Red Sox/Yankees in semi-realtime

Rich is in town visiting. After a dinner out for sushi, at which we each had a good luck Asahi for the Red Sox, we're settling in for the game. When it comes down to it, only Yankees fans can root for the Yankees. I can't think of anyone on the Yankees I'd root for. Go Sox!
Why did Dale Sveum send Damon in the first inning? I thought the Cubs with Wendell Kim were the only ones who had to lose hair over runners thrown out at home.
Wow, Big Papi tatooed that ball! That home run may have killed some fan in the right field bleachers.
Rich is feeling ill. I hope it wasn't the sushi. Rich has to tap out. I will soldier on.
Man, Brown has nothing. Who knows how he'd have been if he hadn't broken his hand in a childish fit of rage. The Greek tragedy is coming full circle.
Damon with a Grand Slam!! If I were Damon, I couldn't resist the urge to trot back out to my position and subtly flip off the fans in right field behind my back. He's too nice a guy to do so, but they sure give him hell out there. I wouldn't fault him for doing it.
This afternoon, Schilling was on Baseball Tonight and called A-Rod's swipe of Arroyo's arm last night a bush league play. When someone like Schilling, a respected player, calls A-Rod out on a cheap shot...that's just another heated page in the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. What I thought was uncool was A-Rod claiming it was part of his natural running motion. I mean, c'mon. That was like Lance Berkman pretending he was hit in the head by a pitch earlier this year against the Cubs, lying there like he was unconscious, when replays clearly showed the ball didn't even touch him. Would Roy Hobbs do that? There ya go.
Speaking of Roy Hobbs, was the blood seeping through Curt Schilling's sock last night the most famous blood on a baseball player since Hobbs's bloody bullet wound in The Natural? It was perfect. A Red Sox player with literal red socks. If Schilling has that bloody sock left he could auction it off for millions on eBay. Some bar in Boston would buy it and build a golden shrine to it.
A-Rod chose Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" as the song to play over Yankees Stadium speakers when he comes to bat. Okay, that right there is another problem for A-Rod. I'm sorry, that's just not an intimidating song. If you're Ricky Williams and you've decided to retire from football at the peak of your career to go sit on a tropical beach somewhere and smoke pot from a three foot bong, maybe you can play that song as you're packing up your locker.
I can't believe the Yankees, with their payroll, bat Tony Clark in their lineup. His OBP this season was .297 and he struck out 92 times in 253 at-bats. Brutal. I wondered why Giambi didn't pinch-hit for Clark last night. I thought Giambi was on the post-season roster just for that reason.
Unfrozen Caveman is not just thawed, he's on fire! Upper deck! Maybe he really is Jesus. Next inning we may see him levitate into the sky to take a home run away from the Yankees.
Side note not related to this game: I just saw the box score of the NL game. Lidge pitched another 3 innings today, no hits, 5 Ks! Just ridiculous. He has to be fried for tomorrow's game. Doesn't he? And even Izzy went 3 innings for the Cardinals, so you know Larussa was desperate. Lidge's numbers from this season are sick: 94.7 innings, only 57 hits and 30 walks, 157 K's (!?!), a 1.90 ERA. His slider is just illegal. I still think K-Rod is the most fun relief pitcher in baseball to watch (similar numbers to Lidge: 84 IP, 51 hits, 33 BBs, 123 Ks, and a 1.82 ERA) just because his 89mph slider/curve and then 97mph fastball look like videogame pitches thrown with a whiffle ball they move so much. Plus he has a wild, exaggerated windup, and I miss those. Why don't more pitchers have wild and crazy windups like Juan Marichal in the old days, bringing the arms way back over the head, leg kicking up so that the knee is nearly over one's head? It adds a huge element of deception to the delivery, and it's so much fun to watch. Think Goose Gossage and Pascual Perez. Pitchers today with huge leg kicks and long, looping deliveries: Hideo Nomo, Dontrelle Willis, El Duque, Shigetoshi Hasegawa (sort of; interestingly, lots of Japanese pitchers seem to have huge windups; I wonder why?). There are probably others. There should be more.
Other side note on the NLCS game: I just saw a replay of Edmonds game winning home run. It's amazing that a guy with such a huge uppercut can take high and away fastballs and hit them out of the park. I saw him do that to a 94mph Kerry Wood high and away fastball earlier this year. People say to pitch him high and away because of his uppercut, but I think that needs to be amended to high and inner half. Otherwise he might just hit a 7-iron into the stands.
Ramirez chases Bernie's fly ball, and Buck says, "Ramirez with a late jump on it." Isn't that pretty much standard with every fly ball that goes to left against the Red Sox?
I was over at ESPN's Sportsnation Chat and saw a thread in which Boston fans were wondering when Francona would pull Lowe. Only a Cubs or Red Sox fan could be so paranoid. Lowe's up 8-1 and has given up one hit in 5 innings. I'd cut the man some slack. Sheesh.
What do you call a single Red Sox player? A Red Sock?
If they pull Lowe out and replace him with Pedro, I'll be shocked. That doesn't seem necessary, or wise, when you could have Pedro start in the World Series. There, I said it. World Series. I guess this is the World Series, in many ways, for the Red Sox. The NLCS has been exciting, too, but it's clearly been pushed to second class status this offseason, its games pushed to times when no one can watch to accommodate the ALCS in primetime.
A Felix Heredia sighting. The other day, Ken e-mailed me when Heredia got up in the bullpen, laughing uncontrollably. We remember him from his Cubs days, when he ran up ERAs of 4.85, 4.76, and 6.17.
Hmm, Pedro is coming in. Very bizarre. Maybe he's just treating this as his between-starts throwing session.
Pedro's not throwing very hard, and Matsui and Bernie double back to back. Still a healthy lead, but I still would have left Lowe out there. Sinkerballers are more effective when they're tired, or at least that's what they say. He looked plenty good to me. Pedro can't even break 90 right now, and he just gave up a single to Lofton, who I believe is collecting social security. Pedro still has a 5 run cushion, but seriously, what is he doing out there? Let the man rest.
Leave Pedro in too long last year, bring him in too early and unnecessarily this year. Some might pity the Red Sox managers for having to deal with such stress, but I blame the managers for making such lousy tactical decisions.
95 and 95mph on Pedro's last two pitches. Maybe he's warm now.
And now the Yankees Stadium organist is encouraging the Who's Your Daddy chant between every pitch. Oh, please make it stop.
The other option is that Pedro's reaching back for something extra. And he made it out of the inning giving up just two runs. Now send him to the showers and ice that arm of his. Since Cubs fans and Red Sox fans share similar nightmares, I can only imagine how much Pepto-Bismol is being consumed in Boston. Only a Cubs or Red Sox fan could insecure with such a big lead and just two innings to play. When you've had no empirical evidence in your entire lifetime to justify your faith, that's how it goes.
This may be the first post-season game where some pitcher requires Tommy John surgery during a series. Given how long the Red Sox/Yankees series has gone, Foulke could have had Tommy John after game one and recovered to pitch the ninth in this game.
Fickle is Red Sox Nation, is it not? Bellhorn and Damon have gone from goats to toasts with their recent home runs, while Manny is now a dirty word after his struggles this series.
Bottom of the 8th: Phew! Pedro is gone. Francona has overcome his temporary insanity and brought in Timlin.
Wow, what a dig by Mient...however you spell his name! Maybe this will dispell some of the post-season mythology around Derek Jeter. Has he done anything this ALCS? Maybe Jessica Alba will dump him. Please?
A-Rod....whiffffff! How sweet it must feel for the Red Sox to knock out the guy who almost came to them and instead ended up with their hated rivals. To think, it was the player's association that nullified that trade to the Red Sox and set A-Rod up for his fall. And why was the trade nullified? A-Rod and Scott Boras's greed in setting up his original contract with the Rangers, one that the player's association wouldn't allow the Red Sox to shrink. Yes, another example of hubris. This Greek tragedy is about to conclude. Steinbrenner poisons some drinks, kills Cashman and Torre and then has a heart attack and dies. As bloody an ending as Hamlet.
If I'm a Red Sox fan, especially if I'm in the bleachers, I'm trying like hell to start a "Who's Your Daddy?" chant right now. And then I'd duck and run like hell.
A token playing of "Enter Sandman" for Rivera. It doesn't sound that intimidating when the Yankees are down 7 runs. Has Rivera ever come into a game in which the Yankees trailed by this much? I doubt it.
In the World Series, we'll get to find out what David Ortiz looks like playing 1B. The AL winning the All-Star Game and giving the Red Sox home field advantage in the World Series is huge in that respect.
If I hop the train now, I may be able to get to Boston in time to buy a Red Sox hat and hit the streets. On this night, that would be enough for a guy to get lucky, if he wasn't trampled to death in street riots.
Pitching change to Embree with 2 outs in the ninth. A pause for Red Sox fans to pull the champagne out of the fridge and pop the cork.
Red Sox win!!! Pandemonium!!!
I like the Red Sox against whoever comes out of the NL. Neither the Astros nor the Cardinals has the starting pitching to hold down the Red Sox lineup, even with the pitcher having to hit in NL parks.