Not much to say about this one other than sometimes the other team’s best is better than your best. Batters 1-2 and 5-9 hit .250/.294/.281 last night for the Blue Jays. Problem was, Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus hit .625/.700/2.500!!

I imagine panic will start to set in around here today, what with David Pauley throwing tonight and all but I don’t see any indication that much has materially changed from the club that polished off a four-game sweep of a competitive Devil Rays squad just three days ago.

When B.J. Ryan entered last night’s game with the score tied 6-6 and two outs in the top of the eighth inning, it was a de facto acknowledgement by John Gibbons that he had goofed. With those same two outs already recorded and the score 6-3 just two batters earlier, Jason Varitek had clubbed a three-run home run to tie the game and Mike Lowell followed with a sharply driven double into the left field corner. Both were off Justin Speier. Across the diamond, in Boston’s dugout, here is what Terry Francona had to know he was up against in B.J. Ryan. He was up against a relief pitcher with a 0.73 WHIP, yielding a .391 OPS againt and striking out more than 10 batters every nine innings. The very moment Gibbons handed Ryan the ball in last night’s contest, Francona has to get Jonathan Papelbon loose. Tito needed to be operating under the assumption that he would get nothing off of Ryan and try and extend the game for as long as he could by turning to the reliever that had the best chance of holding the Blue Jays scoreless for as long as Ryan would keep the Sox off the board. Instead, Francona went to David Riske, who quickly yielded a run and couldn’t even complete the eighth inning. The result wasn’t in question once Toronto plated the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth. As he will do, Ryan made quick work of the Sox in the ninth.

This managerial gaffe was unfortunate, because the Sox managed to overcome a six-run deficit and looked like they might be able to steal one on a night where a clearly injured Matt Clement was awful and Roy Halladay was pretty good. In defeat, good signs abounded for Boston. For starters, there was the previously mentioned home run by Varitek, a guy that has struggled all season long and needs to get it going if the Sox are going to go from a very good, “in the mix” team to true, championship caliber. Coco Crisp also homered, a sign that he appears ready to pick up right where he left off in early April. Two hits including a round-tripper off of Roy Halladay in one’s second game after a forty-game absence or so is no small feat. Finally, Boston’s two young relievers, Jermaine Van Buren and Manny Delcarmen were excellent. They combined for four innings, and yielded just two hits and two walks in the process.

When David Riske was struggling in the eighth and Don Orsillo was lamenting the loss of Mike Timlin while Jonathan Papelbon looked on, rested, from his outfield bullpen perch, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The Red Sox had received four innings of shutout relief and the loss of Mike Timlin was felt last night?!?! If Francona had deployed his resources properly, the Red Sox might not have won, as the likely ensuing string of events would have been similar to April 21st’s contest. Ryan and Papelbon probably would have dazzled, and it would have been Keith Foulke and David Riske against Pete Walker, Scott Downs and Francisco Rosario. In other words, a total crapshoot. But at least they would have had a chance.

The Sox try and get back on track with their best on the hill tonight. Josh Beckett opposes Gustavo Chacin.

The Red Sox head out for their most challenging road trip so far this season and do so with Major League Baseball’s fourth best record. May has been a fantastic month for the offense, with slow starter Mark Loretta coming around, Manny heating up and the supporting cast of Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis chipping in more than anyone could have hoped. Those out there assuming the Sox will come crashing back to earth when Lowell and Youkilis cool off would be well-served to check out the numbers from other Sox players this month. David Ortiz and Jason Varitek have struggled, and can both be reasonably expected to pick up their games. Finally, Coco Crisp returns (as Wily Mo Pena heads to the DL) and getting him back in the lineup consistently should be a shot in the arm for the offense. Overall this Sox offense is potent at the moment, and figures to be for the season.

The same cannot be said for the pitching. Of the starters, only Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling have been able to pitch with consistency, and that characterization really gives Schilling the benefit of the doubt. Tim Wakefield has been off-and-on, Clement just terrible at times and who even knows what the story with Boston’s fifth starter is? I was sure David Wells’s career was over Friday night until I read today that he wants to make his next start! The bullpen situation fails to inspire as well. With Mike Timlin heading to the Disabled List, the Sox will need to find an effective combination to get the ball to Jonathan Papelbon. Good luck. Though he has been better of late, Rudy Seanez still looks ridiculously hittable out there, Julian Tavarez has been erratic all season and you never know what you’re getting out of Keith Foulke. Manny Delcarmen, in separate Big League stints, has failed to live up to his billing.

That Timlin’s loss came on the eve of the Sox’s toughest 10-game stretch of the year is just a terrible break. The Blue Jays are first, then off to face MLB’s best team so far, the Detroit Tigers and then they cap off the trip in the Bronx. The Sox figure to be in a number of dogfights, games in which they could use their trusty middleman but the Sox will need to slap together something dependable in his stead if they want to hang onto leads. It won’t be easy.

They kick things off tonight with a disadvantageous pitching match-up. Matt Clement takes the ball for the Sox while Roy Halladay goes for the Jays.

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance last night on what was one of the nicer days of weather here all year. Josh Beckett was fantastic if not economical and although Mike Timlin was dicey, it was nice to see proactive Tito show his face and get Jonathan Papelbon in there to close out the eighth. Keith Foulke worked a good seventh inning as well.

Offensively, what else is new? Kevin Youkilis was on base three out of five times and was the clear offensive star of the night for Boston. David Ortiz collected a couple of hits, which was nice to see.

Tonight it gets tough as phenom Scott Kazmir takes to the hill. He’s not Doug Waechter.

Over his last 20 starts or so, Matt Clement has been a pretty crumby pitcher. If the Sox have a long-term item to be keeping in the back of their minds as a potential weakness to shore up come July 31, it’s their starting pitching. Clement has good enough stuff and the Sox have a good enough lineup that you have to keep running him out there but what happens if he keeps this up for another month or two? And who knows what Boston is going to get out of David Wells? Is Tim Wakefield still the league-average innings-eater to which we have grown accustomed? Can the Sox count on Schilling after just one good start in the last month? And what if Josh Beckett goes down?

I suppose I would just be considering these things as I am evaluating what I have leading up to July 31 if I were on 4 Yawkey…

Not the best effort the Sox have put forth, from the manager on down. How Wily Mo Pena doesn’t see an at-bat and how Wake hangs around for so long with clearly sub-par stuff are beyond me. Also, you’ll have to pardon me but I really do derive some sort of perverse enjoyment from seeing David Ortiz, Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek fail miserably with the game hanging in the balance while Manny Ramirez single-handedly kept his mates in the game. Poor Pete the Meat must have been so confused watching that unfold this evening.

Anyway, sorry for my prolonged absence. I have taken a new job and have been traveling for two weeks straight and am just now getting my life back to normal here in Boston. I plan on continuing to update this place as often as I can and with the same effort to which those that stop by regularly have grown accustomed. I’m just not sure it will be possible. You see, I have made a significant stride forward in my career, but with that comes added responsibility and less time for things like, well, blogging. I refuse to say that I will be posting less for sure or that I will be posting lesser quality. I just don’t know. All I know is that I have a smaller pie of free time to divvy up and so we’ll just have to see how much of it I feel like devoting to this site.

As for my feelings at the moment about the Sox, well, I feel really good about them. While both guys are playing over their heads, it is pretty evident that Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis are going to be net assets, something none of us was positive about at the beginning of the season. Even when those two come back to earth, David Ortiz should improve. It took a while but this offense is hitting like we all thought it might. There are some questions in the bullpen for sure but with the way Craig Hansen is dealing this season, maybe he could help. Alex Gonzalez has been pretty bad at the plate but is a dazzling shortstop in the field. Yes things are going well at the moment, but with no pitcher really exceeding expectations, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek struggling and Coco Crisp on the way back, it is hard to find too much to be all that concerned about with this Sox club. They’re a rock solid team, and a legitimate contender to compete for their second World Championship in three years.

I’ll try and get back on a regular game recap routine soon. Thanks for continuing to stop by.

PS - Predictably, the run differential spread between the Sox and the Yanks has narrowed considerably since I was taken to task for claiming that the Yanks squandered a chance to put more wins up while they were playing so well. Now they employ Terrence Long. The point was simple and pretty easy for the rational minds out there to comprehend. When your Pythag shows you to be a 111 win team and you’re hovering around .500, you’ve squandered an opportunity. Anyway, I thought our 100,000th unique visitor was a sign that we had accomplished something but I have a new favorite sign that we have reached a new level here. We have our very first troll. Awwwwww.

Hey we took a little break. Kudos for us.

Anyway, since the last time we rapped at you, the Red Sox put a fine piece of hurting in the Bronx, got spanked by Texas once, and then watched them sail away in their arky-arky, beat the Orioles twice, and then had the misfortune of not being able to win a fortnights worth of games against one opponet. Oh, and Sully got LOLWtfPwn3d by a White Sox fan in the comments of his 5/9 post. I think we might start having a segmant here called “I Hate Sully” where fans of other teams bitch about him being a Red Sox fan and writing about the Red Sox on a Red Sox blog. Unfortunately, Pat hasn’t gotten death threats yet, which means he’s still 2 behind me. I love Yankee fans.

Back to something normalish: two things were brought to my attention in last night’s 4-3 Orioles win at the expense of the Sox Rouge. The first is that Leo Mazzone rocks more than Tito does. The second is that Sam Perlazzo crosses his legs in the dugout in a way that looks so uncomfortable that I can’t really wrap my head around the fact that it’s biologically possible.

Over the next few weeks, the Red Sox have a brutal stretch (24 games in 23 days if you include the yet-to-be-scheduled Tejas doubleheader), where they face the Phillies down in Philadelphia, then head home for a 3 some with the Yankees, a 4 some with those slutty Devil Rays, we hook up again with our Canadian girlfriend, on to Detriot, 4 way with the Yankees, and then the aformentioned baseball orgy against the Rangers.

I predict the Red Sox will go 36-0 during this 24 game stretch because of their sublime awesomacity.

I know we get all analytical here from time to time and don’t seem like we’re having that much fun with the game but we’re fans too and love our Sox! Here’s to laying one on the bad guys!

I am sure Mullet or Jeff will come correct with something more in depth than than but I just wanted to chime in quickly. That was some good fun.

Right now, I’m mourning the loss of Manny Delcarman.

For two weeks, the young reliever from Boston pitched almost four whole innings. All four came in situations where his pitching had no impact on the outcome of the game. Seriously, the Sox could have put Mark Loretta on the mound and they would have no change in record. He pitched in a 5-1 game in Cleveland, and then the next day when the score sat 11-3. Both with the Red Sox on the receiving end of hitting pain. He finished in Tampa with the game 5-4 in favor of the Devil Rays. Then he played the waiting game.

A week passed before Delcarman was seen again. It was pitching the last inning of Sunday’s 10-3 victory over the Orioles.

Against the weaker sisters of the American League East, MDC allowed not a run. He did get beat up by the Indians, but no moreso than say…Josh Beckett has.

MDC is 24 years old, and allowed no runs in AAA before his recall in April. According to Baseball America, he’s the 4th best pitching prospect in the organization, and second best relief prospect behind wunderkind Craig Hansen. There is little doubt of him being worse than Julian Tavarez has been, or Rudy Seanez is.

That begs the question…why didn’t Manny Delcarman pitch more.

The answer is, of course, bullpen slotting.

Through the first month of the season, the Red Sox bullpen has been built thusly. Jonathan Papelbon pitches the 9th in wins up to 4 runs. Mike Timlin pitches the 8th in front of Papelbon. Keith Foulke is used to get out tough lefties, pitch from the 6th to the 7th in front of Timlin, or to fix messes one of the other relievers get into. Julian Tavarez is the first arm out if the starter struggles, and if the Red Sox are losing and it’s close, he’ll pitch. Seanez will pitch in blowouts where the Sox win, or if the Sox are behind late and it’s close, but not close enough to use Foulke. Delcarman/Van Buren/DiNardo wait. And wait. And wait. Until either everyone else is tired, or the Sox are getting killed.

The hierarchy, the caste system of the Red Sox bullpen looks like this:
Papelbon
Timlin/Foulke
Julian Tavarez
Rudy Seanez
Al Nipper
Young guy

The reasoning behind using Papelbon/Timlin/Foulke is obvious. They are the three best arms in the bullpen. Papelbon is the designated closer, and even though he’d help the Red Sox more in the rotation, it’s understandable why he’s at the back of the bullpen. Timlin has had the same role for 230 years. Foulke’s body looks to be rebounding from the savagery of last year, and is being utilized excellently. If you want to see what Bill James had to say about a relief ace being put to use, check out how Terry Francona is using Keith Foulke.

Julian Tavarez is given rope, due to his being a pretty good reliever the last few years. He’s pitched pretty terribly, but sampling being what it is. Rudy Seanez has the same MO when he goes to a hitters park….he throws hard, walks guys, strikes them out, gives up home runs when they make contact. In fact, in the American League, he’s been uniformly terrible, and he played a large part of changing my girlfriend into a Red Sox fan (different story for a different time). There is little reason to believe that Rudy Seanez can pitch well at Fenway Park.

But he’s a veteran with a Proven Track Record, so he’ll continue to be used in non-offensive situations where he can hemorrhage baserunners but it doesn’t matter since he still has that Proven Track Record. He’ll change 7-1 Red Sox leads into 7-4 leads, causing Papelbon to get warm before disaster strikes on what should have been an easy day. He’ll change 5-3 Red Sox deficits to 7-3 losses, but no one will bat an eye, because it’s not like the Sox were winning anyway.

Meanwhile, fellows that had the misfortune of being born in the late 70s rather than the late 60s watch as the 10th man in the bullpen racks up appearances on par with everyone else that are actually worthy of them. Seanez has been in 11 games, one less than the suspended one, and 4 less than Mike Timlin. As a comparison, the Young guys have been in 7 games. Combined.

All because they are the designated “last guy in the pen”.

There is a real danger in that thinking, because an arm will rust out before it burns out (it will burn out too, obviously). So saving the last guy until you need him makes it impossible for him to pitch with enough command to be more than the last guy, save death or DFA.

Rumor is that the Red Sox will be calling up Mike Holtz for the Yankee series at least, and then David Riske is expected to be ready, and will probably take either Seanez or Tavarez’s slot in the bullpen. When he does come back though, keep an eye on how much Seanez pitches. I bet it will be more than anyone born after 1975.

The Sox continued the streak of letting the Orioles get 3 runs while putting a hurting on the O’s pitching, knocking off the Orioles in a 10-3 laugher that was never in doubt.

Lenny DiNardo had a rough first inning, walking the bases loaded and pushing the game’s first run across with a walk to Jeff Conine, but settled down the rest of the way and gave up just 2 runs over 5 innings. DiNardo was nearly unhittable, giving up just 2 hits, but that’s because he was either really on or really off, striking out 5 and walking 5 in his 5 innings (I bet you don’t see that line very often). I had many an off-season discussion pimping DiNardo as a good 5th/6th starter, but his inability to throw strikes is killing him (actually, it’s killing all Sox pitchers this season).

Jason Varitek did the offensive damage early, and ended the game in the 1st, hitting a Grand Slam, giving the Sox a 4-1 lead they would never relinquish. The Sox rocked Kris Benson for 8 hits, 4 walks, and 9 runs in less than 5 innings. Kevin Youkilis continued to do what he does, with 3 more hits and 2 more runs scored, bringing his season line up to .330/.434/.482. Theo and Co. have made their share of mistakes, but allowing Millar and Mueller to play full seasons and keep Youkilis in Rhode Island is a pretty big one, and is a big reason that the Sox didn’t hoist an AL East flag this off-season. Mark Loretta continues his road back to respectabilith with 3 more hits. Finally, Manny Ramirez continues to be the best hitter on the team, with 2 more hits and 2 walks (actually taking the team OPS lead, if that’s worth anything).

Oh, Manny Delcarmen actually got to pitch yesterday. I was worried that Tito had forgot he was on the team.

Night off tonight, before the Sox head to the Bronx to battle the nominally AL East leading New York Yankees.

Another fantastic win for the Sox as they put up a 9-spot on the Orioles while limiting a pretty good offense to just three runs. Tim Wakefield was good, going six solid innings while Julian Tavarez, Mike Timlin and Rudy Seanez combined for some quality, albeit low-leverage work to close out the game.

This victory was Boston’s fifth in its last seven games, a span over which they have averaged more than seven runs per contest. Not coincidentally, Wily Mo Pena has started in each and every one of these games. Pena went two-for-four last night with a couple of singles, runs and RBI. Pena is currently hitting .328/.365/.537. He had plenty of help. Manny Ramirez notched his first “holy shit” home run of the year, a moonshot he launched off the tops of his shoes and well into a delightful Boston dusk. Don’t look now but Ramirez is now at .302/.443/.485. Even though he went hitless, Mike Lowell chipped in three bases on balls and now is at .343/.407/.552. Remember how I told you Boston had all those candidates to improve? Well in Kevin Youkilis, Pena and Lowell, they now have some regression candidates too. And that’s fine, it’s how the ebb and flow of a baseball season works. What was great for the Sox was that they were able to store away some wins early without playing good baseball. Now they’re hitting their stride a bit, and have done so without a ton of help from David Ortiz, who has hit at a .208/.296/.500 clip over the lase seven games. The nonsense you hear about the Red Sox somehow compromising offense for the sake of pitching and defense was incorrect for those who trotted it out during the off-season and now just revisionist coming from those saying it now. This Red Sox offense is tremendous, it just hasn’t been thus far.

This afternoon, Lenny DiNardo and Kris Benson square off at Fenway for Boston’s last tilt before they head to the Bronx. And in case you haven’t noticed, the Bombers are rolling these days.

I too will be in NYC for a couple of weeks, and hopefully at the Stadium for one of these Sox games. I will not be posting often, if at all, but Jeff and Mullet will be chiming in with their thoughts. Enjoy!

Maybe the best game of the year. The Sox pitched well, fielded well and hit it well en route to a nice 6-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Curt Schilling was excellent while Mike Timlin and Jonathan Papelbon closed out the O’s. David Ortiz delivered tghe big hit of the game but Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis continued to pace the attack while Mark Loretta continued to show signs of life.

It’ll be Erik Bedard and Tim Wakefield tonight.

The rap I heard on Wednesday night’s game today was that the Sox had blown one, that they had let one get away. It’s funny, but I think this line of thinking stems from the line score. Someone decided that runs, hits and errors would tell the whole story and you know what? It was a valiant effort. Runs reflect the score, hits an attempt to approximate offensive output and errors a crack at showing how the defense played. Of course the thing about the line score is that it is wholly inadequate. In Wednesday night’s tilt, the Blue Jays had only one more hit than the Sox but for the night the Jays banged at a .342/.444/.526 clip while the Sox hit .316/.344/.368. The nature of the hit is more important than the hit itself, and nowhere to be found in that line score is the all-important walk. So people say “the Sox squandered a late lead and let one get away” when the reality is that the Sox were damn fortunate to have had the lead to begin with. The Jays were better, and deserving winners in this game.

The pitching matchup was an attractive one but neither Roy Halladay nor Josh Beckett lived up to the billing. Beckett yielded ten base runners in five innings and struck out just two Blue Jays. Halladay wasn’t much better, letting eleven Red Sox reach base and also notching just two strikeouts. Halladay went six innings. The difference in the game was the quality of the relief pitching. Justin Speier, Schott Schoenweis, Dustin McGowan and B.J Ryan all kept the Sox offense quiet over three innings while Julian Tavarez, Keith Foulke, Mike Timlin and Jonathan Papelbon were all shaky. Ryan struck out the side in the ninth inning to nail down the 7-6 victory for the Blue Jays. He looked dominant.

Offensively, each team had a clear star. Lyle Overbay was four-for-four with a walk, a double, two runs and an RBI. Manny Ramirez was three-for-four with a double, a walk and two runs scored. Shea Hillenbrand also had a big game, while Mike Lowell and Wily Mo Pena chipped in for the Sox.

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Josh Towers was awful tonight, while Matt Clement was pretty good as the Red Sox took care of the Jays 7-4 in the brief, two-game set finale.

Kevin Youkilis homered with a man on in the sixth and also mixed in two more singles. Youkilis seems to be what he is now. He’s a .400 on-base guy that will mix in enough pop to make him a worthy contributor for a championship aspirant club at first base. He’s been a welcome addition as a regular to these 2006 Red Sox. So has Mike Lowell, who went two-for-four with a couple of doubles, runs scored and RBI’s.

The same cannot be said of Mark Loretta. Coming into tonight’s game with the Jays, Loretta was hitting .217/.274/.296 and has been one of the very worst regulars in all of Major League Baseball. He’s putting up a season that Neifi Perez or Tony Womack would be embarassed to post. That’s how bad Loretta has been. Well he went two-for-four himself tonight, and lined out hard one of the times he failed to reach base. Maybe it will be the start of something.

Also on the encouraging front were bounceback outings from Keith Foulke and Jonathan Papelbon. Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez, however, still suck.

The Orioles come to town for the weekend. It will be Rodrigo Lopez and Curt Schilling tomorrow night in the Fens.

I am going to talk a little bit about how each club’s season has gone thus far and then get into some thoughts on a wild night (and day for that matter) at Fenway.

With respect to the Red Sox and Yankees and where they stand a day into the second month of the 2006 season, there are two incontrivertible truths that I can see.

1) The Yankees have played far better than the Red Sox thus far.

You play winning baseball by putting runs on the board and keeping the other team off of it. So far in 2006, the Yankees have scored 23 more runs than the Sox and prevented other teams from scoring 32 fewer times. Adjust for park and competition as Baseball Prospectus’s W3 percentage does and the Yanks are basically playing like a 110-115 win team while your Red Sox look like little more than your run-of-the-mill, 80-win also-ran. Put simply, the Yanks look like the best team in baseball and the Sox look like they might crack the top-20.

2) The Yankees cannot play any better than they have while the Red Sox figure to improve.

OK so maybe this is not an “incontrivertible truth” but it sure as hell is demonstrably likely. So the way I look at it is that while the Red Sox have played well short of their potential, they have staked themselves to a one-game lead in the AL East. Simultaneously, while the Yankees have played about as well as they can, they haven’t accumulated the wins commensurate with their stellar play. This may well cost them in the end. Have a look at some of the early-season performances from the Yankees:

Jason Giambi: .328/.542/.813
Derek Jeter: .396/.505/.637
Mike Mussina: 1.08 WHIP, 8.54 K/9, 4.63 K/BB

Meanwhile, the Yanks have also received mild out-performance from Johnny Damon, Gary Sheffield, Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada while only A-Rod and Hideki Matsui have slightly under-performed. In fairness, Randy Johnson ought to be a good bit better, and Andy Phillips and Bernie Williams are not as God-awful as they have looked.

For their part, the Red Sox have had virtually nobody significantly exceed expectations (no, 15 great innings from Jonathan Papelbon does not qualify as significantly exceeding). David Ortiz has come as advertised, Mike Lowell has shown his pre-2005 form and Curt Schilling has been excellent but other than that, almost across the board, the Red Sox have fallen short of expectations. Have a look at the two clearest Red Sox candidates to improve…

Mark Loretta: .217/.278/.292
Jaon Varitek: .250/.345/.375

Also, Coco Crisp’s injury has badly hampered the offense’s ability to function as it should. Here are the center fielder’s numbers that have filled in (note that these numbers are only when they played CF):

Dustan Mohr: .192/.250/.462
Adam Stern: .150/.150/.200
Wily Mo Pena: .278/.278/.333
Willie Harris: .077/.294/.077
Coco Crisp (pre-injury): .333/.385/.458

Crisp’s return will help immensely.

Alex Gonzalez has also been terrible, worse than he ever has been. One way or another the Red Sox will get improved production from shortstop, either by improvement from Gonzalez, improvement from Alex Cora or help in the form of Dustin Pedroia.

On the pitching side for the Sox, both Josh Beckett and Matt Clement will have better looking numbers in time. As for the 5th starter position, if Lenny DiNardo does not get it together quickly, Matt Ginter or Jon Lester would make capable replacements.

So there is bad news and good news. The bad news is that the Sox have played really poorly thus far and the Yanks have played about as well as a baseball team can play. The good news is despite that, the Sox have a one-game cushion on the Yanks and only figure to improve while the Yanks have nowhere to go but down.

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A few things on last night’s 7-3 victory at Fenway…

- Until David Ortiz’s home run, it seemed like the harder you hit the ball, the smaller your chances for success were. Balls were pummeled right at defenders while the wind chipped in to knock balls down too. Meanwhile, bunts, bloopers and broken bats went for hits all night.

- Mirabelli’s Odyssey is just a great story.

- The boos for Johnny Damon were embarassing. Imagine being a grown man, standing up and booing another man for taking a job offer that was going to compensate him more? You know for that matter the crowd as a whole was embarassing. Between the “steroids” chants at Giambi, a “Johnny Sucks” chant and the ol’ moronic standby “Yankees Suck”, the worst Boston sports fandom has to offer was on full display for a national television audience last night.

- Here’s a fantastic recap by Cliff Corcoran of Bronx Banter.