A good ball player is not going to lose any sleep over the kind of beating we took from the Yankees yesterday. I mean it.

Lot of people will say that when you lose a game, especially a World Series game, by a score of 16-3, you've been humiliated. Nuts. If you're going to get beat, that's the way to get beat.

I'd rather lose that way than any other way.

We played rotten baseball -- stupid baseball. But we probably got it out of our systems and learned something in the bargain. We learned that you just can't make mistakes against a club like the Yankees and not expect to pay for them.

We had reports on the Yankee hitters but we didn't stick to what we were told to do. You can't pitch outside to a guy who can't hit the low ball. You've got to pitch to their weakness.

Yes, we made mistakes but as far as Bob Friend is concerned, he had great stuff.

You don't strike out six men in four innings by throwing popcorn up to the plate. But Bob got hurt by a questionable double in the third inning when the Yanks jumped off to a 2-0 lead. Gil McDougald hit a bouncer over my head that I'd have sworn was foul, but Dusty Boggess, the umpire, said it was fair territory when it went over the bag.

That was a tough break for Friend.

Well, like I say, if you're going to get beat it's better to get beat by 13 runs than one or two or three.

Against the Giants -- this year when we got whipped badly -- I think the score was 13-1 -- but we came back to beat 'em 1-0, and then beat 'em again the day after, 5-2.

So don't get the idea we're folding.

First Published: October 13, 2010, 8:00 a.m.