When I went into the woods of Wyoming last Sunday, I had it all figured out. The Yanks (78-49 at the time) looked to be pulling away from the Red Sox (74-55) in the AL East. The Sox had a leg up in the AL Wild Card, given the apparently mortal blow dealt to the A’s (74-55) in losing Mark Mulder for the season. With that injury, the Mariners (76-53) seemed to gain enough breathing room to anticipate a roll to the AL West title.

That shows you what I know.

Out west, the A’s have gone on a tear, winning eight straight and taking over first place. The M’s, with their rotation sputtering, spent my wooded vacation being spanked by the Red Sox, losing four straight to them and six straight overall. They’re now two games in back of the A’s, but one ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card.

The Yanks have scuffled since I departed, going 4-3 over the past week but giving up 34 runs in those three losses and continuing their mediocre showing against other AL contenders. Since the end of interleague play in mid-June, the Yanks have played eight series against AL teams with winning records, and only twice (against Toronto and Kansas City) have they taken the set.

Just when it looked as though the Yankee pitching had sorted itself out, it fell back into disarray. Freshly activated Jose Contreras looked like a savior against the Baltimore Orioles last Sunday, then did his worst Jeff Weaver imitation against the Bosox on Friday. Weaver, who’d briefly been demoted to Tampa and then recalled, followed up that debacle with his own painfully accurate Jeff Weaver impression, putting his ever-slim postseason roster chances in further doubt. Twelfth option Sterling Hitchcock was finally jettisoned to St. Louis. Lefty reliever Gabe White was activated from the DL, enabling the Yanks to put Jesse Orosco (10.38 ERA as a Yank) out of their misery. Another servicable bullpen cog, lefty Felix Heredia, was claimed off of waivers from the Reds.

But none of those developments made bigger headlines than the spat surrounding big Boomer Wells. After getting bombed by the White Sox, Wells had his conditioning habits publicly questioned by pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre. Apparently Wells, recently bothered by chronic sciatic nerve flareups, has stopped throwing between starts. This has Stottlemyre seething. According to the New York Times:

The pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre, is tired of Wells’s act. After Wells gave up 10 runs in an 11-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium last night, Stottlemyre calmly but sternly criticized Wells for failing to work hard between starts.

“He just needs to do more work,” Stottlemyre said. “He hasn’t been throwing in between starts, and I think he needs that. I think it’s showing. The last two games, at the same point in the game, he hasn’t made very good pitches.”

…”I don’t know if he has a bad back,” Stottlemyre said. “If he has a bad back and it’s bothering him, for the sake of the ball club, he should say it.”

Wells, predictably, acted as though he’d been stabbed in his already-vulnerable back, airing his grievances to Michael Kay on ESPN Radio. Boomer was resentful that Stottlemyre aired their dirty laundry via the press rather than confront the pitcher directly, though Wells’ quick exit from the clubhouse following his shellacking precluded that. Wells implied that the Yanks’ threats to remove him from the rotation have a fiscal edge, due to his incentive bonus of around $183,000 per start.

All of this is starting to resemble the Bronx Zoo — almost enough to make me want to go back into the wild and eat pinecones until this ugliness blows over. On the other hand, the Yanks beat the Sox today, 8-4, to take that series. Two time zones away, I didn’t get to see any of it, but I’ll rest easier tonight knowing the result.