Is anyone else watching on mlb.tv? For some reason there are no commercial breaks, and you can still here Kay and Singleton between innings. I'm waiting to hear them say something incriminating, so far all I've got is Kay saying there's a hot lady wearing white.

I'm also hearing them during breaks on mlb.tv, waiting for that incriminating comment too.

Posada is taking some godawful swings.

We got to score at least 2 more runs for Wang, I'm sorry, Small (hard to tell the difference in their effectivity).

Tocho, I heard Kay talking with his mouth full, i was cracking up.

Singleton's singing and yawning is a bit too much.

We need to teach Rodriguez how to drive, since he apparently ran over Torre's dog.

apparently, Reed Johnson can sing.

Two points:

1) Cano has scalded the ball and gotten robbed three times.

2) Giambi needs protection and must be moved up; Posada is a shell of his fomer self.

He should keep his mouth shut now, because he's making himself look even more stupid with comments like:

"It happens because you're white and I'm black," Sheffield told the magazine. "My interpretation of things is different. You don't see it the way I see it. You write how you understand it, how you would articulate it, not how I, as a black man, would articulate it."

I see. Race is to blame for YOUR statements. The Times has the whole interview on tape, but it's a white/black thing that created this situation.....not Sheffield's personal stupidity. Ugh.

And we REALLY need a center fielder.

Go away Joe, you have taken far more than you have given.

And Rich- I think Kay even had the cameraman focus on one particularly pretty woman and said something like "There ya go!!!"

Good win for the team. Small, and now Chacon have pitched well in the five games they've started collectively, really giving the team a boost. Leiter was good against the Sox, had another decent outing and two bad ones. If Pavano can come back and be decent, the Yanks might just have a fighting chance yet.

Just wanted to comment about Giambi. I heard Buster Olney on ESPN this evening talking about how it is hard not to be suspicious and wonder if Giambi is taking some kind of performance-enhancing drug again. The thought has naturally crossed my mind though I have no way of knowing what Giambi is putting into his system. The thing that strikes me is comparing the speed of swing now with what it was like in April and May. At the time, I assumed Giambi's career was in critical condition. His swing was long and slow and he was simply getting beat by good pitches. He couldn't catch up to a good fastball. But now, his swing is compact and very quick. Last night, his second dinger came off a breaking ball, but he has been turning around good fastballs too.

It is incredible to see how he's rebounded. Even if he'll never be the hitter he was during his prime years with the A's, I'd say he's back to being a legitimate star hitter. I don't know if it'll last for the rest of the season, but if he ends up with 30 dingers, man, he'll have exceeded most everyone's pre-season expectations.

How can we explain this turn-around? Was it simply a matter of finally getting healthy, first physically, and then mentally?

No matter the answer, Giambi is one of the biggest stories of the season for the Yanks.

P.S. Tino Martinez has done a decent job in the role of back-up first baseman, but anyone notice how much better Tony Clark is doing in the same role out in Arizona? My girlfriend has.

I tend to be a skeptic on things like sudden resurgences, but in my heart I'm generally an optimist and I take the following stance...

Giambi has been subpar for the Yankees considering his past performance and the money he earns, but if you look at his numbers during his Yankee tenure, he's only been REALLY awful for a little over a season. The 2nd half of 2003 was bad, and his limited service in 2004, were forgettable and embarrassing. Likewise, his first roughly two months in 2005 were dismal, but he seems to have righted the ship. I tend to believe he was getting off 'roids and went through a period of bad health and re-conditioning, off the drugs. Now, just like guys who go through major reconstructive surgery and rehab, he's taken about a season and a half to rebound.

It's a fair parallel, if in fact it's true.

While he had it bad before, if he IS using, and gets caught, he could become the most infamous person in all of sports. It is too scary to even think about.

I don't know if Sosa has lost bat speed, or any other of the newly slimmed down players.
There didn't seem to be reason for Giambi to be so bad, and his bat so slow... aside from head problems and general rust/timing issues.

OMG... I hope he's clean. If not, this Disney story will turn into the Chain Saw Massacre.

I will go with the theory that the guy wants to live, and not die, and may have learnt something from the experiences of Ken Caminiti. Whatever happens on the baseball field is probably secondary. I am personally happy he is doing well, and certainly it is the fact that he is hitting home runs that has caught all this attention. And given his past record, skepticism is probably well-earned on his part. I would just hope people would use their minds in understanding Giambi's situation, and why it could be death for him to use steroids. It is simply for that reason, I believe (and hope) he is not using them.

And anybody else thinks that Torre went to Rivera in a hurry just when it became a save situation? I find that outrageous, there was really no need for him to work a third of an inning to pile up on that useless piece of statistic called save.

Sam makes the case in support of F-Rod.

Torre reflexively goes to Rivera whenever a save situation presents itself, providing further suport for the assertion that you're either one of his guys, and get regular work, or you aren't, and are permitted to become fallow.

I think you hit the nail right on the head about Giambi and his own mortality. While I never want to discount the attraction of fame and success that would lead a guy to disregard his own life for the spotlight, I tend to think that Giambi really saw the light and is doing all of this on his own merit.

On Embree....I think he was smart to use the guy. Embree is a solid pitcher and we've had a season long audition for a good lefty matchup guy. Embree may fill that role and we can move on. Tonight he did what he had to do and moved one step closer to taking that spot in the bullpen.

Frankie Rodriguez is wild in the zone, but I like his stuff. I think he'll get his chances, but Torre needs to see what he's got in Embree. Better we use him in a spot where we're up by 4 runs than try him out in a one run game with the bases loaded and Vernon Wells at the plate.

Good stuff.

He's been easy to run on, and was bailed out in two different outings by a runner overstretching a single and a caught stealing (one of Posada's rare good throws), both against Anaheim.

Between Embree, F-Rod and (lately) Sturtze, it is a question of picking your poison. Given that F-Rod hasn't screwed up dramatically since returning, he deserves more chances, but he's far from a sure thing.

Afterall, Embree's season ERA is 7.71, his BAA is .281. While F-Rod's ERA is 4.15, his BAA is .241.

Keep them in your prayers.