Joe Girardi

Even after an early Mark Teixeira home run (23), Ricky Romero and the Toronto Blue Jays were too much for the New York Yankees.

As of today, the Yankees have lost three consecutive games, four of their last five.  But yesterday, they lost something more.

The division lead.

With an 8-2 Yankee loss to the Blue Jays, and a Tampa bay 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins, the Rays have taken the division lead from the Yankees, a spot the Yankees have held since June 12.

With last night's 8-6 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays and the Rays win over the Twins, the Yankees dropped into a tie with Tampa Bay for first place in the American League East. Today marks the first time since June 20 that the Yankees have not been in sole possession of first place in the East Division. Despite all this, it's not time to panic in the Bronx.

Well, that was unexpected.

Well, that was unexpected.

For weeks leading up to MLB’s trade deadline, the Yanks were mostly quiet. Once the Cliff Lee deal fell through, the only names being thrown around were bats off the bench and middle relief help.

Well, the Yanks got their bench bat in Austin Kearns. And they paid the Indians $1.4M to rent Kerry Wood for the rest of the season.

But the one guy who came completely out of nowhere (and has the most potential to improve the team) was Lance Berkman.

Friday night, the New York Yankees are at Tropicana Field to face the Tampa Bay Rays, and it will be a true battle of the young guns on the mound.

Since pitching and defense will dictate the outcomes of all three games, the match-ups on the mound will set the tone. Let's look at the Friday night's pitchers.

After splitting the first two games in Cleveland against the Indians, the New York Yankees have shortened their lead in the AL East to just two games over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays are on fire right now. Starting pitcher Matt Garza pitched the franchise’s first no-hitter on Monday night against the Tigers and Tampa followed it up with another win. The Rays have won their last four in a row.

It has been reported that New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman has been shopping around relief pitcher Chan Ho Park.

My question is, what teams are interested in Park, and what does he bring to a team?

The 37-year-old right-handed pitcher doesn’t offer much promise to any team he joins. This season, in 32 innings pitched, Park has given up seven home runs, 37 hits, waked nine, and surprisingly struck out 26 batters total.

Andy Pettitte thinks he can be back on the mound in three weeks.

After watching the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim slaughter the New York Yankees, any encouragement that the team could manage without the Southpaw went right out the window.

Phil Hughes went into the game with a 3-0 career record against the Halos. That was short and sweet after Hughes gave up nine hits, six runs and two home runs over five innings.

It was the icing on the cake on this streak of bad luck the Yankees have had since the start of the second half of the season.

New York Yankees fans first fell in love with Joba Chamberlain in Game Two of the 2007 ALDS, also known as the infamous "bug" game.

Joba was everything and more that night. It was the spirit in his young eyes that does not come around that often.

Yankees Universe went totally crazy for this kid that night, even making losing the game bearable. Joba was the future, an authentic, talented, home-grown player that Yankee fans had been waiting for since 1996.

Of the Yankees’ remaining 74 games of the 2010 regular-season schedule, 13 are against the Tampa Bay Rays. That’s nearly 18% of all remaining games for the Yankees against the rival best team in baseball. The first of those showdowns between the two powerhouses begins today.

For a snapshot of where we are today, July 16, the AL East Standings look like this: