What a beautiful day! Sure it was pouring buckets of rain all day here in New York, and the Yankees had to sit through a 5 1/2 hour delay, but what matters is that they got the game in.

And that they lost.

To the Nationals.

And of course they lost the series.

To the Nationals, whose record coming in was 16 Wins and 45 losses. The worst team in baseball came into town and beat the Yankees 2 out of 3, shutting out the billion-dollar All-Star Yankee lineup tonight. It’s a beautiful thing.

So is A-Rod’s deepening slump… our glove-slapping, pop-up-calling hero has season stats that read like a rap sheet: He’s had more at-bats than Brett Gardner but has fewer hits, his average currently down to a laughable .212 on the season after going 0-for-Washington. But the lizard-faced Prince of Evil isn’t the only Yankee to blame…

– Joba Chamberlain has lost 3-to-4 miles off his once-intimidating fastball, and this “special kid” who Yankee brass insisted would one day be a “great starter” is 3-2 on the season with a soft 3.89 ERA. At this rate he won’t be a 7-game winner on the season! Will it be weeks or months before they bury him back in the bullpen?

– Nick Swisher has come to ground. Big time. Reality has befallen our clown prince and his average has dropped to a more realistic .244, helped in no small part by his going 4 for his last 26 at-bats! Youch! Who could have seen this coming? Oh, that’s right- ME!

– And who can forget Big Wang? All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Chien-Ming back together againg. (Sorry, it rhymed.) His semi-decent performance on Wednesday only helped to hide the fact that he still hasn’t gotten back what he lost, whatever that was. At this point his poor performance has to be mostly mental, yet he seems completely unwilling or unable to reverse it. Hey, at least he got his ERA down to 12.65… hooray!

It’s nice to see the Yankees ultra-groove from a few weeks ago come to a painful, screeching halt… it’s great to hear A-Rod get booed by his hometown fans… at this point he must see the next ten years as more of a prison sentence than a contract. And it was wonderful to witness the first homer-free game in the history of the New (New) Yankee Stadium. Maybe the Bombers were just helping poor Manny Acta hold onto his job… maybe they should turn their efforts toward helping Girardi save his…

See you fellas in Florida…

Oh, and by the way… I’m no fan of Michael Kay but is there any particular reason that his bitter, skull-faced partner John Flaherty treats him like garbage? He told Kay last week that broadcasting and hosting a radio show “wasn’t real work.” Sounds like the has-been/never-was former catcher has a case of cabin-booth fever. We want Singleton & Cone! And of course the gorgeous Kim Jones…