There’s no need to declare the Yankee season over that. I’ll let David Pinto’s eloquent eulogy carry the day in that regard.

After all, just a year ago, the Colorado Rockies, the NL’s 2007 World Series representative, were 6.5 games out of the Wild Card. The Yankees are down; they’re not playing well; and Joe Girardi, as David Cone opined on the post-game show tonight, doesn’t really know what to do with this group of ballplayers. But until they’re mathematically eliminated, I’m not ready to throw in the towel. They do, however, have a very steep climb ahead of them.

Tonight, the game started and ended with the Yankee pitching. Sidney Ponson got off to a rocky start in the first inning. Before the Yanks had a chance to bat, they were facing a 2-0 deficit, and Ponson didn’t seem to have that sinker working. But Ponson seemed to right the ship for a few innings, and he pitched through the second, third and fourth without incident.

In the fifth, with the Yanks and Red Sox knotted at two, Ponson allowed another two runs, and Joe Girardi quickly yanked him. Again, a Yankee pitcher couldn’t get out of the fifth, and again the bullpen would be called up on for more than four innings of work.

The bullpen wasn’t up for the job. While Edwar Ramirez and Damaso Marte kept things under control, Jose Veras and David Robertson, once again called upon in a situation in which he was nearly obligated to fail, allowed seven runs in the eighth. That would be all for the Yankees.

Ponson allowed 11 baserunners in 4.2 innings. The bullpen allowed seven earned runs in one inning of work while tossing up zeroes in the other 3.1, and when the game ended, it didn’t matter that A-Rod was 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI. It didn’t matter that Jason Giambi blasted yet another home run off Mike Timlin. All that mattered was that Lisfranc injury to Chien-Ming Wang, that reliance on starters that just shouldn’t be here, and an offense that just isn’t doing what it should be doing.

The Yanks are down. But I’m not ready to count them out. Hope springs eternal, even with September growing closer.

I’m not ready to write the obituary for the 2008 Yankees. At least, not yet.

While they’re not going to overcome the 9.5 games separating them from first place in the AL East, they can still make a run at the Wild Card. After all, the team still has a combined nine games against the White Sox and Red Sox, two teams in front of them for playoff spots. They don’t play the Twins, but they do play the Angels and two series against the Rays. That’s a schedule that will force the Yankees to earn a playoff spot and stave off that 2008 season obituary.

Of course, there’s a catch: The Yankees have to start winning, and tonight’s game — a rather discouraging 7-3 loss to the Red Sox — wasn’t a stellar night for boys in the Bronx. The papers tomorrow will begin and end with one man. Alex Rodriguez, at the long end of a season in which he has struggled in the clutch, went 0-for-5 and hit into two double plays. He single-handedly accounted for 26 percent of the Yankee outs and left seven runners on base.

Topping it all off with a throwing error, Alex drew the boo birds and Bronx cheers long into the night. When he grounded into a double play with one out and the bases loaded in the 7th, the crowd expressed its collective, season-long frustration with an underperforming team. When, fittingly on this night, A-Rod struck out to end the game, whatever was left of the 55,058 fans who paid for this game booed perfunctorily. I guess they meant it.

For better or worse, though, the Yankees will rise and fall with A-Rod. Tonight’s game was a rather drastic illustration of that point, and while maybe tonight, for one night, it’s ok to boo Alex Rodriguez, he’s going to be around for the next nine years. The Yankee brass may be, according to Jon Heyman, very skeptical of A-Rod’s extracurricular activities. But they knew what they were getting when he inked his name in blood on that $275 million contract. Until death do us part.

After the game ended, Joe asked me if this was the worst game of A-Rod’s career or just the worst game of his five-year tenure on the Yankees. While Game Six of the 2004 ALCS comes to mind, at least A-Rod can only go up from there. I hope.

But forgetting A-Rod for a second, another Yankee didn’t come through when the team needed him most tonight. That man — Andy Pettitte — will get a pass in the papers tomorrow but only because of A-Rod. Coming off a strong outing in Toronto, Pettitte couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning. He needed 101 pitches to record just 18 outs, and along the way, he allowed six runs on 10 hits and three walks. The Yankees needed more from Pettitte, and the lefty just didn’t come through.

So now, the Yankees will turn to Sidney Ponson, and that is never a comforting thought. Ponson as a Yankee faced the Sox at the end of July, and the results were not pretty. But that obituary just isn’t ready to go, and the Yanks shouldn’t be ready to give up. Tuesday’s game wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was probably one of the worst of the season. But later on tonight, the Yanks play again for another shot at narrowing that October deficit. There’s always more hope.

Rare are the series this season when the Yankees sweep a three-game set. But if ever there were to be a time for the Yanks to pick up the pace, this week would be it.

While New York is reeling from the news about Osi Umenyiora, the Yankees are trying to make a last-gasp run at the playoffs, and to accomplish this dream, they’ll have to sweep the Red Sox this week. Momentum is on their side.

Sunday’s game did not start out well for the Yankees. Darrell Rasner, a starter by default, was terrible. He allowed ten baserunners and five runs — three earned — in just 3.1 innings of work. While the Yanks spotted Rasner to a 7-3 lead, he and the bullpen could not hold the Orioles, and at this point, no one really knows who will next start for the Yankees when they need a fifth starter.

Meanwhile, the Yanks’ bullpen came through late with a few huge innings. While David Robertson and Edwar Ramirez coughed up a two-run lead, Jose Veras, Damaso Marte and Mariano Rivera held the Orioles over the final three innings. Marte finally showed Yankee fans what he could do, and Mariano picked up a four-out save — his 31st of the season — to give the Yankees a much-needed victory.

Offensively, Sunday belonged to Robinson Cano. While he’s still trying to overcome a terrible start, Cano knocked out four hits on Sunday including the game-winning home run in the seventh inning. He drove in two, scored two and pushed his average up to .269. The Yanks really need to Cano to get hot over their last 30 games, and Sunday proved to be a good start.

Meanwhile, while Jason Giambi had yet another 0-fer and left seven runners on base, A-Rod and Bobby Abreu went a combined 5 for 7. Xavier Nady drove in two runs; Johnny Damon drove in three. And while Boston won, the Yanks kept the pressure on the Wild Card teams.

They may be down, but they’re not out. And with Boston on the way this week, the Yanks’ fate rests squarely in their hands. A sweep would keep them alive; anything would be a big blow. Here come some key August games. What could be better?

It’s amazing what 502 days of rest will do for a pitcher, eh?

A whopping 502 days after his last start, Carl Pavano made his 20th appearance as a member of the New York Yankees. It wasn’t pretty, and Pavano wasn’t particularly adept at keeping the Orioles off the base paths. But the oft-injured right-hander made the pitched he needed to make when it counted, and the Yanks emerged as 5-3 winners over Baltimore.

For the surging Yankees, last night’s win was their fifth in their last seven. With Boston’s losing 11-0 in Toronto, the Yanks moved to within five of the Wild Card lead, and it looks like this week’s series in New York with the Red Sox will be a key turning point in the race for a playoff spot.

In Baltimore, the Yanks spotted Carl Pavano to an early lead. Johnny Damon singled to lead off the game, and while Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu both lined out, A-Rod hit a booming double to center field that plated Damon. Jason Giambi drove in his first of three runs with a single, and before Pavano had a chance to step to the mound for the first time since April 9, 2007, he had a 2-0 lead.

He needed every run of that lead and then some. Pavano allowed three hits in the first, and only a lucky double play prevented the Orioles from scoring any runs. An inning later, another three hits and a walk would lead to three Oriole runs, and after two innings, Baltimore had a 3-2 lead. Pavano, meanwhile, had thrown way too many pitches and wasn’t looking sharp. Everything turned after that.

Pavano retired the Orioles in order in the third but got into trouble in the fourth. In an effort to curry favor with the Bronx faithful, Pavano drilled Yankee nemesis Kevin Millar with a fastball. A Jay Payton single put runners on first and second with no outs, and while a Jason Giambi two-run home run had given the Yanks a 4-3 edge, that lead was in danger of evaporating. But Pavano bore down and struck out Juan Castro, Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis to end the Oriole threa.

On the night, Pavano threw five innings and allowed three earned runs on seven hits and a walk. He also struck out five and threw 54 of 91 pitches for strikes. At times, it wasn’t pretty, but it was more than we could have expected from a pitcher everyone doubted. Whether he can do it again in five days is up for debate. That will, of course, be the true test of Carl Pavano.

Right now, we just tip our caps to Pavano — and the Yankee bullpen — and appreciate how the Yankees are still in this thing. While Carl Pavano now has more wins than Kei Igawa, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy combined, the Yanks have to make up five games over their last 33. As Carl Pavano — the YES Network’s Chevy Player of the Game — proved last night, anything is possible.

By the time the Yanks’ bats came alive last night, Mike Mussina had hit the showers. He missed out on his first crack at 17 wins, and as his quest for that elusive 20-win season continues, he’ll have one more shot next week against the Red Sox in New York. Meanwhile, the Yanks won to keep pace with the victorious Red Sox and Rays.

Tonght’s game started out on a strong note. Three batters into the game, Radhames Liz had yet to retire a batter, and the Yanks had runners on 1st and 2nd and one run in. But A-Rod hit into a double play, and Jason Giambi struck out. While the Yanks were, at that point, 2 for 4 with runners in scoring position, it was an unsatisfying way to start the game.

When the Orioles came up in the first, it was clear that Mike Mussina didn’t have his best stuff and wasn’t getting close calls behind the plate. He allowed runs in the first, third and fourth before settling down, but he stood to be the losing pitcher after allowing a run in the sixth — his final inning of work. On the night, Moose gutted it out through six innings and allowed four earned runs on nine hits. He walked none and struck out three. In other words, he was good but not good enough to earn himself that win.

After Moose hit the showers, though, the Yankee bats took over. They scored two in the eighth and four in the ninth behind five Bobby Abreu hits, a Cody Ransom three-run home run and a Xavier Nady blast. Twice tonight the Yanks went back-to-back with home runs. Robbie Cano and Jose Molina accomplished the feat earlier in the game, pushing Liz out.

Once Mariano Rivera nailed down the final out of the 9th for a four-out save — thank you, Damaso Marte — the Yankees walked away with a comfortable 9-4 win over the last-place Orioles. They’ve maintained a six-game gap between them and the Red Sox in the Wild Card race and stand to return home with at least a .500 record on their AL East road trip.

More importantly, they won a game in which Mussina didn’t have his best start and prior to the first effort by Carl Pavano since April of 2007. Who knows what they’ll get from Carl later today, but the pressure is off, albeit slightly, as the bats delivered a much-needed victory on a Friday in Baltimore.

I knew the Yanks were in trouble tonight when, in the top of the third inning, Ivan Rodriguez struck out swinging on one of the nastiest pitches I’ve ever seen.

The fastball from Roy Halladay started over heading toward the middle of the plate. A few feet short of home plate, the bottom literally dropped out of this pitch, and it bounced in the dirt in front of home plate as Pudge swung over the top of it. I couldn’t fault Rodriguez for swinging there. By any account, that pitch should have been right over the heart of the plate. But Halladay’s sinker was just that good tonight, and by the time he tired enough to leave one up to Hideki Matsui, it was far too late for the Yankees.

While tonight’s game belonged, from start to finish, to Roy Halladay, it was also the day when Sidney Ponson’s chickens came home to roost. I’ve long harped on Ponson’s inability to keep runners off base, and while he had shown some improvement over his last few outings, his Yankee WHIP prior to tonight stood at 1.50. Pitchers who allow that many baserunners per inning simply cannot sustain success, and it all came crashing down tonight.

Ponson allowed eight hits and a walk as he pitched into the third but couldn’t record an out that inning. He gave up seven of the Blue Jays’ 14 runs before giving way to the equally ineffective tandem of David Robertson and Billy Traber. Games like this one really make me miss Chien-Ming Wang.

Meanwhile, the Yanks continue to lose their grip on any sort of October hope. They’re 10.5 games behind Tampa and six behind Boston. With 35 games left, the Yankees will have to game for every five they play just to tie Boston in the Wild Card. With six games left against their archrivals, it’s not impossible, but they’re going to have to make this run trotting out Ponson, Darrell Rasner and perhaps Carl Pavano for three out of every five days. Don’t hold your breath.

Game Notes: Why is Billy Traber still a member of this organization? He’s been terrible all year…Since acquiring Ivan Rodriguez, the Yankees are 8-11, and Pudge is hitting .229/.270/.343. That trade sure seemed better at the time…Derek Jeter has 2499 hits. With his next base knock, he’ll become just the 88th player in baseball history to amass at least 2500 hits.

When I see tonight’s Yankee game unfold, two different thoughts flash through my mind. On the one hand, I see Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte turn in what we would call vintage performances as the Yanks turned in a crisp two-hour and 22-minute victory.

But on the other, I see the Yanks playing out the season with this win. I see a mediocre team with some star players beating a bad pitcher when they should. I see an overpaid and overhyped team keeping hope alive, falsely, by hanging 5.5 games back in the Wild Card and not really moving forward. I guess it’s all about tomorrow. Whatever they can do tomorrow and the next day and the day after that will determine the real fate of the 2008 Yankees.

Before we jump ahead though, we can look at tonight’s quick game. The Yanks jumped out to a first-inning lead, and they would never look back. The first three Yankees reached base, and while A-Rod again failed to deliver with runners in scoring position, a Jason Giambi sac fly (against a lefty!) and a Xavier Nady single gave Pettitte a 2-0 nothing lead.

In the fourth, the Yanks would plate their final three runs of the game with Derek Jeter’s hitting his 8th home run of the season. That blast would be the 2498th hit of Jeter’s career and his 203rd Yankee home run. With that homer, Jeter tied Roger Maris on the Yanks’ all-time home run list and somehow, only 10 players in Yankee history have more home runs in pinstripes than Jeter, not quite a notorious home run hitter throughout his career.

But while the bats did their job tonight, the story of the game was Andy Pettitte. The lefty went seven strong, allowing one run on five hits, no walks and four strike outs. He threw 62 of 83 pitches for strikes. Brian Bruney threw a crisp two innings to complete the victory.

Clearly, the Yankees needed this game. By winning on Wednesday, they guaranteed at least a one-game lead in third place when they depart Toronto for Baltimore after facing Roy Halladay tonight. They also gained a game on Boston and Clay Buchholz, who was shelled again down in Baltimore.

Was tonight’s game a reprieve or a sign that we shouldn’t quite count the Yanks out? With the Bombers seemingly treading water in the standings these days, it’s easy to believe the former, but it’s always hard to count out the Yankees. Stranger things, after all, have happened.

In the 7th inning, Michael Kay and Al Leiter do what they do every night at that time: They read the choices for Chevy Player of the Game. As Darrell Rasner’s name garnered the top slot on their slate of candidates, my thoughts flashed, albeit briefly, on the word “jinx.” With the way the Yanks have been playing lately, how could the YES Network be so presumptuous with three innings left in a 1-0 game to start offering up names for Player of the Game?

As luck — or fate — would have it, the Yanks would not win this game, and they didn’t win in spectacular fashion. When the dust settled — and it literally settled as A-Rod was called out at second for the first out of the ninth — the Yanks were emerge 2-1 losers in a game they desperately needed to win. With that loss, they’re one game out of fourth place, 11 games out of first and, more importantly, 6.5 games behind Boston in the Wild Card with 37 games left to play. No wonder Yahoo! Sports ran this image earlier tonight.

Before we really delve into the negatives from tonight, let’s stop and tip our collective caps to Darrell Rasner. The Yanks’ righty had one of his better starts of the year. He went 6.1 innings and allowed a walk and three hits. He struck out three and kept the Blue Jays off base. His only mistake came on a 3-2 pitch that Adam Lind deposited beyond a leaping Bobby Abreu over the right field wall to tie the game at one.

With that out of the way, it’s really hard to say anything nice about the rest of this game. Again, the Yanks didn’t hit with runners in scoring position. Bobby Abreu lead off the fourth with a double and ended up staying on second as the next three batters — A-Rod, Jason Giambi and Xavier Nady — went down with nary a peep. Jason Giambi had four strike outs; A-Rod three. While A.J. Burnett, in his audition, was masterful, the Yanks couldn’t put anything together at all.

Meanwhile, I hate to say this, but in a way, I was right when I questioned Hideki’s arrival last night. Matsui’s return to the lineup — a smashing 0-for-3 performance — pushed Johnny Damon into center field where he made one error early on and then cost the Yanks the game with one of the worst plays you’ll ever see a center fielder make in the 8th inning. Melky Cabrera would have caught that ball; Brett Gardner would have caught that ball; it’s quite possible I would have caught that ball. But Damon didn’t; the Blue Jays scored a second run, and that was that.

Or, that was that until the ninth inning when Alex Rodriguez led off with a bloop base hit over the first baseman’s head and managed to get himself thrown out at second base for the first out of the inning. On the surface, I have no problem with A-Rod’s play. He was trying to make something — anything — happen for a lackluster team and got himself thrown out.

But after watching the replay, I have a problem with A-Rod’s not really running hard to first. He didn’t have second base in his mind out of the box. Only after he saw Lyle Overbay chasing the ball did he turn it on as he rounded first, and by then, it was too late. Much like this Yankee season so far, A-Rod just fell a little short. He was out; the Yanks lost. And that’s that.

As the Yanks enjoy a day off prior to a trip up to America’s Hat, I’m sure more than a few of them are thinking, “Why can’t we do that everyday?”

Today’s final — a 15-6 drubbing of the Royals — belies the early-inning struggles. Before Johnny Damon had a chance to step up to the plate, Mike Mussina had given up three runs, and it seemed like it was going to be one of those one-and-done starts for Moose. But, as he’s done a few times this season, Mussina bore down. He can taste 20 wins, and he knew he’d have to stop the bleeding early on to give the Yankee bats a chance to get back in it.

Well, the Yankee bats — missing for much of the season — weren’t about to let him down. The lineup turned over in the bottom of the first, and before Brian Bannister could catch his breath, the Yanks — behind a three-run home run from A-Rod and yet another blast by Xavier Nady — were up 6-3. Mussina pitched into and out of trouble in the second, and the Yanks went back to work.

Single. Walk. Walk. Grand Slam. There goes Bannister with a line of 1 IP and 10 ER. Bannister’s ERA went up by 0.60 runs today, and on August 17, that’s a tough act to accomplish.

The rest of the game would play out fairly painlessly. After that first inning, Mussina would give up no more runs and just two hits in the second. He’s now, unbelievably, 16-7 on the season and could, if the Yanks keep him on regular rest despite off days, have nine shots to win four games. Twenty is well within reach.

Offensively, the Yanks really needed a day like today. Derek Jeter went 4 for 4 to push his average up to .295. It’s the closest he’s been to .300 since May 22. A-Rod, 3 for 3, reached base all five times up and drove in five. His game-tying three-run home run in the 1st came amidst a renewed attention to his struggles this year with runners in scoring position. Brett Gardner went 2 for 5 and is now 5 for 14 since replacing Melky Cabrera in center field.

Up in Boston, the Red Sox were creamed by the Blue Jays, and commentators are wondering if Josh Beckett is injured. That Wild Card deficit is down to five games, and the Yanks are beginning to instill hope and faith in their supporters. We’ll find out soon whether this is just another round of false hope or if the Yanks are going to mount an improbable run. Here’s to hoping for the latter.

The Kansas City Royals are no one’s definition of a good baseball team. They’re 55-68 and in last place, 14.5 games behind the AL Central-leading duo of Minnesota and Chicago. When the Royals come to the Bronx, then, the Yanks should be able to put them away.

On Saturday, the Yanks put them away, but they do so excruciatingly. It took 13 innings and a whole lotta futility before the Yanks won a game they needed to win to keep their slim October hopes alive. With Roy Halladay spoiling Paul Byrd’s Boston debut, the Yanks creeped to within six of the Wild Card-leading Red Sox.

For the Yanks, this had all the trappings of One of Those Days. Sidney Ponson gutted it out, again, through 6.1 innings. He held the Royals to two runs and allowed a respectable nine baserunners. But when he left, the Yanks were facing a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 deficit.

In the bottom of the seventh, things started going their way. A-Rod, much maligned recently for his struggles with runners on base, reached on an error. While Jason Giambi walked, Xavier Nady hit into a double play. Cano then blasted an RBI triple and scored on a wild pitch. One hit, two runs, none of them earned. At this point in the season, I’ll take anything.

As the game dragged on past the eighth, ninth, tenth, the Yanks’ offensive woes mounted, but the pitching held up. In relief of Ponson, the Yanks’ bullpen threw 6.2 innings, allowing just one hit and three walks. Meanwhile, the Yanks hit into four double plays and left 13 runners on base against a last place team.

Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, Robinson Cano, a hero six innings earlier, started off the game-ending rally. With one out, Cano singled and advanced to second on an Ivan Rodriguez out. Brett Gardner, in for an exiled Melky Cabrera, singled to left — his third hit of the day and second walk-off of the season — and Cano scored.

It wasn’t pretty; it took too long; but it got the job done. With help on the way — Joba says he’s feeling good, Hideki’s rehabbing, Phil Hughes tosses for AAA and a potential MLB start later today — the Yanks may just have enough in them yet. That is, after all, why they play the games.