insuring there will be no sweep.

photos from Yahoo! Sports and the Boston Herald

1. nice of Coco to join us tonight! (translation: after Wily Mo's grand slam Thursday evening, we can't be expecting more batting heroics any time soon, and that just cannot happen against the Yankees.)

2. home plate umpire was way too quiet last night. i really prefer an umpire that makes his strike calls very obvious.

3. even as a Sox fan , i think the announcers on YES or My 9 or whatever the Yankees home station is now are very good. they do an excellent job explaining pitching & hitting fundamentals, and providing illustration from the game. they lay on the Jeter love a little thick though. that's kind of nauseating.

4. Andy Pettitte has a rather prominent ass. it can't compete with Youk's though.

5. these My 9 announcers use the word "quality" in every other sentence.

6. My 9 had much better coverage of the Sox dugout reactions than either NESN or ESPN of the four-consecutive home runs in Boston last Sunday. they did a replay & had an awesome shot of Youk bounding out of the dugout, fists pumped.

7. check in on the Coco theory that he found his bat after his tumble: two for five last night. certainly better than o-for-4.

8. a Youk homer! Youk makes me so happy. =)


9. love: Papi head down, hustling to first base. hate: Papi coming in like a plane with no landing gear.


10. freaking Lugo! what should have been a double play turned into nothing. Cora for SS! about the only time i like Lugo at all is when he's running the bases.


11. Jeter missed a diving catch in the fifth. why do i suspect that if it had been Lowell, they would have awarded him yet another error?


12. after a bad fourth inning for Matsuzaka, it was nothing short of a stroke of luck that Pettitte followed it with an even worse fifth inning performance.

13. funniest moment of the game: Lugo hit his first home run since July 27, 2006. it had been so long that he didn't even recognize it was a home run. got to first base, tagged up & the first base coach had to tell him to complete his trip around the bases!

14. no matter how badly Matsuzka struggles during an inning, he comes back out for his next one completely composed. that is really impressive, to not let it get inside your head & have it affect your game.

15. for a minute, i thought i had switched to NESN coverage when they made a call on "Pedroi-er" in the seventh. ha!

16. observation during the seventh inning stretch's "God Bless America": all these guys chewing their mouthful of choice on the ball field? it's like watching a herd of cows chewing their cud.

17. Jeter called himself safe in the seventh inning. sorry, Captain Intangibles, but the game doesn't really work like that.

18. Lowell's hitting streak remains alive! thirteen & counting!

19. whoa. the Yankees are the only team in MLB without a save?! of course, this could be a result of some major pitching issues. this was the eighth straight game using five-plus pitchers. the record is nine.

20. behold the power of Daruma! Matsuzaka walked the bases loaded with no outs in the fourth & somehow my wish for a win still came true!

21. Nichole got to see the game on NESN. she shared a bit of Remy & Don conversation that amused me, about the Japanese media that follows Matsuzaka around.
Remy: Wanna know what they were taking pictures of today?
Don: Just about everything?
Remy: The tarp coming off the field.

22 Lucky 49 today. let's hope those flutterfingers are on today! and that the bats don't snub him...