On Tuesday night at the Yankees game, the first few notes of “Enter Sandman” descended upon the Bronx, Mariano Rivera began his trip to the mound from the bullpen and my friend Redz turned to me and said, “So sick.” The expression isn’t always “so sick,” but every time No. 42 makes his way into a game, it draws a similar reaction with a similar expression.

There is nothing like Mariano’s entrance in all of sports. There is a chill when the door opens, Metallica comes on, Mariano throws his last warm-up pitch and then walks across the warning track before beginning a slow jog to the infield. I think being on-hand for the atmosphere created when Mariano enters a home postseason game should be on everyone’s sports bucket list. The only problem with that is there are only a few seasons left to experience it.

There is a real chance Mariano Rivera is superhuman, and if you told me he will still be getting outs in the ninth inning in 2016, I’d be ecstatic and also have a hard time arguing against it. Aside from a minor ache or pain that comes with a 162-game season and doing his job for the last 14 years, there is nothing to suggest that the Yankees should be worrying about a successor to the ninth inning anytime soon. Realistically, there will be a time when No. 42 will sit behind the outfield for good with the other Yankee legends and won’t be coming through the bullpen door to save the game and the day for the Yankees.

It has always been in the back of my mind that that some day the only way I will be able to watch Mariano pitch is on Yankees Classics or in scenes from Yankeeographies. Eventually, hoping for the Yankees to hold a lead of three runs or less for the ninth won’t make Mariano appear. I will probably need therapy and counseling once the post-Mariano era is upon on, but I don’t think it will be as bad personally as the post-Jeter era.

The more and more I think about it, the more and more I feel as though I have taken his abilities and success for granted. Actually, I know I have taken Mariano Rivera for granted. And now that he is 40, an age where very few people play baseball professionally and an age where no one gets the final three outs of a game, it makes sense to savor every Mariano appearance and not just see each save as No. 538 or chalk up a perfect ninth in what is just another Yankees win.

When you look at the highs and lows of closers around the league and the average life span of every other closer not named Mariano being that of an ant, it makes me lightheaded to think of life without Mariano. If life without Mariano means life with Joba Chamberlain as the closer, the ninth inning will become more of a gamble than a sure thing, and if I want to gamble I will head up to Connecticut and go to Mohegan Sun. I need the ninth inning to be a guarantee, not something left to chance.

Jonathan Papelbon refers to Mariano as “The Godfather” and never forgets to mention that he wants to carry the torch for closers in Major League Baseball after Mariano. But there isn’t another Mariano and there’s a better chance of Armando Galarraga throwing another perfect game than there is of seeing another closer with one pitch being as successful as Mariano has been.

For as long as I can remember Mariano has been my favorite pitcher to watch, and there isn’t even a close second. I have spent more time following his every pitch and every stat than my politician friend Scanlon has spent watching C-Span. In my mind, Mariano is on a level by himself in an exclusive club of one, and I don’t know if anyone else will ever be gaining admission to that club. Joba looked like he might be able to make a case to join the club in 2007, but he’s closer to joining my Boone Logan Fan Club than joining Mariano in the V.I.P.

There isn’t another Yankees reliever that I care about seeing come in as long as they put up zeroes. Aside from getting excited to watch Mariano, it’s all about the Yankees’ starters for me, and in order for most enjoyable to watch, here they are:

Phil Hughes
The Phranchise has me counting the calendar to find which day he is starting and planning my schedule accordingly. There is something about watching homegrown talent succeed that I’m not sure can be described in words. It’s why everyone loves Derek Jeter and why I was devastated to see Alfonso Soriano go. It’s why it’s easy to boo free agents who come here and fail, and it’s why it took A-Rod an October for the ages to finally be accepted. Homegrown talent makes you do crazy things like believe in the future of Brandon Claussen or Brad Halsey, or think that Chase Wright might be able to stick around. Phil Hughes finally showed consistency as a reliever last year, and this year he has Brian Cashman saying, “I told you so” after he didn’t pull the trigger on the deal on that would have sent The Phranchise to Minnesota for Johan Santana. Hughes has me more excited than other Yankees starter right now, and hopefully that doesn’t change for a long, long time.

Andy Pettitte
If I had to play a game for my life and Andy Pettitte was starting that game, I wouldn’t be nervous … as long as the game doesn’t take place during the 2001 World Series when Andy was tipping pitches like he wanted Arizona to win. There isn’t a jam Pettitte is scared of and there isn’t a jam he is in that I’m scared he won’t get out of. Andy will get his Ks and eat his innings, but it won’t always come in the cleanest or most impressive way, but a win is a win and as long as he gets it, that’s all that matter. There will always be runners on when Andy pitches, but that is part of the fun of watching him and seeing the stare, the pickoff move and the sweeping curve touching the outside corner.

CC Sabathia
CC Sabathia ended the World Series drought and is the “ace” of the staff even if he hasn’t pitched like it in 2010. After last October and November, I have a great amount of trust and respect for CC. He might not be my favorite starter to watch, but he is a horse and always keeps the Yankees in games even when he leaves his best stuff at home. If I wrote this, say after the All-Star break, it’s likely that Andy and CC would be No. 1 and 2 on this list given their histories of late-season dominance. But it’s June and for now, CC is stuck in the middle.

A.J. Burnett
A.J. has two types of starts… 1.) The start where you start checking the inning and how many outs are left because a potential no-no is in the works and 2.) The start where he cruises for every inning except for one and allows three-plus runs that inning. A.J. will never give up a run here or a run there. It’s all or nothing with him. He is either going to try to burn out the P.C. Richards strikeout whistle at the Stadium, or have people heading for the exits with the game out of reach. He’s a nightmare for anyone that likes consistency or good strike-to-ball ratios, or for anyone that plays fantasy baseball. When he’s on, he can be the best pitcher on the planet with the best breaking ball in the league. When he’s off, expect every count to go full and free passes to be handed out.

Javier Vazquez
On Tuesday, I saw Vazquez for the Yankees in person for the first time since 2004, and I’d have to say I was impressed. Let’s not pretend that one start against the Orioles in June is going to erase all of my ill will toward Javier, but it’s a good place to start. When Joe Girardi elected to load the bases for Javier with one out, I was pretty sure a three spot or four spot was going to go up on the scoreboard, but Javier showed the ability to get out of a tight spot late in a game, which is something he has had trouble doing all season. I believe that he can succeed in this town for this team and be a productive member of the pitching staff, but there is still work to be done.

There is no one in the world that I like to see fail at their job worse than Jonathan Papelbon. A Yankees win is enough for me to have a great night and feel good about life. A Yankees win over the Red Sox that comes at the expense of Papelbon is my version of euphoria.

Before Monday’s win, the Yankees had been a tease when trailing in the late innings. There was usually a run in them, but for the first 37 games, they always seemed to miss that one hit that would complete the comeback. A couple of first-pitch fastballs from Mr. Papelbon changed that. But as enjoyable as Monday’s win was, it had the emotional swings of no-limit hold ‘em and there was certainly more than one time I had to restrain myself from spiking my Blackberry off the floor like Brandon Jacobs.

Some more disgusting bullpen decisions from Joe Girardi were once again covered up by the offense, and all will be lost and forgotten thanks to the instant Yankees Classic moments that took place in the ninth inning. Except it won’t be forgotten with me. I don’t forget. I don’t forget when Boone Logan comes into a game with the lead and tries to blow it. I don’t forget when Chan Ho Park is summoned to hold a one-run lead and leaves with a two-run deficit. I don’t forget any of the hundreds of questionable decisions made by Joe Girardi.

After the disastrous Sunday loss, the Yankees couldn’t blow a 5-0 first inning lead and lose to the Red Sox at home, but they nearly did just that when Girardi made everyone with talent in his bullpen unavailable. Getting 12 outs from Logan, Park, and the other bullpen benders just wasn’t going to happen without a few Boston runs scoring, and thanks to Joe Girardi’s magical bullpen phone, and the ever-helpful mound visits of Dave Eiland, the Yankees’ lead fell apart like David Ortiz’s career.

Nearly every new addition to the 2010 Yankees played a role in the in the up-and-down affair that resulted in an 11-9 win on Monday, with some more having a more positive impact than others. I always hated tests, surveys or questionnaires that gave you options like Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly Disagree, but I am going to use a similar method in judging the new Yankees through the first 38 games of the season.

Love
I am a huge Curtis Granderson fan. So much so that I didn’t care that they traded Austin Jackson (someone I have been following for nearly four years) to acquire. I wasn’t exactly fond of Granderson when he tore apart the Yankees pitching in the 2006 ALDS, but I am happy that he is in pinstripes now. Granderson’s devastating groin injury has turned the Yankees outfield into a gongshow, and the removal of his bat along with Nick Swisher’s and Jorge Posada’s has turned the bottom of the order into an NL lineup. The fact that the Yankees are currently where they are in the standings with so many injuries and without their center fielder and a 30-home run hitter is flat-out scary. The Grandy Man needs to get back ASAP and make people forget about Austin Jackson’s hot start to his career.

I am usually a sucker for homegrown guys, so when the Yankees had a chance to bring Marcus Thames back, I was all for it. Aside from the fact that Thames was just two years removed from a 25-homer season, anything I have read about Thames talks about his strong clubhouse presence and his positive clubhouse chemistry. Thames has been extraordinary against left-handed pitching this year, and after his moon shot off Papelbon on Monday, hopefully Girardi realizes that he can play Thames against right-handed pitchers as well.

Like
Randy Winn isn’t exactly raking, but that’s not what he is here to do. A career starter, Winn has picked up his offense lately with more of a regular spot in the lineup due to injuries. He has played well in the outfield, and despite that one throw that went about four feet on what would have been a play at the plate, Winn has done everything expected of him so far as a Yankee. There hasn’t been anything to really love about Winn, but there is also hasn’t been anything to really not like. Just a solid player doing a sound job while the injury bug makes its way through the clubhouse.

Dislike
Javier Vazquez faced one hitter on Monday and ended up with his second win of the season. Go figure. I want Javier Vazquez to succeed, I really do, because Vazquez’s success means a seamless rotation for the Yankees. However, Vazquez’s early season struggles have been frustrating to watch and tough to take, and I have written some not so nice words about No. 31. Sometimes I feel bad for Vazquez and sometimes I don’t. In his postgame interviews, he seems like a genuinely nice guy, but we are talking about results here and not personalities. So far it’s been a love-hate relationship, but if he can turn it around with a big game against the Mets this Friday night and be consistently good, then the past can be forgotten.

Hate
The Yankees’ plan to get younger this offseason has gone as well as the Red Sox’ run prevention plan. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui are being penciled into their respective lineups everyday for the Tigers and Angels, while Nick Johnson sits in the dugout and works on grooming his hideous moustache. Johnson was close to being my least favorite Yankee during his first go-around in the Bronx, and so far, the second verse has been the same as the first. Johnson’s absence has turned the No. 2 spot in the order into a revolving door between Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher, and Curtis Granderson will join the two-hole platoon once he returns to the lineup. Was signing Nick Johnson in place of Damon or Matsui in the offseason the biggest mistake of the winter? No question. Now instead of watching Nick take called third strikes, we get to watch him watch games from the dugout while Damon and Matsui contribute to their new teams.

When Chan Ho Park was activated from the DL, I knew Phil Hughes had to go at least seven or eight innings or Girardi would be shaking with his anticipation to get Park into the game. Chan Ho Park has pitched in 17 major league seasons. Before last night he had a 3.99 ERA in the NL and a 5.78 ERA in the AL in his career. When you have a chance to give someone a guaranteed spot on the Opening Day roster with numbers like that, you have to do it. Don’t you? Park has made four appearances this season, has allowed runs in three of them, including four home runs in 6 2/3 innings of work with two blown saves to his name. He has had some success in the majors (though not much of it), so he hasn’t fallen to the Boone Logan level yet, but he appears to be have a one-way ticket there.

My hatred for Boone Logan is well documented. I think I would take my chances running across the Major Deegan at 5:30 p.m. before I gave Boone Logan the ball with a lead. For some reason, Joe Girardi doesn’t feel the same. Logan is currently the worst Yankee on the 25-man roster, and he has been since he was called up. Does no one else think it’s weird that Joe Girardi’s favorites are always the worst players on the team (Phil Coke, Brian Bruney, Boone Logan, Chan Ho Park)? Logan has now put 17 men on base in 9 1/3 innings to put new meaning to the term “lefty specialist.” I am willing to pay for his bus ticket back to Scranton-Wilkes Barre if that is what his roster spot is about, and I’m also pretty certain I can take up a collection before tonight’s game to pay off his salary, so the Yankees can rid themselves of him.

I hate Boone Logan. Some say “hate” is too strong of a word, but when it comes to Boone Logan, I just don’t think any other word could justify my feelings about his pitching. Maybe it’s unfair to hate a guy who doesn’t decide when he is brought into games, and maybe it makes sense to hate the guy that brings him into the games. Either way, I am not a fan of Boone Logan and I am not sure how anyone could be.

Logan is the latest in the era of horrible left-handed relievers that the Yankees have tried to make into something they are not. This era of bad lefties started when Mike Stanton left the Yankees for the first time after 2002, and except for Damaso Marte’s postseason performance last fall, it has yet to end.

Logan is the Yankees’ Creed Bratton. No one is exactly sure how he has a job or what his job is, but he manages to hang around despite these things. He wasn’t good enough to make the Yankees out of spring training, but suddenly he is a jack-of-all-trades for the Bombers. If he’s a lefty specialist, shouldn’t he just pitch to lefties? Instead, he pitches when the Yankees are leading and when they are trailing. He faces lefties and righties, and he comes in with men on base and also to start innings. There isn’t a situation Joe Girardi doesn’t like for Boone Logan. The only problem is that there isn’t a situation that Logan likes for himself.

On a night when former Yankee Phil Coke got Randy Winn to pop up with runners on the corners in a crucial spot, Boone Logan showed Coke that he has stepped in and filled the void as “the last possible person you want to see coming out of the bullpen.”  Logan pitched just one inning, but managed to allow a hit, walk two and give up a run that was the difference in the 5-4 loss.

On the Winn at-bat … The Yankees trailed 5-4. There were runners on first and third and one out and Phil Coke was on the mound. Winn had never faced Coke before, so I’m sure Kevin Long went over Coke’s arsenal with him, and I’d like to think the conversation went like this:

Winn: So, what’s he got?

Long: If Boone Logan were any worse, he’d be Phil Coke.

Coke got behind Winn 2-0. The chance of walking prior to the at-bat was 90 percent. After two straight balls (both of which were in the dirt) it had escalated to 100 percent. But on the 2-0 pitch, Winn decided he would become an RBI machine, and he swung at a high pitch that would have produced a 3-0 count if he didn’t swing. And just like that, the eighth-inning rally died.

Up until his trade to the Tigers, I had seen every appearance of Phil Coke’s in the majors. He is as scared of throwing strikes as I am of life without Derek Jeter once he retires. Coke was the least trustworthy pitcher the Yankees had seen since Tanyon Sturtze graced the Bronx with his presence. As a Yankee, he was just another lefty that couldn’t get the job done, and I’m sure over time, Tigers fans will come to realize this.

But Coke isn’t alone. Ron Villone, Buddy Groom, Wayne Franklin and Gabe White were all awful as well. The only problem is that they haven’t even been the worst of the post-Stanton era. When it comes to finding the worst Yankee lefty since 2002, none of those pitchers hold a candle to these three (in no specific order):

Number 34, Sean Henn, Number 34
Ahh, Sean Henn. When you hear the old adage that “lefties will get a million chances and hard-throwing lefties will get a million more,” think of Henn. He could throw in the high-90s. The only problem was no one knew where the ball was going when it left his hand. Once it got to the plate, it usually ended up outside the strike zone or in a gap in the outfield somewhere.

I remember seeing Henn start against the Mets on June 25, 2005 and he had his typical outing, (4.1 IP, 6 ER) in which he gave up three home runs. Two of them were to Cliff Floyd, and the first of the two I honestly thought was going to clear the right-field upper deck and land on top of Stan’s.

When people say that if the Mets released Oliver Perez, 20 teams would be willing to pick him up, it’s true. The only problem is that some lefties, no matter how hard they throw just can’t cut it. Sean Henn should be enough evidence for the Mets to realize that the chances of him going somewhere else and succeeding aren’t worth holding onto him. Henn has yet to have success in the majors, but he is still pitching for the Blue Jays’ Triple-A team in Las Vegas. As unbelievable as it is, he will always have a job pitching for some organization.

Number 36, Mike Myers, Number 36
If you looked at Mike Myers’ numbers from 2006 and 2007, you’d probably wonder why he’s on this list. But if you watched him during that time, you fully understand.

There was a time when the Yankees just started recycling the garbage from the Red Sox bullpen. And it just so happened to come after the ALCS loss in 2004. Don’t want Mike Myers? We’ll take him. Don’t want Alan Embree? We’ll take him. The Yankees became the dump for unusable Red Sox talent and even Mark Bellhorn (who magically came alive in Games 6 and 7 of the 2004 ALCS) managed to get in a few games in the Bronx. I’m still waiting for Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz to get their Yankee contracts.

Myers had one job with the Yankees: Get David Ortiz out. He was as good as this job as Isiah Thomas was at his with the Knicks.

If I could sum up Mike Myers’ time with the Yankees in one game it would have to be May 19, 2007 against the Mets. Darrell Rasner started and allowed two hits on nine pitches before getting hurt and leaving the game. Myers came in and allowed both of Rasner’s runners to score, and then gave up four earned runs of his over two innings. Unable to stop the damage and prevent further damage. That was Mike Myers.

Number 61, Billy Traber, Number 61
Before Billy Traber ever put on a Yankees uniform, he had a 5.41 ERA in 76 career games. Why wouldn’t the $200-million Yankees want him to be their left-handed specialist?

Traber only appeared in 19 games in 2008 for the Yankees, but that was enough. The newest edition of “the lefty the Yankees signed solely to get out David Ortiz” needed just 16 2/3 innings to allow 23 hits, post a WHIP of nearly 2 and an ERA of 7.02. Traber pitched at least a full inning 10 times with the Yankees, and only once did he do so without allowing someone to reach base.

For once, the Red Sox decided to take some of the Yankees’ bullpen trash, and Traber got into one game for the Red Sox last season, and it was against the Yankees. His line: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 1 K, 12.27 ERA. At least the Yankees got back one of the many wins Traber cost them the year before. Good old Billy Traber.

When Andy Pettitte left Wednesday’s game after the fifth inning and 77 pitches, I thought I might have seen No. 46 walk off the field for the last time ever. Hearing “tightness in the elbow” with 37-year-old lefties who have been mulling retirement for four years is like hearing “broken leg” for a fallen horse at the Derby.

Hopefully the inflammation in Pettitte’s elbow is just that and a missed turn in the rotation will be enough to get him back on track and let him continue the best start to a season in his career. If not, then there’s a problem for a rotation that includes the incompetent Javier Vazquez who is being skipped over on Friday because of a mental injury and not a physical one. But we’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it.

Pettitte’s injury, coupled with the minor injuries to Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada has the Core Four suddenly being the Sore Four and people are just waiting to see what type of injury Derek Jeter will come up with. And all of this is apparently because the old guard appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It’s obvious that the Sports Illustrated cover jinx is to blame for the injuries, and not the fact that Pettitte is 37, Rivera is 40 and Posada is 38.

I believe in the Sports Illustrated jinx and all curses as much as I believe in the abilities of Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan. I don’t understand the whole no-hitter or perfect game jinx thing either. How can someone watching the game at home on their TV who says “no-hitter” during one change the outcome of a pitch thrown by someone who doesn’t know they exist? Did no one in the world say “it” when Ubaldo Jimenez threw a no-no on April 17? Doubtful.

But the same way I believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy at one point in my life, I did believe in jinxes and curses, or at least one curse. A few games in October 2004 changed that.

This weekend the Yankees have a chance to do something they haven’t had a chance to do since 2006: Go to Fenway Park and end the Red Sox’ season. And in 2006 they didn’t get that chance until August.

Sitting five games up (six in the loss column) with two games in hand, the Yankees have a chance to bury the Red Sox in the AL East and make “run prevention” just as evil to say in Boston as it to say “Bucky Dent” or “Aaron Boone.” The Yankees have a chance to officially make the AL East race a two-team race (if it isn’t already) and push the Red Sox back under .500, where they have been treading water since the start of the year.

Yes, the Red Sox are winners of four straight, but those four were against the awful Angels (losers of seven straight) and who might be just as bad as the Orioles (who swept the Red Sox last weekend. I guess Mike Scioscia isn’t looking like much of a genius these days with that 12-18 record. The Angels are a mess, but at the same time, it looks like the Red Sox might be coming out of their month-long coma. If that’s the case, it’s time to pull the plug and make sure they don’t wake up.

There is enough trouble in the division right now with the Rays winning every day and Tampa Bay apparently not an option on the injury bug’s GPS. The last thing I need is the Red Sox coming around the corner like Super Saver. Let the city of Boston focus on the NHL and NBA playoffs and trying to keep their water clean. The Yankees need to further distance themselves from the Red Sox this weekend, and here’s how:

The Heart
When was the last time A-Rod dropped an A-Bomb over the Green Monster and onto the Mass. Pike? I don’t know either, but I am ready for him to revisit Lansdowne Street this weekend. I am still waiting for the best 3-4 combination in the league from 2009 to show up in 2010.

Tex has come alive in May, as expected, (7-for-20, five RBIs in five games), and with Nick Johnson showing a pulse on Wednesday, all the Yankees need is for A-Rod to find his power stroke to get the heart of the order to start beating again.

At some point in the near future, Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli are going to stop raking (at least I think they will) and the Yankees are going to need Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez to be Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. Why not in Boston?

The Phranchise
Series sweeps and series wins come with your Game 1 starter, and in this case it happens to be Phil Hughes who gets the ball on Friday night. Hughes has made everyone forget about the deal that would have brought Johan Santana to the Bronx, and Johan has done his part (Thanks, Phillies) in helping everyone forget as well.

Hughes is 3-0 and could be 4-0 if Boone Logan and David Robertson weren’t so good at making leads disappear. His counterpart on Friday will Josh Beckett and his shark-tooth necklace, who is carrying around a 6.31 ERA with his new $68 million extension.

Hughes has allowed just 10 hits in 24 innings so far this season, and if he can do what he has done in his first four starts then it will make for a good night and a great start to the weekend.

The Bridge
Right now when the bullpen door opens, only bad things seem to happen. I’m not worried about Mariano Rivera’s health, but I am worried that he hasn’t pitched in a game since last Friday and is now available against the Red Sox in a place where he has had the most trouble in his career. After Mariano, the level of trust falls fast. Here is the pecking order of trust after Mariano:

Alfredo Aceves

Joba Chamberlain

David Robertson

Sergio Mitre

Damaso Marte

Boone Logan

Joba has yet to fully gain back my trust, but he has looked better of late. As for David Robertson, I think he left his deceiving fastball in 2009. If Sergio Mitre has to pitch this weekend, then you can forget a sweep. And if he has to pitch twice, then you can forget about a series win too. You should never be able to trust Mitre over any other pitcher on your team, let alone both the lefties in of the ‘pen.

I am still waiting for an explanation as to why Boone Logan is on the team because being a lefty just isn’t cutting it. He has put seven people on base in three innings, and the Yankees are 2-3 in games he pitches in, and were almost 1-4 thanks to his walk-a-thon in the ninth inning on Wednesday. I pray that the starters go at least seven, and then Boone can stay where he belongs: on the bench.

Is it too early in the season to get on tilt? I don’t think so.

Up until Joe Girardi took out Phil Hughes with two outs in the sixth inning, I was feeling good. Then Boone Logan (who wasn’t good enough to make the team out of spring training but was now being asked to pitch in a one-run game) was called upon to be the “lefty specialist” for the day and retire Luke Scott. Six pitches later, Scott was on first base, and four hitters and a pitching change later and the Orioles had put three runs on the board and suddenly led 4-2. Phil Hughes’ gutsy 5 2/3 inning of work over about two hours was erased in about two minutes.

That’s how things have gone for the Yankees over the last five games. Joe Girardi has been putting out fires with gasoline, and any button he pushes seems to be the wrong one. The Yankees are supposed to get into other teams’ bullpens and put up crooked numbers, not the other way around.

So why has the bullpen become a minefield to Mariano? Maybe it’s the Baseballs Gods making up for Joe Girardi getting three innings of one-hit relief from Chan Ho Park at Fenway Park in the third game of the season. Because let’s be honest, nearly every out in those three innings was a home run. The bullpen has reverted back to its old ways and the only guy I currently trust to get the job done is Mariano, and he never gets to pitch. I feel like the only time I have seen Mariano Rivera this season was when the President Obama acknowledged him on Monday.

Before Tuesday’s game in Baltimore the Yankees were 12-6. Now they are 12-7, which isn’t all that different except they have lost four of five. The Orioles had to win a home game at some point this season, and Kevin Millwood is good veteran pitcher, so I can understand only getting two runs off him in the first 5 2/3 innings. But to not score again until the ninth when the Orioles brought in a recent Triple-A call-up to audition to be their closer? That’s hard to digest. And what makes it even harder is that the Yankees had the heart of their order up against Jim Johnson in the eighth inning, and all they got was a single from Robinson Cano, the only guy who seems to be hitting during this team-wide slide.

This is Jim Johnson we’re talking about. JIM JOHNSON! Aside from Chris Ray and Arthur Rhodes, there is no reliever I like to see coming into a game more than Jim Johnson. Jim Johnson means runs and a lot of them. There are two things I do when Jim Johnson enters a game: (1) Laugh and (2) Get comfortable for what is sure to be a 20-minute inning and a possible bat-around inning. But Johnson retired Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada to work around the Cano single in what was easily the best inning of his career.

When the Yankees were 11-3 everyone was getting a kick out of the fact that the team was winning every game despite the fact that Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira weren’t hitting and that Javier Vazquez wasn’t pitching. But at some point the players carrying the club were going to slide as well, and you just hoped by then the already slumping players would be out of their funks. Well, that hasn’t happened.

This isn’t an attempt a reverse jinx. At least I don’t think it is. Considering my reverse jinx of Javier Vazquez got him a win in Oakland and then a beatdown in Anaheim and a public beating from Curt Schilling, and my reverse jinx of Nick Johnson got him his first in 18 at-bats and then a place on the bench with a bad back, I think it’s time to stay away from the reverse jinxes for a little. But we’re 19 games into the season and the Yankees are enduring their first slide of the season, so while it might be time to move away from the reverse jinxes, it’s a good time to start pointing fingers.

Javier Vazquez
The Yankees have lost seven games. Javier has lost three of those. He is single-handedly responsible for 43 percent of the Yankees’ losses. So yeah, I’d say it’s OK to point a finger at him. The only thing keeping me from turning my back on Javier is that Curt Schilling had to go run his mouth about Vazquez’s performance. I was pulling for Vazquez to do well before, now I am going to try to will him to do well in spite of Schilling. Vazquez has a big start on Friday night at home, coming off a disastrous loss, facing his old team and his old manager who called him a coward. Right now Ozzie Guillen is smiling and telling the world “I told you so” about Vazquez’s abilities in the American League. Javier has a chance to pull off the trifecta on Friday night: shut up the Yankee Stadium boos, Ozzie and Curt all on the same night.

Nick Johnson
Like the sun coming up in the morning and setting at night, Nick Johnson had a stiff back over the weekend. Yawn… I still believe that sometime in the near future Nick Johnson is going to go off and just start raking at an unbelievable rate. But that’s only because he has no other option but to now. Nick is hitting .135 with one hit in his last 23 at-bats. Yes, he has 10 walks over that time, but he also has scored just two runs in his last 10 games. He came here to be the ultimate No. 2 hitter and table setter, and he has been setting the table to some degree, but now it’s time to swing the bat as well. But some of Nick’s problems are due to …

Mark Teixeira
When Nick Johnson gets on base he usually doesn’t score, and that is because Mark Teixeira likes April as much as I like the Mets. I have been waiting for May just as long as Tex, but come on. At what point does this mega slump become a concern. I’m not going to say I’m concerned just yet since I don’t think there is any way that Tex doesn’t have similar numbers to last year, but I don’t think I can pick on Nick Johnson for not hitting and not include Tex. I sit up at night and pray that these hard-hit outs and walks are a sign that he is coming out of his funk. We all know he is a bona fide slow starter and eventually will play to the back of his baseball card, and if you didn’t know that, Michael Kay will remind you. But if the rest of the team is going to slump, it’s time Tex stepped up. He has had enough time to slump, and it’s time to give someone else a chance.

David Robertson and Joba Chamberlain
Robertson needs to be the most important arm in the bullpen after Mariano and Joba. Actually you could make the case that he needs to be the most important arm after Mariano given Joba’s recent struggles. I am a huge David Robertson fan, and when he was working out of bases-loaded no-out jams in the postseason like David Copperfield or David Blaine, he helped solidify himself in my mind and gain my trust and confidence in big spots. Maybe he hasn’t found his groove yet this season, but Robertson has allowed six runs and 10 hits in five innings. His strikeouts are still there, but Robertson needs to be a guarantee when he comes in because there are too many other question marks in the ‘pen.

We have seen glimpses of Reliever Joba but Starter Joba has been making his fair share of appearances this season as well. I am 100-percent sure that Kendry Morales doesn’t go deep on Friday night if the Joba from the “Joba Mania” days is on the mound. And I know that Hideki Matsui wouldn’t have singled off Joba before Morales came to the plate. Maybe I need to accept the fact that Joba Chamberlain won’t be the Joba Chamberlain from 2007 and the beginning of 2008? But I don’t want to accept that and don’t want to admit it either. All I can do is hope old Joba comes back to us and puts an end to all my worries.

I might be creating an all-new All-Animosity Team in the very near future, or at least adding a new member. Kevin Youkilis has held down first base on the team for a while now, but a new form of evil has developed on the West Coast in the form of Kendry Morales.

The Yankees lost their first series of the season over the weekend because of Kendry Morales’ bat. The implosions of A.J. Burnett and Javier Vazquez changed the momentum in both losses, but it was Morales who put the finishing touch on the Yankees twice in the late innings.

Maybe the Angels were going to win those games anyways. It’s likely if it wasn’t Morales on Friday night, it would have been someone else, and who’s to say the Yankees would have even scored a fifth run on Sunday if they were able to hold the deficit to 5-4? I’m not saying that the Yankees were going to win either of those games, all I’m saying is Joe Girardi left the door open for second-guessing and gave any sports talk shows in need of material a week’s worth of ammunition.

I can let Friday slide because Joba Chamberlain was on the mound and if you can’t trust him, then there is going to be a serious problem with the pecking order in the bullpen this summer. Sure, Girardi could have turned Morales around in that game and made him hit from the right side – his weaker side. We’ll chalk that one up as Joba Chamberlain just not getting the job done.

But after watching Sunday’s events unfold, I thought it was Groundhog’s Day.

Joe Girardi is a matchup machine and I’m surprised he doesn’t change pitchers in the middle of at-bats depending on certain hitters’ numbers in certain counts against certain pitchers. He has a matchup or answer (not always the right answer) for every situation, and no matter what a unique situation calls for, he will always resort to the numbers. So when he decided that on April 25, 2010 he was going to go against his trusty notebook for the first time in his managerial career, it didn’t make any sense.

Why did Joe Girardi put aside the pure numbers for the first time, and why did it end with “Damaso Marte” trending higher than “Justin Bieber” on Twitter? (That actually happened). Let’s pick it up in the sixth inning on Sunday…

With the Angels leading 5-3 in the sixth, the sweet stroke of Robinson Cano found Scott Kazmir again for a solo shot to cut the lead to 5-4. In the seventh, Alfredo Aceves retires Maicer Izturis on a line out to Cano. Aceves is pitching for the first time in 8 days and has retired all five batters he has faced on just 15 pitches. But with one out in the inning and Bobby Abreu due up, Joe Girardi calls on the lefty Damaso Marte to go after the lefty.

There are two Damaso Martes. There is the Damaso Marte that is lights out and makes you wonder how anyone ever gets a hit off of him, and there is the Damaso Marte that could stand on the mound all day and not throw a strike once. There is no middle ground for Marte. He can’t enter a game without his best stuff and battle through to get the job done. Whoever created the old cliché “you either have it or you don’t” was certainly talking about Damaso Marte. When he has it, it’s a thing of beauty. And when he doesn’t, I’d rather watch YouTube videos of the old Stadium getting demolished. We saw Marte No. 2 on Sunday.

When Marte is on, you can land a plane in center field or have the stadium PA system start playing Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption” in the middle of Marte’s windup and it won’t faze him. But when things don’t go according to plan, he gets the look of a lost child in a department store. The key to handling Marte, or at least what I believe to be the key, is to quickly identify which Marte you have on a given day, and then make a decision off that. Don’t leave him out there and hope he finds a rhythm because that isn’t Damaso Marte.

Marte gets behind Abreu 2-0 before walking him on five pitches (all fastballs), as Abreu never takes the bat off his shoulder. Then, after getting ahead of Torii Hunter 0-1, he drills him to put two on with one out and Hideki Matsui due up. At this point, it’s evident that Marte No. 2 is in the game. He has thrown just two strikes in seven pitches and has walked a batter and hit a batter.

The age-old rule that says you have a lefty face a lefty doesn’t apply to Hideki Matsui. Matsui is 4-for-12 (.333) against Marte, but Girardi sticks with him anyways. Marte gets Matsui to hit a grounder to A-Rod and A-Rod steps on third to force Abreu out. Now, Hunter is on second and Matsui is on first with two outs and Kendry Morales due up.

Here are two things we know about the potential matchup of Kendry Morales vs. Damaso Marte at the time:

1. Kendry Morales is hotter than the sun. He is already 2-for-2 with a walk in the game, and in the previous five games he is 10-for-19 (.526) with two home runs and seven RBIs, including the bomb he hit off Joba on Saturday. Girardi’s notes on him should say: DO NOT LET THIS MAN SWING THE BAT. DO NOT GIVE HIM A PITCH TO HIT. WALK HIM. WALK HIM. WALK HIM.

2. Damaso Marte is pitching like Sean Henn. He has walked a batter, hit a batter and was fortunate Matsui wasn’t able to pull back his half-hearted swing and instead induced a ground out. He has thrown nine pitches and six of them have been out of the zone, and one of them nearly put Torii Hunter on the DL. Marte is doing his best to tell Girardi he doesn’t have it, and Girardi seems to finally realize it.

Or so we all thought.

Girardi calls for an intentional walk of Morales with David Robertson warming up to face Juan Rivera. So, Marte throws an intentional ball to Francisco Cervelli. 1-0. Then, for reasons unknown, Girardi changes his mind and decides to have Marte pitch to Morales. Girardi goes against the unwritten rule (maybe Dallas Braden can fill him in on what an unwritten rule is) of going against your first instinct. Girardi had picked “A” and now he had erased it for “B” even though he had his notes right in front of him telling him to choose “A.” The same notes he has based every other decision of his managerial career on.

On the 1-0, pitch Marte misses way outside and Hunter steals third base creating a recipe for disaster given the man on the mound. There are now runners on the corners, Marte has thrown eight of 11 pitches for balls and is behind the Angels’ hottest and arguably best hitter 2-0 with runners on the corners. Hunter just stole third base with Marte not paying attention to him. The “lost child in the department store” look has now taken over his face, and the entire setup of the at-bat and the inning has completely changed on one pitch. Having lost all control of the situation and visibly rattled, Marte misses the outside corner on the 2-0, and is now just one pitch from loading the bases for Rivera, which was the original plan anyways.

At this point, Girardi might as well have intentionally walked Morales. If the idea was to pitch around Morales in the first place, Marte had already done that, getting behind Morales 3-0. If Girardi was originally worried about moving a runner to third base with an intentional walk, he doesn’t have to worry anymore since Hunter stole his way there.

So on the 3-0, Cervelli calls for a pitch to be just outside the zone, but with Marte No. 2 on the mound, he misses his spot completely. When Marte is going like this, he can’t even throw a ball when he needs to and instead throws an 89 mph meatball down the heart of the plate. Morales, sitting patiently and given the green light, unloads on the present from Marte and hammers it over the wall for a three-run bomb to blow the doors open on the Yankees.

Friday night wasn’t as bad since it’s hard to say Girardi shouldn’t have used Joba there, and even if it was statistically wrong to let Morales hit from the left side on Friday, he proved on Sunday that he has no problem dropping bombs from either side. Sunday, however, wasn’t so simple since Girardi telegraphed his initial instinct to intentionally walk Morales and let Robertson face Rivera with two outs. By displaying his original thought to the world, he had already created an alternate ending for a potential disaster. If Plan B failed, Girardi had unlocked the door for second-guessing and criticism. And once it did fail, the media and fans just had to open the door he had unlocked.

So the Yankees lost their first series of the season, and two games in which they led. But the team is 12-6 (statistically have won each series sine the sweep of the Rangers and loss to Angels cancel out), and have the 3-16 Orioles next with Phil Hughes, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett lined up. It’s hard to complain.

I’m just happy the Yankees don’t face the Angels again this season, unless they meet in October, and no games against the Angels means no more Kendry Morales. No more Kendry Morales means less times Joe Girardi has to make a tough decision, and that’s a good thing.

I forgot what it felt like for the Yankees to come out of the gate in April like Secretariat and just have their way with the rest of the American League. Well, that feeling is back.

After six seasons (60 seasons in Yankee years) of bad starts, the Yankees have made a seamless transition from the end of 2009 to the beginning of 2010. The offseason feels as though it was just one long off-day rather than a four-month layoff, and 2010 has felt like an extension of 2009 and I like it … I LIKE IT A LOT (Lloyd Christmas voice). I’m not about to say that the 2010 Yankees are better than the 2009 Yankees because that won’t be determined until the decorative bunting returns to the Bronx, but as of right now, it looks like getting to October won’t be a problem.

In the first two and a half weeks of the season, there has been 11 wins, a .733 winning percentage, five series win in five tries, to near no-hitters and a triple play. It’s almost as though the 2010 season has a script to make the potential end-of-the-year championship DVD as Hollywood-like as possible.

This Yankees team has the “We play today, we win today, dassit” attitude that Mariano Duncan implemented and that the 2009 Yankees didn’t find until late May (at the earliest). The difference? There isn’t an injured Chien-Ming Wang or up-and-down Joba Chamberlain in the rotation, and the bullpen isn’t still waiting for the Phil Hughes Bridge to be built to Mariano. The Yankees entered the season with a pitching staff that has limited flaws, and the only real question was Javier Vazquez, but he finally answered some of those questions on Tuesday, even if they weren’t the convincing answers we were looking for.

On Tuesday I wrote about Javier Vazquez’s needed to get into the win column and contribute to the team’s success in some way to avoid more boo birds at the Stadium at the end of the month. Vazquez responded with a so-so performance, but it was good enough for a W against the surprising A’s, and at least it bought him some time to stay out of the way of headlines and criticism until his next start on Sunday against the Angels.

But the real issue with Vazquez, one that he might not be able to shed, is that I don’t trust him, and I don’t know any Yankees fan that does. There is no question that the ability is there for Vazquez to be successful, I’m just not that sure if he is cut out for this whole pitching in the American League thing. If he finished the year with 17-plus wins and an impressive ERA in the AL East, would he gain my trust? I’m not sure, but I hope we at least get to the point where I have to make that decision.

Vazquez isn’t the only Yankee that suffers from my lack of trust, and if you couldn’t guess the other one, it’s Nick Johnson.

I am at a constant divide with Nick Johnson. Part of me loves his on-base percentage that hovers around .400 and the other part of me thinks that $5.5 million could have been spent on something else. I don’t know if I am supposed to classify it as a love-hate relationship or frustration or a combination of the two and other synonymous words for annoying, but like Vazquez in the rotation, Nick Johnson is the farthest thing from trustworthy in the lineup.

Plenty of my sabermetric friends who read that last paragraph probably just threw up, as did sabermetricians around the world (including those that built the 2010 run prevention Red Sox), but there is more to evaluating Nick Johnson than on-base percentage, which I am certainly an advocate of. What’s the sabermetric stat for someone who has one hit since two Tuesdays ago? Do I think that Nick Johnson is capable of hitting .300, making this early season slump forgetful and being the “R” in a lot of Mark Texeira and Alex Rodriguez’s RBIs? Yes. But I also know that my TV remote is only a few more called third strikes with runners in scoring position from no longer being safe.

Now, am I ready to purchase www.benchnickjohnson.com (which is available) and start a movement to sit No. 26 next to No. 28? Not yet, but don’t think that thought hasn’t crossed my mind. Part of the reason I am writing this is because my reverse jinx of calling out Javier Vazquez out on Tuesday worked, so why not try the same with Johnson on the day the Yankees begin a three-game set against the now red-hot Angels at Angels Stadium. I figure if my words can get Javier his first win in three starts, maybe they can get Nick his first hit in his last 19 at-bats.

To be fair, if Johnson was enduring this slump during say Games 91 through 105, rather than Games 1 through 15, it would be a side note in a Yankees notebook column somewhere. But because it is the beginning of the year and because of who he is replacing on the roster, his early season slump is now the one negative on a team that is trying bury the Red Sox and separate themselves from the Rays.

When Johnson hit that home run in the first inning of the first home game, I thought he was going to become the short porch’s new best friend, a void that Johnny Damon left. Instead he has become the best friend of opposing pitcher’s and the electric chair for rallies.

Obviously I want Nick Johnson to do well and I want to like him, but he needs to give me a reason to, and right now, coming out to “Party in the USA” is the only thing to like about him. The common theme about the Yankees right now is “Hey, they are 11-3 and Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira aren’t even hitting yet.” But at some point the people responsible for the 11 wins won’t be hitting either and Nick Johnson will be asked to carry the club for a series or two. (I don’t mention Teixeira here because I don’t think anyone is truly worried about him).

Let’s hope this attempt at a second reverse jinx in four days works. Let’s hope that Nick Johnson tears it up against the Angels this weekend and the Yankees win their sixth straight series to open the season. Let’s hope Nick Johnson finally shows us why Brian Cashman was devastated to let him go the first time and eager to bring him back a second time. Let’s hope the only thing Yankees fans have to boo when the team returns home are the players on opposing teams.