Red Sox / Yankees - Live Blog

Friday night and I'm home with the kids. So I thought I'd take the time to jot down some thoughts as the game progressed (assuming its not rained out). Dice-K is going for the Red Sox tonight and many people may know that the Yankees are trying to stop a current 6-game losing streak but did you know that they have also lost 5-straight to the Red Sox (dating back to the last 2-games of last season)? If the Red Sox win tonight it will match the longest winning streak they ever had against the Yankees.

(7:03) I swear to God - when I heard Gary Thorne try to weasel out of his huge mistake about the bloody sock without ever saying that he apologized - I immediately thought of Captain Quint from Jaws, "Well it proves one thing, Mr. Thorne. It proves that you wealthy college boys don't have the education enough to admit when you're wrong."

(7:26) End of one and both Andy Pettitte and Dice-K look sharp. This could be a pretty quick game. Mike Lowell made a very nice play on A-Rod's grounder to end the inning.

(7:46) End of second inning. Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo spoke about Dice-K's personal masseuse during the inning. I'm just glad that the words "happy ending" were not muttered. If I had the opportunity - I would have bet that Dice-K was going to strikeout Hideki Matsui in their first encounter. Just as well as Matsui flies out to center. (I still say that Dice-K strikes out Godzilla at least once tonight.) The Yankees were a slight favorite tonight with the over / under at 9.5 runs. I think the under would have been a good bet.

(8:07) End of the third inning. Kevin Youkilis puts the Red Sox on top 2-0 with a 2-run HR. The Red Sox drafted Youkilis in 2001 in the 8th round. That year the Red Sox did not have a first round pick (they traded it to Cleveland who used it to draft pitcher Dan Denham who last year had a 8.21 ERA in Buffalo). The Red Sox first pick in the second round was Kelly Stopach who last year was traded to the Indians. So in a way - the Red Sox two top picks from 2001 are with the Indians. Youkilis is actually the only Red Sox pick in the first 8 rounds to come close to amounting to anything (besides Kelly Shoppach). Way to go there Dan Duquette!

(8:42) The Red Sox were not patient against Andy Pettitte and they quickly went down 1-2-3 whereas the Yankees were taking all sorts of pitches from Dice-K who walked the first three batters of the inning. They played Black Betty when Matsui came to bat. Do they always do that? I didn't know that Ram Jam was popular in Japan. Jorge Posada bloops in a single to make it 2-1. Damon's "excuse me" swing bloops in and scores 2 more to make it 3-2. Jeter squeaks a grounder through the right side and its 4-2. Those walks to lead off the inning are killing the Red Sox.

(9:09) Three walks, two singles and a wild pitch allow the Red Sox to score 3 to take a 5-4 lead. It looks like the under won't come in (good thing I didn't take it). It also looks like with Pettitte's pitch count up there - the Red Sox will be up against the vaunted (ha ha) Yankee bullpen.

(9:52) Sox lead 6-4 after Julio Lugo hit a HR. It's now the seventh inning stretch and I've been re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. No reason why - I was looking for my copy of The Best and the Brightest and when I didn't find it - I picked this back up. I think I've read this book about 5 times now. Mike Timlin come in to relieve Dice-K.

(10:31) I started with a Captain Quint quote and I may as well finish up with one - this time Quint is talking about Jon Papelbon, "This closer, swallow you whole. No shakin', no tenderizin', down you go." The best laid quotes of mice and Jaws characters often go awry. The Red Sox score 4 runs in the top of the 9th to go ahead 11-4 and ruin the chances of Papelbon coming in. Joel Pineiro comes in instead.

(11:05) 4-hour game but the Red Sox win. Thaaaaaaaaaaa Red Sox win.