Yankees 12, D-Rays 4

And so we end our game-by-game account of the season, and downshift in preparation for the playoffs.

For me, this will be the season that almost wasn't, least as far as I was concerned. I spent the better part of the summer either too ill to so much as change my cable provider to allow me to see more games, or else too disgusted with the play of the Yankees, or too preoccupied with other matters in my life.

Then--as with two weeks ago, in Boston--watching the Yankees was an ongoing feast of dread, either watching the worst happen, or worse, waiting for it. All last winter, Cashman and Torre worked to put together a bullpen that did not resemble a carnival sideshow. Viz, Bruny and Fansworth were set to be the three crucial pieces of the bullpen--really of the team--that had gone wanting since Tom Gordon's arm was Torre-ized in late 2004. (Flash's exhaustion was the one element against the Sox in the ALCS game they absolutely had to win: not Game Four, lost by a walk, a steal, and a seeing-eye hit; but Game Five, when the Yankees entered the eighth with a two-run lead and Gordon started throwing batting practice and Rivera, exhausted by Game Four's excesses, had to stay out.) In Torre's mind, Proctor was a luxury, a sort of spot-reliever to spell the others. When that plan went kaplow, when the Yankees were 21-29 on May 29th (coincidentally my birthday), it was clear something had to happen. The Yanks limped through June (A-Rod, Wang, Jeter, A-Rod, Georgie, A-Rod and Mo kept the Yankees alive), and then caught fire.

I knew Seattle would fade. A good indication is a deficit in run aggregation; Seattle was never better than even-Steven. But beating Detroit: that was something. (Come to think, they achieved in the regular season this year what they failed to do in the playoofs last year.) With Torre/Cashman's Plan A gone, and "Clemens saves the day" not really flying as Plan B, and with the Yankees unwilling to part with Philip Hughes for Mark Texeria (all while Buster Olney, who knows the Yanks as well as anyone, was screaming that Hughes-for-Texeria was something the Yanks absolutely had to do), something else had to happen.

Enter Joba.

No, not that easy. What happened first was that disappointments A, B, and C (Cano, Matsui, and Abreu) all started hitting right out of the break--basically on the same day, and didn't stop until recently. Then Damon got healthy. Then Giambi, then Menk, to the point where Torre has 11 players for 10 spots, and has to decide whether Matsui or Menk sits.

In the midst of all of this was Joba.

I was talking to Robbie-Boy last week, and we both agreed the difference between the Tigers and Yankees in last year's playoffs came down to one player: Zumya, with the C-note heater, someone who could get the ball to Jones with such ease that announcers actually sounded sorry for the Yankee hitters. Joba may go to the rotation next year, but this year, he is our Zumya.

And, of course, having long-ago (when the Yankees seemed out of it) planned a trip to Las Vegas to stretch into next week, I'm liable to miss Game One against the Angels or Indians. Way it goes. That kind of year.