• First, if you buy into the "a win's a win" theory, then you can assume that "a loss is a loss." That holds true here. So trump everything I write after this with that sentiment.

• That was two playoff-caliber teams going at it right there. Pete Rose once said, after Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, that games are only great if you win, but that was a classic final-third-of-the-season tet-a-tet.

• Nice to have Robinson Cano (3-for-5) back in the fold, huh? His .792 OPS is nothing to write home about, ranked around No. 100 in the AL, but he's a good catalyst (.926 with no one on), even if he sucks mucho ass in his career (.443 OPS) with the bases loaded. I think he's pretty smooth in the field, too.

• I know Jorge Posada went 0-for-5, but he went 3-for-3 in throwing out baserunners, which created three outs for the opposition while also erasing three baserunners. Very hard to overestimate that contribution. His accuracy on those throws, combined with the bang-bang element of said plays, exhibits not only the talent of pro athletes but validates why Red Smith once said that 90 feet between bases is the closest mankind has ever come to perfection.

• Alex Rodriguez, the batter, was incredible tonight. A home run that brought us from behind to take the lead, two walks, and two other hits, including one late, in which he rapped an 0-2 pitch too hard to score Derek Jeter from second on a blistering single to center.

• Alex Rodriguez, the fielder? Here's the only fact we know: He didn't play that Jermaine Dye pop-up as if it was the seventh game of the World Series. Reasonable people can differ on whether or not he should have. But managers don't do to pitchers' arms with 53 games to go what they do to 'em in playoff series, probably for the same reason A-Rod didn't lunge for the ball so close to the tarp in a generally unfamiliar road park. Of all his supposed faults, caring and daring are not two of them. Not for his first 422 games as a Yankee, and I doubt it started Tuesday night. Really nice play on that disputed tag of Scott Posednik in the first, by the way. Loved the unrehearsed emotion afterward.

• If you've seen one Mariano Rivera blown save, you've seen 'em all. Of course, you have to watch a lot of Yankees games to see just one, but that's how it goes. He catches too much of the plate once a month or two, and a solid pro hits one out. If the bottom of the ninth went something like walk-single-walk-single, I'd do more than brush off a blown save by a future first-ballot Hall of Famer who came into the game with a 1.84 ERA and the best ERA of any pitcher, by about a third of a run, since 1996. Prior to Tuesday night, Mariano had blown all of two saves this season. Not bad for a guy who was pronounced dead and "figured out" last April in the opening series against the Red Sux.

• Bobby Abreu feels, to me, like more of a Derek Jeter at the plate than a Jason Giambi. Just three extra-base hits (all doubles) in 29 at-bats since joining the club. I know stats can be spun, and I dig the .414 batting average and rocket arm. Not complaining at all. Just saying I'm not exactly expecting a homer when he comes up.

• Bobby Jenks looked unreal. Again, I didn't have the sound on, but I assume those were slpit-finger fastballs that dipped and dived Clemens-style. Hats off to him. Too bad he'll be too spent, after 2 2/3 innings, to pitch on Wednesday.

• As this game wore on, as hotly contested as it was, I sensed that one of the teams would blow out the other on Wednesday. Not necessarily the prevailing club. (I don't even know why I'm mentioning this. I have no reasoning for it. Just feels like a rubber-game series.)

• Didn't catch up on what happened in Kansas City on Tuesday. I assume we lost a bit of lead in the AL East, as the Royals are an abomination of a baseball club (with the worst record in the majors), and I always give the advantage to a competitor who plays such garbage on the night we roll into the World Series champion's house.