To his credit, Robinson Cano offered no alibis for why he got doubled up on Nick Swisher's routine fly ball to center field, ending a first inning in which the Yankees seemed to have James Shields on the ropes.

"I thought it was two outs,'' he said. "But it shouldn’t have happened. I should know how many outs. There’s no excuse for that.''

Joe Girardi agreed, but with a disclaimer. "We’ve all done that. I mean, it’s happened to all of us,'' Girardi said. "You can say it should never happen, but it happens to all of us. Hopefully that’s his most embarrassing moment in the game.''

It certainly was his most embarrassing moment in this game, but not the only pivotal play he was involved in. With one out in the sixth and the Yankees trailing, 5-4, Cano tried to score on Raul Ibanez's double to right and was thrown out at the plate by a combination of a perfectly-executed relay and, by Rob Thomson's own estimation, an overaggressive third base coach.

"He wasn’t blocking the plate or anything, he was just waiting for the ball,'' Cano said of former teammate Jose Molina, who swept across the plate and slapped the tag on just before Cano slipped a hand on home plate. "At the last second, he came up, and caught the ball before I got there. It was a good throw by the second baseman or the shortstop, and Molina, he’s one of the best behind the plate. I thought it was a close play, but I was out.''

Cano continues to be hot at the plate, with two hits, including an RBI single that drove in the Yankees' second run in the first inning.