthers this idea.

Photos courtesy of Getty Images and Yahoo! Sports

Scott Proctor was both right and very wrong

Since I was not around to watch the game, I can't really recap it. The Yankees won 9-5, but the end was rather eventful.

What I did see was what transpired in the ninth inning, involving Scott Proctor and Kevin Youkilis. Three Yankees, Robinson Cano, Josh Phelps, and Alex Rodriguez were all hit by pitches, although Phelps' HBP was by a Tim Wakefield knuckleball. One Red Sox, Mike Lowell, was hit by Chien-Ming Wang.

Now, I don't know the exact numbers, but Yankee hitters always seem to get hit by Red Sox pitchers and the Yankee pitchers never seem to retaliate.

Proctor claims that he was pitching inside and the pitch got away from him (it hit Youkilis' shoulder). With three hitters hit earlier, it obviously seemed as if he was throwing inside on purpose to protect his teammates. I see nothing wrong with retaliating if your hitters were being hit, but no one should ever pitch high and inside like that.

Proctor pitching inside was obvious, and I believe what he said about him not aiming at his head. It still doesn't look good. Proctor will probably be suspended for this, and this would be the second time he has faced a suspension for an on-field incident.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images and Yahoo! Sports