After Mo coughed up the two homers in the ninth for his third-in-a-row blown save (!!!!!!!), I perked up when I saw it was our old buddy Veras coming in for the bottom of the inning after being traded to the Tigers from the Astros. He may be my new favorite person, having served up Gardner’s walk off homer and rescuing the Yankees from another disappointing loss. Gardner’s been quite clutch this season. Good for him.

But was this game ever a see-saw battle. A-Rod actually hit a homer (!!!!!!) as did Soriano, and I thought, OK, boys, you have a nice lead so hold onto it for a change.

Wrong. No lead is safe when the pitching turns sour. Not only was Pettitte unable to go deep into the game but Robertson was ineffective. And then there was Mo. John and Suzyn kept reassuring listeners that he always goes through his little patch of badness and it’s true. But it’s not fun when it happens. In fact, it feels as if the world is coming to an end. Maybe he should skip a few farewell ceremonies and meet-and-greets for awhile and rest up. Or maybe it doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of things given this team’s way-back position in the standings.

Still, it was nice to beat the Tigers since they’re bona fide contenders for a ring once again.