CHICAGO -- It has been a season of nothing but gut checks for us.

We can complain and we can get down about this loss, but that isn't going to do us any good. We still have to show up and play the game right. We have to focus now on what we can do the next day. That is how we have to look at it.

I've played many, many years and I've never seen anything like that. It's a shame we had to lose like that, but we've faced adversity all year.

We had all the issues with our plane flights from across the country and back again and sleeping on airplanes. We've had to deal with Bartolo Colon getting hurt and taken out of the rotation. We had to deal with Jarrod Washburn getting sick.

Everybody is confused right now. No one is really sure what happened. Everyone wants some clarity. So should we always assume now that a third strike isn't really a third strike and we should always tag the hitter?

I've never seen a catcher that had a ball hit the dirt not tag the hitter. He automatically does that. Everybody knows that and that is what is so confusing. Josh Paul would have tagged A.J. Pierzynski had he thought he dropped the ball or that the umpire thought so.

Everybody makes mistakes. You have to own up to it and you have to move on.

But the bottom line is, we shouldn't have been in that situation. We had our chances and we booted some balls. Those are the reasons we put ourselves in a position to lose the game. I've made mistakes, too. I did the other night. There is only one person in my mind in the history of the world who never made a mistake, but the rest of us aren't perfect.

These are the best umpires in the world and they're here for a reason. It was a tough call, but that was a situation that we should have been able to avoid.

I feel good about where things are, though. I heard some ESPN analysts saying that we have no chance. This team loves to hear that kind of thing. I think the Yankees were a pretty good team and we beat them.

It's 1-1 now and we get to go home. The best thing about tonight is we're going to learn from it. That is what this club does.