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The Mariners are a tough team to figure. To begin with, they’re the only team in the major leagues with a winning record that has been outscored by its opponents. They’re also run extremely hot and cold over the past three weeks, first losing six straight to the Twins and Angels, then taking seven of eight from the Rangers, A’s, Royals, and White Sox. The M’s also had five of their first twenty games postponed by snow or rain, though they’ve already made one of those up, falling to the Red Sox in Boston last night on Manny Ramirez’s game-winning shot off Chris Reitsma in the eighth.

Thus far, the only thing that’s really working for them on offense is catcher Kenji Johnjima (.305/.349/.508). That’s not much of a surprise given that their big offseason acquisitions were Joses Vidro and Guillen. More surprising: Richie Sexson is really struggling (.150/.253/.375) and after finishing fifth in the AL in stolen bases last year, the M’s are dead last in the majors having gone just 6 for 10 on the bases thus far in 2007. On the other side of the ball, Felix Hernandez looked to be breaking out only to go down with a scary elbow injury. He’s expected back next week, but M’s fans will likely continue to hold their breath over the health of King Felix for a while longer. Behind Hernandez’s scary elbow has been more scary pitching in the form of starters Miguel Bautista (6.30 ERA), Horacio Ramirez (6.64) and old buddy Jeff Weaver (0-4, 18.26 in four starts). If not for the unlikely performance of Jarrod Washburn (2.88 ERA, 0.99 WHIP) and the solid showing by their bullpen (3.35 ERA) the M’s would be in a much worse way, which, frankly, I assume they will be before to long.

Tonight, the Yanks draw South Korean-born Cha Seung Baek, who’s holding King Felix’s spot in the rotation. Baek has started against the two worst teams in the American League and produced one solid start, that coming against the Royals at Safeco. The Yankees last tussled with Baek in Jeff Karstens’ major league debut last August. Baek and Karstens matched one another roughly pitch-for-pitch in that contest, with Bobby Abreu homering of Baek and the Yankees pulling ahead against the Mariner bullpen only to see Jaret Wright and Ron Villone blow the game in the final two frames. Tonight, Baek’s mound opponent will be Kei Igawa, who salvaged his spot in the Yankee rotation with a fantastic emergency appearance last Saturday after Karstens had his leg broken by a comebacker on the first pitch of the game. Afterwards, Joe Torre speculated that Igawa might have been well served by the lack of warning, which prevented him from overthinking his outing, or building up nerves. It will be interesting to see how he does tonight, having had the last week to think about tonight’s start.

Incidentally, Igawa still leads the Yankees in wins, though he’s now tied with Luis Vizcaino, who vultured Andy Pettitte’s second win in game one yesterday. His five outings can be split into two awful ones:

9 1/3 IP, 16 H, 14 R, 4 HR, 6 BB, 5 K (13.50 ERA, 2.36 WHIP)

And three solid ones:

17 1/3 IP, 10 H, 5 R (4 ER), 1 HR, 7 BB, 14 K (2.08 ERA, 0.98 WHIP)

If the Yankees can find a way to keep Igawa on his game, they could have one of the best fourth starters in baseball.

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The single-admission doubleheader is a rarity in baseball these days, but thanks to last night’s rain-out, and the fact that this is the Yankees’ only trip to Texas this year, the Rangers will be hosting one today. Of course, they’ve split the game times, starting the first at 3:35 (2:25 local time in Arlington) and keeping the original start date for the nightcap at 8:05 (7:05 local) regardless of how early the opener ends.

In Game One, Andy Pettitte resumes his quest for win number two, but now faces Kevin Millwood rather than Robinson Tejeda (good news for Andy as Tejeda’s been much better than Millwood in the early going). Tejeda will then start the nightcap against Mike Mussina, who will swap places on the roster/DL with Phil Hughes.

Mussina has been out exactly three weeks with what was originally considered a very minor hamstring tweak that might not even require a DL stay. It’s amazing to think about how thing have changed while Moose has been away. When he took the mound in Minnesota for his second start of the year, the Yankees were 4-3. They then lost that game after he pulled up lame and went on to surrender a pair of walk-off wins to the A’s in Oakland, but recovered to sweep the Indians at home to run their record to 8-6.

Then it all fell apart. With Mussina, Carl Pavano, Chien-Ming Wang, and Hideki Matsui on the disabled list, the Yankees rolled into Boston with Jeff Karstens and Chase Wright making two of their three starts and lost a trio of heartbreakers, the first of which saw Mariano Rivera blow his second consecutive save opportunity. Slinking into Tampa, Kei Igawa melted down and lost his rotation spot, ruining Matsui’s return, and the bullpen was unable to convert Chien-Ming Wang’s first start into a win, handing the Yankee ace the loss by allowing his bequeathed runners to score. Losses to the Blue Jays (in Phil Hughes major league debut) and Red Sox (an unexpected Andy Pettitte meltdown) followed, pushing the losing streak to seven before Igawa unexpectedly salvaged a game in which a comebacker on the very first pitch broke Karstens leg. Inclusive of that game the Yankees have won two of their last three, but their most recent win was tainted by the loss of Hughes to a serious hamstring injury . . . in the seventh inning of a no-hitter no less.

Oh the drama!

Meanwhile, Pavano, who hit the DL the same day as Mussina, has cut his most recent bullpen session short and hopped a plane to Alabama to see Tommy John specialist Dr. James Andrews. Meat’s back on the indefinite DL, and Hughes is likely out until the All-Star Break, so the Yankees hopes of a turnaround are largely on the shoulders of the two men who will be pitching today.

But no pressure.

Update: Chris Britton takes Hughes’s roster spot for the first game and will be optioned in favor of Mussina before game two. Mike Wood starts in place of Millwood in game one, giving the Yankees an even more favorable matchup (Mike Wood, Millwood, Millwood, Mike Wood, let’s call the whole thing off).

Last fall, fans and media were calling for Joe Torre’s head. The Yankees had been eliminated from the ALDS in four games and the season long tension surrounding Alex Rodriguez, which had been rekindled by a back-biting Sports Illustrated article by Tom Verducci for which Torre had been a primary source, had culminated with Torre batting Rodriguez eighth in the elimination game. In response, Brian Cashman fired media relations director Rick Cerrone (well, technically he non-renewed him).

This spring, fans and media have been calling for Joe Torre’s head. The Yankees are languishing in last place after a dreadful April performance marked by a near complete collapse of the pitching staff. That collapse was touched off by poor performance by the starters, which lead to an increased strain on the bullpen, and has been perpetuated by a series of injuries to the rotation. Most curiously, three Yankee starting pitchers and Hideki Matsui have hit the disabled list with hamstring strains, the most recent being überprospect Phil Hughes, who went down in the midst of throwing a no-hitter. In response, Brian Cahsman has fired director of performance enhancement Marty Miller.

In both cases, Cashman gave the blood-thirsty hordes a head on a spike without disrupting the core of the team, a surgical strike, if you will, as opposed to a massacre. As for the hordes, blood has been spilled. Move along.

As for tonight’s game. Andy Pettitte looks to avoid the mysterious fifth-inning collapse he suffered against the Red Sox on Friday and pick up his long-delayed second win of the season. In his way stands 25-year-old Robinson Tejeda, who has been far and away the Rangers’ best starter in the early going.

Incidentally, for those who missed it, the Rangers made a couple of roster moves before yesterday’s game, placing Frank Catalanotto on the disabled list and calling up ex-Met Victor Diaz (who was promptly inserted into the clean-up spot and victimized by a monstrous Phil Hughes curve in his first major league at-bat in twelve months), and exchanging righty reliever Scott Feldman for counterpart Mike Wood.

It’s just been that kind of year for the New York Yankees.

The Bombers bust out with ten runs against the Rangers last night, driving Kameron Loe from the game in the fifth. Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano had the big days, both picking up a pair of doubles (the Yanks had six on the night), Jorge going 3 for 4 with a walk, 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored, Cano going 4 for 5 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Every Yankee starter reached base at least once. That includes the slumping Bobby Abreu (1 for 6), who moved to the leadoff spot in place of Johnny Damon, who got an extra day off following four chiropractic sessons and says he’s feeling great, and Doug Mientkiewicz (1 for 5, RBI).

While all that was going on, Phil Hughes was carving up the Texas Rangers’ lineup in just his second major league start. Hughes walked Kenny Lofton to start the game after getting ahead of him 0-2, but erased him on a double play off the bat of Michael Young and struck out Mark Teixeira. In the second, he walked Hank Blalock only to erase him on a double play as well, this one off the bat of the hot-hitting Ian Kinsler. Hughes didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until Blalock’s fly out for the second out of the fifth, and faced the minimum until he walked Kinsler following Blalock’s fly out. Along the way he simply dominated. He started the second by striking out Victor Diaz (just called up from triple-A to take the place of the just-DLed Frank Catalanotto) on a wicked curve ball that literally dropped from Diaz’s nose to his toes (it’s the first pitch shown in this ESPN highlight clip). He then started the third by pumping three fastballs past Brad Wilkerson. Hughes had been 0-2 on the two hitters he walked in the first two innings and when he got Wilkerson 0-2 he shook off Posada to get the fastball, sending Wilkerson back to the bench on three pitches. His fastball was clocked at 91-92 miles per hour by the YES gun, but had explosive late movement. That heater, the wicked curve, and his change combined to give Hughes six strikeouts through 6 1/3 efficient innings (83 pitches, 64 percent strikes).

Put simply, Hughes had no-hit stuff last night. Indeed, he didn’t allow a hit through those 6 1/3 innings. Then, with one out in the seventh and two strikes on Teixeira, Hughes reached back to break off an extra wicked curve ball, overextending as he followed through on the delivery, and felt his left hamstring pop.

That was it for Hughes no-hit bid. Hughes was removed from the game at that point and said after the game that there was no way he could have throw another pitch. He’ll remain with the team for the rest of this short three-game road trip and likely get an MRI when they return to New York, but a trip to the disabled list is a certainty. The ESPN highlight linked above says Hughes will be out four to six weeks, though I’m not sure where they got that information. Peter Abraham thinks it will be a couple of months. Obviously, the Yankees won’t be able to wager a guess themselves until Hughes gets his MRI.

The loss of Hughes is a blow to the rotation considering the fact that he was already delivering on his promise in just his second major league start, but in a twisted way this injury could be a good thing in the long run. Certainly the Yankees are lucky that it was Hughes’ hamstring and not anything in his right arm that went pop, and having him spend most of the next two months on the DL could go a long way toward protecting that right arm. Brian Cashman had said before the game that Hughes was in the major league rotation to stay; that his development would continue at the major league level. That’s a frightening change of plans regarding a 20-year-old pitcher who could be the most important asset this franchise has. Now, Hughes’ hamstring will force the Yankees to bring him back along more slowly, and will limit his aggregate innings pitched to a reasonable total rather than the 200-plus he could have thrown if left in the rotation for the remainder of the season.

I’m not saying I’m glad that Hughes is injured. Certainly you don’t want to see a young player hurt, and hamstrings have a habit of reoccurring, so you certainly don’t want to see that pattern develop in any player, particularly one as important as Hughes. I do think, however, that the injury will protect Hughes from the team’s desperation to overuse him this season, and I look forward to seeing more performances like last night’s once he returns to the rotation, which hopefully will happen by the All-Star break at the absolute latest.

In the meantime, with Mike Mussina coming back on Thursday and Kei Igawa installed back in the rotation after his tremendous emergency performance on Saturday, the Yankees can turn to Darrell Rasner or, as Abraham suggests, Matt DeSalvo to fill the fifth spot in the rotation while Hughes (and Carl Pavano, of course) is on the shelf (of course, DeSalvo isn’t on the 40-man roster right now).

As for the no-hitter, Mike Myers finished the seventh without incident, but blew the no-hitter and the shutout in the eighth. Still, thanks to another double play, the Rangers sent just 29 batters to the plate on the night, falling to the Yankees by the final score of 10-1. Luis Vizcaino finished the game in the ninth, marking just the third time all season that the Yankees completed a game with just three pitchers (the other two times both coming in their first road series in Minnesota in games started by Andy Pettite and, yes, Carl Pavano).

Really, everything that needed to go right for the Yankees last night did, with one glaring exception.

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First thing’s first. Joe Torre is not going to get fired, in part because George Steinbrenner is in no condition to fire him. If Joe’s going to be fired, Brian Cashman will have to do it, and that’s not going to happen. Cashman would have to go before Joe, and that’s a far more significant move now that Cashman’s finally executing his own vision for this team, which as poorly as this season has begun, has reaped benefits in the sense that the pitching reinforcements are finally coming in the form of young minor league talent rather than washed up veterans of the Sidney Ponson and Scott Erickson variety. Hell, Cotler Bean is on the 25-man roster. Colter Bean! If that’s not the indication of a significant change in attitude, I don’t know what is.

Further to that, Phil Hughes makes his second big league start tonight in Texas. In his first start, Hughes looked appropriately nervous in the first inning and understandably winded in the fifth, but put together three solid innings in between in which he allowed just a single and a walk while striking out three. Hughes peripherals for his entire 4 1/3 inning debut were excellent (5 K, 1 BB, the majority of his outs coming on the ground, and just one of his seven hits allowed going for extra bases). On the flip side, Hughes didn’t look very good against the experienced major league hitters in the Toronto lineup (Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, Frank Thomas, and Lyle Overbay were a combined 6 for 9 with a walk, a double, and no strikeouts against Hughes with two of their three outs coming in the air).

Obviously it will be interesting to see what Hughes can do now that he’s dealt with those debut jitters. That said, I still think he should be swapped out for Darrell Rasner regardless of his performance tonight, if only to keep his innings pitched limited for another month or so, at which point he can be safely loosed up on the American League for the remainder of the year.

On the mound for the Rangers will be Scott Brosius look alike and snake lover Kameron Loe. The Rangers’ fifth starter, Loe started the year in the bullpen, posting a 5.40 ERA after five appearances. He’s since earned his 1-1 record in two starts, throwing 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball at the weak-hitting A’s in the first and getting lit up over the same span by the heavy-hitting Indians in the last.

As for the rest of the Texas squad, sophomore second baseman Ian Kinsler has been tearing the cover off the ball, and reclamation project Sammy Sosa has been depositing mistakes in the seats like a late-career Jose Canseco, but the rest of the team is scuffling, including stars Mark Teixeira (always a slow starter) and Michael Young (a miserable .215/.236/.346). Out in the bullpen, closer Akinori Otsuka has been dominant, and lefties C. J. Wilson and Ron Mahay have been solid, but their cast of supporting right-handers has been a mess, as has most of the starting rotation, particularly high-profile off-season trade target Brandon McCarthy. Still, they’ve won a higher percentage of their games than the Yankees, but then that’s true of every AL team other than the Royals. May Day, indeed.

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Chien-Ming Wang is able to survive his alarmingly low strikeout rate by keeping his walks down and by inducing ground balls, the latter of which not only turn into outs with great frequency, but also rarely go for extra bases. Yesterday, Wang illustrated that formula for success by failing to execute it. Though none of Wang’s three walks came around to score, he did give up four runs in six innings because of the three extra-base hits he allowed. In the first, he gave up a solo home run to David Ortiz with two outs. In the third he gave up a leadoff triple to Coco Crisp that scored on a subsequent groundout by Alex Cora, and in the fifth, after hitting Crisp in the toe with one of his sinkers, he gave up another home run to Cora, the Red Sox’s surprise star of the game.

The Yankees countered the first two runs on an equally surprising three-run homer by Doug Mientkiewicz in the third, but Scott Proctor and Sean Henn combined to allow three more Boston runs (a Cora triple off Proctor in the seventh that was plated on a sac fly and a two-run Manny Ramirez homer off Henn in the eighth) before the Yankees were able to add their fourth tally on a Derek Jeter solo shot in the bottom of the eighth.

As it turns out, Wang was pitching with a broken nail on his pitching hand from the third inning on, thus the three walks, one hit batter, wild pitch (all of which came after the third inning), and unusual number of extra base knocks (Wang, who allowed just 12 homers all of last year hadn’t allowed two homers in a single game since June 28, 2005). The nail on Wang’s right index finger cracked in half perpendicular to his finger. According to Peter Abraham, Wang has reportedly fixed similar problems with glue in the past and says he will make his next start.

Despite not being on his game, Wang could have done worse. He gave the Yankees six innings and got 13 of his 18 outs on the ground (plus one K), but the nail effected his control, causing him to leave too many balls up in the zone. In addition to the two homers, both booming shots, and Crisp’s triple, Wang got two of his outs in the sixth on booming fly balls. Those shots, combined with a walk and wild pitch in that sixth frame, motivated Joe Torre to remove him after just 84 pitches.

At the plate, Alex Rodriguez went 2 for 4, including a one-out single in the sixth with the Yankees down 4-3 and Derek Jeter on base representing the tying run, but did not add to his homer or RBI totals. He thus finishes April tied with Albert Pujols for the most home runs ever in the month of April and second to Juan Gonzalez for the most RBIs ever in April. His final April line:

.355/.415/.882, 23 G, 27 R, 7 2B, 14 HR, 34 RBI, 23 K, 2 SB, 0 CS

Bobby Abreu broke an 0-for-19 slump with a single in the eighth inning.

On the injury front, Jeff Karstens was placed on the 15-day DL with a fractured right fibula, he’s expected to miss six-to-eight weeks. Colter Bean was recalled from Scranton to fill Karstens’ spot. Bean, who was a high school and college teammate of Josh Hancock’s, will likely return to the minors when Mike Mussina comes off the DL on Thursday. Johnny Damon will see a doctor about his aching back during today’s off day. Pavano threw 45 pitches in the bullpen, 20 of them from the top of the mound. He’ll throw again mid-week, but will remain on the DL for at least three weeks (which I read as “indefinitely”).

Final note from the Abraham post linked above: “The Yankees used five pitchers for the 10th straight game. That is the longest such streak in at least 50 years according to the Elias Sports Bureau.” The Karstens/Igawa game seems like a bit of a technicality there, but still, that about sums it up. One of these days, Joe Torre has to let his starter throw 110 pitches and let a single reliever finish the game regardless of the score. It’s every bit as important to break that streak as it was to snap the losing streak that ended on Saturday.

I know I said last week that I’d do a full breakdown in previewing this series, but frankly, I’m winded. While no one expected the Yankees to win more than on game in Boston last weekend, their being swept in a series that was actually more evenly matched than most anticipated was a bitter pill and their three loses this past week that have pushed their overall slide to six games has even the most optimistic Yankee fans shaking their heads.

The Yankees are languishing in last place with the third worst record in the AL and the fifth-worst in baseball, yet their Pythagorean winning percentage is .562. There are two reasons for that. The first is that the Yankee offense, despite being shut out for the first time all season last night, is still the most productive in baseball, scoring six runs per game. The second is that the Yankee bullpen, which looked like a major strength entering the season, has blown seven saves. Losing close and winning big, that’s how a team underperforms it’s Pythagorean, and that’s exactly what the Yankees have been doing. Only two of the Yankees’ 12 loses have been by more than two runs. Think about that. Eight times they’ve been a bloop and a blast away from tying or winning a game in their final at bat, but eventually lost (two of those close losses were walk-off jobs in Oakland) including five of their current six-game losing streak. On the flip side, three of their eight wins have come in their final at-bat (the two game winners by Alex Rodriguez and Giambi’s tie-breaker in extras in Oakland).

That’s exhausting baseball, and exhaustion is exactly the problem. The rotation was supposed to shape up before it shredded the bullpen. That didn’t happen. The offense is the best in the league but the best isn’t good enough to overcome the team’s pitching woes. Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte give the Yankees a powerful 1-2 punch atop the rotation, and both will face the Sox this weekend, but the Yankees have lost four of the five games those two have started because of the strain placed on the bullpen by the rest of the rotation. The pen appeared to get a reprieve with Wednesday night’s rain out, but having already soured on Japanese import Kei Igawa, who’s been pulled from the rotation, the team asked 20-year-old rookie phenom Phil Hughes to make his major league debut last night and thus needed another 4 2/3 innings from the bullpen. With the pen already exhausted, however, there was no one Joe Torre could turn to as a long man for mop up duty short of Igawa himself, so those 4 2/3 innings saw him burn through four of his seven relievers.

As a result the only fully rested relief arms for tonight’s game are Luis Vizcaino, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera, who have been the team’s worst performers in the early going. Vizcaino was the pitcher most abused in the early going, but there’s reason for optimism with Farnsworth and Rivera. Rivera, of course, is Mariano Rivera, and pitched a scoreless inning on Monday, working around a hit to strike out two. Farnsworth, meanwhile, has turned in a scoreless frame in each of his last four outings, allowing just two hits and a walk over that span while striking out three (though three Ks in 4 IP is still a bit low for him).

In other good news, Wang looked like he was in midseason form in his debut on Tuesday, picking up the loss only because of the failures of the bullpen, and Hideki Matsui has also hit the ground running since being activated from the disabled list on Monday going 2 for 7 with a homer and five walks (.583 OBP). It may not seem like it, but the Yankees are a strong team than they were a week ago heading into Boston.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, were merely .500 on the week, dropping a pair at home to the Blue Jays by a combined score of 17-6, but beating the Orioles twice in Baltimore by a combined score of 11-3. The good news is that the Yankees will be facing the guys who pitched against Toronto (Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez), and not the ones who faced Baltimore (Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett).

Tonight, they get their second crack at Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Yanks touched Matsuzaka up for six runs in seven innings on Sunday, one of them coming on a Derek Jeter homer over the Green Monster. On the other hand, Matsuzaka struck out seven Yankees and walked just one. Meanwhile, Andy Pettitte excelled against the Sox a week ago tonight, holding them to two runs over 6 1/3 innings, but Andy’s peripherals were less impressive than Matsuzaka’s. I’m anticipating a pitchers’ duel tonight, which should simply add to the exhaustion factor for those of us watching the game, but could be a benefit to the Yankee bullpen.

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. . . you’re not in Trenton anymore.

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Last July, Steven Goldman and I headed down to Trenton to see 20-year-old Phil Hughes start against the Akron Aeros. The above and below are two of a series of photos I snapped during that game. Hughes dominated the Aeros that night, striking out eight in four innings, but a long rain delay ended his evening there. With Hughes due to make his major league debut tonight after just three triple-A starts, I thought these photos would explain what my words might fail to sufficiently communicate. That is, quite simply, that regardless of a players skill level, it’s still a long way from double-A to the major leagues.

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I wrote a little something about the Blue Jays over on Fungoes while filling in on Alex’s AL East beat while he was off getting nuptualized. The crux of what I had to say was that the simultaneous injuries to B. J. Ryan and Troy Glaus are going to make it awfully hard for the Jays to compete because of the resulting thinness of their bullpen and lack of offense. Since that post went live on Monday, the Jays swept a quick two-game series in Boston by a combined score of 17-6 while the Yankees got swept by the same Devil Rays that I claimed Toronto and Baltimore had “fattened up” upon.

Heh.

The injuries just keep on coming for the Jays, however. The lastest to hit the DL is catcher and on-base machine Gregg Zaun, who was hit on the throwing hand last night by a foul off the bat of ex-teammate Eric Hinske. In a fantastic bit of irony, Zaun is being replaced on the Jays’ 25-man roster by ex-Yank Sal Fasano, who arrives accompanied by this gem from one-time Billy Beane disciple and current Jays GM J. P. Riccardi: “The nice thing is we’ve got Fasano to come up. Between him and [Jason] Phillips, we’ve got a veteran presence.”

Things are the same all over.

Tonight the Yankees send April pitching MVP Andy Pettitte (three quality starts plus two scoreless relief innings) to the hill against Josh Towers. The 30-year-old Towers had a solid season in 2005, but pitched his way off the Jays last year only to win the fifth starters spot out of camp this spring when free agent John Thomson hit the DL. Towers dominated the Tigers two starts ago, but has been roughed up by the Royals and Orioles in his other two outings.

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Chien-Ming Wang was his old self in his 2007 debut last night. Pitching into the seventh inning, Wang worked quickly, efficiently (81 pitches over 6 1/3 innings), and effectively, getting 12 groundouts to just four fly outs, striking out three and walking no one. His one rough inning had as much to do with bad bounces as bad pitches.

Carl Crawford led of the fourth with a single and a stolen base. Ty Wigginton then hit a chopper in front of the plate that bounced so high that even the plodding Wigginton had time to beat it out (though replays showed he was likely out at first). Crawford, who scampered to third on Wigginton’s chopper, scored on a groundout which also moved Wigginton to second. Carlos Peña then hit a clean single to left. Hideki Matsui’s throw beat Wigginton home by several steps, but again bounced off that hard surface in front of the plate and bounded over Jorge Posada’s glove to make it 2-1 Rays (the first Yankee run came on a tape-measure homer by Matsui leading off the second).

The Yankees took the lead in the top of the seventh after Matsui reached on a Scott Kazmir throwing error on an easy comebacker with one out. Jorge Posada doubled Matsui home and, after a Robinson Cano groundout, Josh Phelps came through with a huge two-out RBI single to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

Wang started the seventh by striking out Jonny Gomes, but then game up a single to Dioner Navarro and a double to B. J. Upton that put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out. The pitches to Navarro and Upton were high in the zone and that was all Joe Torre needed to see to take Wang out of the game with the top of the Rays’ order coming up.

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The Yankees have the fourth-worst starters’ ERA in baseball (only the Rangers, Mariners and these Devil Rays have been worse, which gives you some idea how rough those teams have had it thus far). The Yankee starters are averaging just 4.87 innings per game, and opponents are smacking them around at a .301 clip. After 18 games, the Yankee have received just five quality starts, three of them from Andy Pettitte, one from the indefinitely disabled Carl Pavano, and the last from Kei Igawa, who was quite a bit short of quality last night.

There’s nothing this team needs more right now than a high-quality starting pitcher. Maybe something in a 19-game winner and Cy Young runner-up, ideally with a high pitch efficiency, possibly a pitch-to-contact groundballer of some type. Got anything like that? You do? Do you think he’d be available to pitch in Tampa tonight? You say he’s already there? Sweet! Just wait until the guys hear about this, they’ll be stoked!

Additional reason to be stoked (no, it has nothing to do with Brian Stokes . . . yet): The Devil Rays have placed Akinori Iwamura on the DL with an oblique strain and recalled Jorge Cantu, who failed to make the team out of camp and is hitting just .267/.317/.360 in triple-A. I don’t know how Joe Maddon plans to alter his lineup, but moving Ty Wigginton to third base, putting Carlos Peña at first, and moving B. J. Upton up in the order would make the most sense to me. Whatever he does, this is good news for the Yankees, as Iwamura has reached base nine times in 14 trips against the Yanks, scoring seven times. It’s a bummer for baseball fans in general, however, as Iwamura’s been one of the better stories of the young season.

I doubt the Yankees are shedding any tears. They’re too busy being stoked.

I have to admit, I missed the first six innings of last night’s game. Since getting a digital video recorder last August, I’ve watched very few games live, and I simply forgot to set the thing to record yesterday’s game. By the time I tuned in, the Devil Rays were up 7-6. Boy am I glad I forgot to set the DVR.

What I missed was Kei Igawa and Casey Fossum trying to out-awful each other. Fossum started the bidding with Alex Rodriguez’s 13th homer of the year, a solo shot to lead off the second. Igawa countered with a three-run shot by Rocco Baldelli in the bottom of the inning that made it 4-1 Rays (two walks and a single preceded the dinger). Fossum gave one of those runs back in the third (a Josh Phelps double plated by a Melky bunt and Jeter sac fly), one in the fourth (singles by Rodriguez and Giambi, sac fly by Matsui), and one in the fifth on a Robinson Cano solo homer.

Igawa gave up another run in the bottom of the fifth on a single by Delmon Young and a double by Akinori Iwamura, then got the hook after 97 pitches. Colter Bean came on and struck out Elijah Dukes, but let Iwamura score on a Josh Paul single before getting out of the inning.

Fossom followed Igawa out of the game in the top of the sixth after allowing another run on a double by Abreu and singles by Rodriguez and Giambi, then plunking Robinson Cano with two outs to load the bases. Gary Glover came on and walked Josh Phelps to force in a run before getting the final out.

That’s how it got to be 7-6 Devil Rays.

Brian Bruney and Luis Vizcaino combined to yield three more runs in the seventh, both yielding a walk and a double before Vizcaino recorded the first out of the inning, the big shot being B. J. Upton’s bases-clearing double off Vizcaino. After appearing in eight of the Yankees’ first 12 games and allowing just six base runners in those 8 1/3 innings, Vizcaino’s been terrible in three of his last four outings. Those splits are symptomatic of the way in which the rotation’s failures have wreaked havoc on the entire bullpen, which entered the season as one of the best in baseball.

Down four runs, the Yankees rallied in the eighth. After Juan Salas walked Giambi and Matsui, Brian Stokes came in and got Posada to foul out, but Robinson Cano singled to load the bases for Josh Phelps, who had doubled and walked in three trips. Except that Joe Torre sent Johnny Damon up to pinch-hit for Phelps against the right-handed Stokes. Sending Damon up wasn’t a bad move, but sending him up for Phelps rather than saving him to hit for the next batter, Melky Cabrera, was. Damon battled Stokes, but fouled out and Cabrera struck out on four pitches to leave the bases loaded.

Against Al Reyes in the ninth, Bobby Abreu drew a one-out walk and Alex Rodriguez delivered yet another home run to pull the Yanks within two, but Jason Giambi struck out and Hideki Matsui popped out to mercifully end the game.

The 10-6 loss to the Rays drops the Yankees to just a half game out of last place in the East. The Yanks have now lost four straight because their pitching staff has allowed an average of 7.75 runs per game over that span. This feels like rock bottom. Here’s hoping it is.

Chien-Ming Wang makes his first start of the season tonight. It’s not soon enough.

The Devil Rays roster remains the same as it was on Opening Day, but the way Joe Maddon is using it has changed. To begin with, he’s switched Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford in the order, leading off Baldelli and putting Crawford in the three-spot. He’s also been working his four-man bench into the starting lineup with regularity, alternating Brendan Harris at shortstop with the struggling Ben Zobrist, starting Josh Paul behind the plate in two of the last four games in place of the scuffling Dioner Navarro, and setting up a rotation at DH that has allowed him to keep Baldelli and Ty Wigginton in the lineup on a daily basis while also working Elijah Dukes and Carlos Peña in at center field and first base respectively. Maddon will also use Wigginton at second base on occasion to give B. J. Upton a day off or at DH, and has also started Harris at third to give Akinori Iwamura a breather. As a result Jonny Gomes is last on the team in plate appearances, which is good news for the Yankees, though I must admit, I, like Alex, enjoy watching Gomes play.

Thus far Upton has been a world beater at the plate, but has committed five errors at second base. Iwamura has been the quiet surprise I anticipated. Peña has just six hits, but three of them are home runs. Paul is hitting for high average and getting on base, but has no extra-base knocks. Duke and Baldelli have both been struggling, and the team as a whole has been thrown out on 47 percent of its stolen base attempts.

The pitching, meanwhile, has been abysmal outside of the dominant performance of ex-Yankee and current closer Al Reyes. James Shields has been the team’s best starter thus far, but has also allowed six homers in four starts. Tonight’s starter, Casey Fossum, is the only other Ray with as many as two quality starts in the early going and, in fact, has piched very well after an opening week drubbing at the hands of the Blue Jays. In his last two starts against the Twins in Minnesota and the Orioles at home, Fossum has assembled this line:

14 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 1 HR, 1 BB, 6 K, 0.86 WHIP, 3.21 ERA, 1-0

The good news, of course, is that the Cherry Hill native will have to face a Yankee lineup that’s back at full strength. Hideki Matsui returns to left field tonight and is reportedly all the way back from the hamstring injury that place him on the DL during the frigid opening homestand. Joe Torre has said that Jorge Posada will be back in the lineup tonight. Jorge could return as the DH, pushing Jason Giambi into the field, but if he’s able to catch, the lefty Fossum will draw Josh Phelps at first base for a line-up that looks like it did on Opening Day

L – Johnny Damon (CF)
R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Bobby Abreu (RF)
R – Alex Rodriguez (3B)
L – Jason Giambi (DH)
L – Hideki Matsui (LF)
S – Jorge Posada (C)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
R – Josh Phelps (1B)

Yum.

Kei Igawa takes the mound for the Yanks. He’s improved across the board in each of his last two starts (IP, K, ground ball rate up; H, R, HR, BB, fly ball rate, pitch total down). Here’s hoping that trend continues tonight.

By the way, Alex Rodriguez hasn’t gone more than two consecutive games without a home run this season. He homered twice on Friday night, but was kept in the park over the last two games in Boston. He has four career dingers off Fossum in 34 at-bats.

Update: Chase Wright was optioned back to double-A to make room for Matsui. That means Kevin Thompson’s still around, which suggests that Johnny Damon and his achy back may get the night off against the lefty Fossum on the Tampa turf (even if it’s fancy new turf). I would expect Darrell Rasner to be recalled to make Friday’s start against Matsuzaka at the Stadium.

Upupdate: Posada catches, Damon sits. Melky starts in center and leads off. Harris, Dukes and Paul start in the field for the Rays. Baldelli is the DH.

Upupandawaydate: Scratch Rasner. Phil Hughes makes his Yankee debut on Thursday against the Blue Jays. Karstens moves to Friday against Matsuzaka. More on Hughes after the game.

I must say, I think the Yankees acquitted themselves rather well this weekend. Facing the Red Sox three best starters, the offense scored at least five runs in each game and, save for the eighth inning on Friday and Scott Proctor’s outing last night, the bullpen shut the Red Sox out over 9 1/3 innings. Unfortunately, that eighth inning on Friday and Proctor’s outing last night led directly to two of three loses in a weekend sweep that will loom large as the AL East race heats up toward the latter part of the season.

The Yankees got out to an early 2-0 lead on Daisuke Matsuzaka in the top of the first on a two-out Jason Giambi double and added a third run in the third when Giambi singled home Johnny Damon, again with two outs. Chase Wright, meanwhile, stranded two runners in each of his first two frames, then started the third by getting Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz to fly out. Then Manny Ramirez homered. Then J. D. Drew homered. Then Mike Lowell homered. Then Jason Varitek homered.

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Daisuke Matsuzaka’s line over his first three starts:

20 IP, 17 H, 6 R, 1 HR, 5 BB, 24 K, 1.10 WHIP, 2.70 ERA, 1-2

The combined line of the opposing starting pitchers in Matsuzaka’s first three starts:

22 2/3 IP, 15 H, 3 R, 1 HR, 3 BB, 16 K, 0.79 WHIP, 0.79 ERA, 2-1

At first it seemed as though this trend was the result of Matsuzaka starting against two of the best young pitchers in the league, but last time out his opponent was Mr. Gustavo Chacin, who bosts a 5.32 ERA on the season inclusive of the game in which he outdueled Matsuzaka. Tonight, Matsuzaka starts against Chase Wright, who will be making just his second major league start and just his fourth career start above A-ball. Here’s hoping the Matsuzaka effect is for real.

With Jeff Karstens making his first start of the season (and just the seventh of his major league career) after a stay on the disabled list due to elbow soreness, Hideki Matsui on the DL, Jorge Posada out with a bruised thumb, and Johnny Damon out with back and hamstring soreness, the Yankees were effectively playing yesterday’s game with one hand tied behind their back, thus their eventual 7-5 loss was hardly a shock. Rather, the Yankees did well to score five runs against Josh Beckett, who came into the game having allowed just one run in each of his first three starts of the year. The bullpen contributed 3 2/3 scoreless innings–the highlight being Sean Henn’s three-pitch strikeout of David Ortiz. And Damon, pinch-hitting for a still-hitless Wil Neives, Melky Cabrera, Derek Jeter, and Bobby Abreu each had good at-bats against a gas-throwing Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth. Cabrera worked a one-out, four-pitch walk to give Jeter and Abreu a chance to tie game. Unfortunately, Jeter took the most hitable pitch of his six-pitch at-bat for a called strike, and Abreu flied out to the warning track in center to end the game, leaving Mr. Clutch, Alex Rodriguez (2 for 4 with a double and an RBI single) stranded in the on-deck circle.

This gives me a good occasion to update the Yankees’ laundry list of injuries and resultant roster and lineup changes:

• Chris Britton was optioned to Scranton to make room for Karstens, meaning Colter Bean remains on the roster, though he did not appear again yesterday. Kevin Thompson, who doubled and made a nice catch against the Monster in left yesterday, will likely go down when Hideki Matsui is activated tomorrow. Bean will then likely be optioned when Chien-Ming Wang is activated for the start on Tuesday, which Wang was cleared to make after throwing 55 pitches in the bullpen in Tampa yesterday.
• As per the above, Damon did not start yesterday due to general back pain, which he says he first felt while playing on the turf in Minnesota, but had subsided during the recent homestand only to be aggravated on a catch he made in Friday night’s game. According to Damon, he’s been having problems with his legs all season, and the back pain and leg pain are often related for him. Damon did pinch-hit in the ninth yesterday, working Papelbon for seven pitches before ultimately grounding out, and is expected to start tonight. However, one wonders if, with Hideki Matsui coming off the DL tomorrow, the Yankees might keep Melky in the lineup in Damon’s place for the two games they play on turf in Tampa.
• Also per the above, Jorge Posada came out of Friday night’s game after his left thumb was bruised by an Andy Pettitte pitch and did not play yesterday, though it turns out he was available if needed. He won’t start tonight either, but will again be available as a pinch-hitter. His thumb is swollen, but x-rays were negative and it bothers him less to hit than to catch. Josh Phelps warmed up Scott Proctor and Luis Vizcaino in the bullpen on Friday night in order to serve as an emergency catcher if needed. Wil Nieves, meanwhile, failed to execute a sac bunt in yesterday’s game, but reached on a Mike Lowell throwing error then came around to score. It was the first and still only time in Nieves’s Yankee career that one of his plate appearances didn’t result in an out.
• Mike Mussina threw 30 pitches in the bullpen in Tampa yesterday and will throw again on Tuesday, hoping to reach 50 pitches. The Yankees hope he’ll be ready to make a rehab start on Friday and, if all goes well, he could rejoin the rotation when the Yankees travel to Texas, likely starting the final game of that series on May 3. Bobby Murcer is expected to join the team in Texas as well.
• An MRI on Carl Pavano’s elbow revealed a mild strain on Thursday. He threw off flat ground yesterday and reported continued tightness in the elbow, but is expected to throw again on Monday. He’s still traveling with the team.
• Humberto Sanchez had Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. He is the third Yankee minor leaguer to undergo elbow ligament surgery since the end of last season, the others being Mark Melancon, who had Tommy John over the winter, and J. Brent Cox, who had a less severe ligament repair at the end of Spring Training. This could ultimately be good news for Sanchez, who’s had elbow problems most of his professional career. The hope now is that those problems will be a thing of the past once he’s fully recovered from this surgery. There’s no guarantee of that, of course, and he’ll likely spend all of 2008 building back his arm strength, but the Yankees have enough minor league pitching to be patient with his recovery.

Everything went according to plan for the Yankees through the first seven innings of last night’s series opener in Fenway. Andy Pettitte turned in a quality start, holding the Red Sox to two runs on a Jason Varitek homer over 6 1/3 innings, then passed the baton to Scott Proctor, who retired his two batters on six pitches (five of which were strikes). Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez hit not one, but two more home runs, both off Curt Schilling, a solo shot into the Monster Seats in the fourth and a three-run shot that sent Coco Crisp tumbling into the Boston bullpen in the fifth. Those two shots were bookended by two other runs, the latter a Rodriguez double in the top of the eighth that was plated by a Jason Giambi single. That gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning.

With David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez leading off the eighth, the Yankees’ four-run lead looked safe. Even if both mashers managed to come around to score, the Yanks still had two runs to work with. Joe Torre brought in Mike Myers to face Ortiz, who promptly doubled. He then turned to Luis Vizcaino to face Ramirez, who worked a full-count walk. J. D. Drew, who was 3-for-3 with a trio of singles against Pettitte, grounded to second for the first out, moving Ortiz and Ramirez to second and third. Mike Lowell followed Drew with a single into left field that plated Ortiz, put runners on the corners, and brought the tying run to the plate in the person of Jason Varitek. With that, Torre turned to Mariano Rivera.

In spring training, Joe Torre said that he was going to use Rivera exclusively as a one-inning pitcher this year, but with all of the Yankee wins coming either in their last at-bat (Jason Giambi’s extra-inning homer in Oakland and Alex Rodriguez’s two walk-offs at home), or in blowouts (Opening Day’s 9-5 score being by far the closest of the other five Yankee wins which they’ve won by an average of 6.6 runs), Rivera hasn’t had much opportunity to pitch. Indeed, he hadn’t thrown a pitch in five days, dating back to his blown save in Oakland last Sunday. Thus, Torre had no qualms against using Rivera for five outs in order to guarantee a win in the only game that favored the Yankees entering their weekend showdown with the rival Red Sox.

In Oakland, Rivera struggled with his command. Pitches that were supposed to be down in the zone floated up and over the plate. Last night his first five pitches to Varitek were right at Wil Nieves’s glove, the first four at the bottom of the strike zone. Varitek fouled off the last three, however, and the sixth floated up and over the plate. Varitek deposited it into right center for an RBI single to pull the Sox within two. That brought up Coco Crisp. Rivera again threw a pitch right to Nieves’s glove on the lower inside corner and Crisp hit it all of three feet. In the air that is. Crisp beat the ball into the ground, but past Doug Mientkiewicz’s dive at first and down into the right field corner for a bases-clearing triple that tied the game. Two pitches later, Rivera missed high again to Alex Cora who hit a flare over the drawn-in infield to plate Crisp with the go-ahead run.

Rivera has now blown his only two save opportunities this season, taking the loss in each of his last two outings. Conversely, each of the last two Yankee loses were games in which they handed Mariano Rivera a multi-run lead. Is this cause for concern over the baseball mortality of the Yankees’ 37-year-old closer?

Probably not. In 2005, Rivera blew his first two saves of the year in consecutive games at home against the Red Sox. Last year, Rivera blew his second save opportunity of the season and three outings later came into a tie game at home in the tenth inning and gave up two runs to take the loss. Following the latter on April 26, Rivera was 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA. He’d lose just three more games all year and finish with a 1.80 ERA. In 2005 he finished with a staggering 1.38 ERA. Rivera’s throwing hard, as evidenced by his virtuoso performance on Opening Day, and, despite the pitch that got away from him and sailed over Julio Lugo’s head before he struck Lugo out to end the eighth, his location was improved last night save for three or four of his 14 pitches (11 of those 14 pitches were strikes, though his recent location problems have had more to do with throwing strikes that are a little to good than with missing the zone). Rivera was lights out in spring training and allowed just one hit and one walk in his first four innings of the reuglar season while striking out four. He’ll be fine.

So will Jorge Posada, who left the game with a bruised thumb on his glove hand. His x-rays were negative, but he’ll likely miss the rest of the series with Wil Nieves catching the rookies Karstens and Wright, and Josh Phelps serving as the emergency backup catcher. After subbing in for Posada last night, Nieves has now come to the plate 19 times as a Yankee and made 19 outs. He has no official sacrifices and, though he did get to run the bases last night after hitting into a fielder’s choice, has not scored a run.

As much as last night’s loss hurt, a win in either of the next two games would be just as painful to the Red Sox. They really have no excuse not to sweep this series now.

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The Red Sox may have faltered last year, but I think their offseason upgrades at shortstop, right field and in the rotation have put them back in a dead heat with the Yankees. I’ll save my breakdown for next week’s series in the Bronx, however, because, with Hideki Matsui and three starting pitchers due to be activated from the disabled list between now and then, this simply isn’t the same Yankee team. As a result, all of the pressure is on the Red Sox this weekend. They can’t afford not to take at least two of three from the dilapidated Yanks in their home park, especially when they’ve got their top three starters lined up against the likes of Jeff Karstens, who will come off the DL tomorrow to make just his seventh career major league start, and Chase Wright, who will take his second big league turn on Sunday.

The Yankees, meanwhile, will be content to win just one, though there’s still some pressure in that the most favorable pitching match up for them is tonight’s marquee battle between Curt Schilling and Andy Pettitte and a sweep would be disastrous regardless of the shape of the Yankee roster. These teams are too evenly matched for either to shrug off surrendering three games in the standings, no matter how early it is.

The good news for the Yankees is that the Red Sox, with the exceptions of J. D. Drew and David Ortiz (of course), aren’t really hitting. Jason Varitek looks as done as he did last year if not more so. Coco Crisp, who was expected to bounce back following a season hampered by a hand injury, has yet to rebound. Rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia is third on the team in walks, but has contributed almost nothing else. Manny Ramirez is off to a brutally slow start, finally hitting his first homer of the year yesterday. Kevin Youkilis has been only a hair better than Manny. Mike Lowell isn’t getting on base, and Julio Lugo isn’t showing any power.

Rather the Sox have been getting it all done on pitching. Schilling, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield have all been excellent the first three times through the rotation, and Julian Tavarez (a placeholder for the progressing Jon Lester) had a good outing against the Blue Jays yesterday. The bullpen has been more problematic, but Jonathan Papelbon, Brendan Donnelly, and unheralded Japanese lefty Hideki Okajima have allowed just one run between them (a homer off Okajima) in 16 innings, striking out 22 against just four hits.

For his part, Schilling recovered from a shaky Opening Day outing in Kansas City to post the following combined line in his last two starts against the Rangers and Angels:

15 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 10 K, 2-0, 0.60 ERA

Fortunately, Andy Pettitte’s been almost as good over his last two outings against the Twins and A’s:

13 IP, 10 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 7 K, 1-1, 0.69 ERA

Andy’s also a lefty facing a lineup in which the only two hot hitters are the only two lefties. In fact, the Red Sox have been sitting the fragile Drew against lefties in favor of Wily Mo Peña, as if Trot Nixon never left.

As for the Yankees, a week and a half ago I wrote: “The Yankee starters finished their first trip through the rotation with a 9.97 ERA. That was no more likely to hold up than the bullpen’s current 1.07 ERA or the offense’s 6.83 runs per game.”

Indeed, the Yankee starters ERA has dropped by more than half to 4.52, the pen ERA has more than doubled to 2.69, and the offense has scored . . . well 6.5 runs per game, actually. That’s a 1053-run pace with Matsui on the shelf for most of it, Melky not hitting in his place and Doug Mientkiewicz starting the majority of the games at first base. In other words, Alex Rodriguez will cool off (he won’t hit 116 home runs this year, you heard it here first), but the Yankees have the opportunity to compensate with a healthy Matsui and an upgrade at first, which could be as simple as giving the job to Josh Phelps. Wow.

What this weekend’s series comes down to is a match-up between the major league’s most potent offense and the major league’s stingiest pitching staff (2.57 R/G). In an identical number of games, the Yankee offense has scored 55 more runs than the Red Sox’s pitchers have allowed, that’s 253 percent as many runs (or, inversely, just 40 percent as many allowed by the Sox). The Yankees faced a similar situation heading into Oakland last week and played three games decided in the victor’s final at-bat. Here’s hoping this series is similarly exciting.

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The last time the Yankees started three rookies in a row prior to September call-ups was August 2-4, 1991 when the Yankees sent Scott Kamieniecki, Jeff Johnson, and Wade Taylor to the hill against the Tigers in Detroit. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, Yankee hitting coach Don Mattingly was the first baseman. A’s manager Bob Geren caught Taylor’s game. Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens started two of those games. A rookie named Bernie Williams started all three in center field. Melky Cabrera was eagerly anticipating his seventh birthday. Bud Selig was simply the owner of the AL East’s Milwaukee Brewers. Kurt Cobain wasn’t famous yet, and the president was a guy named George Bush who, with the help of Dick Cheney, led us into a war in Iraq.

The Yankees lost all three of those games, allowing a minimum of seven runs in each. My how things have changed.

Today the Yankees throw Darrell Rasner, their third rookie starting pitcher in as many games, again Fausto Carmona. Carmona got lit up pretty good in his only previous start, that coming at home against the White Sox almost a week ago. Rasner, on the other hand, didn’t allow an earned run or walk a batter on his way to a no-decision in the Yankees extra-inning win in Oakland this past Saturday.

Meanwhile, up in Toronto, the Red Sox are throwing Julian Tavarez against Roy Halliday. If the Yanks can pull out a sweep behind Darrell Rasner this afternoon, they stand a good chance of entering this weekend’s series in Boston in a dead heat with the Sox.

More importantly, somewhere on a beach in Bermuda right around the time of the first pitch, our man Alex and his lovely bride Emily are going to become husband and wife. Please join me in wishing them a long, full lifetime of happiness, health, and prosperity together. Mazel tov!