So Flaherty's playing 2 out of the 3 games unless Torre backs off the Big Unit plan. Posada's starting to swing the bat; he should be out there tommorow.

It'd be real nice if Schill gets knocked out with the 9th run in the second inning.

FYI, was able to attend the game last night at the Stadium -- thanks for the tips, all. My seat was in Box 619, row A -- first row of the upper deck, just over the plate to the first base side. Great view of the game and the stadium scene, and of course wonderful to be rooting for the winning home team.

He hasn't been pitching all that well. Maybe we'll see "Curt Shelling" again.

The Agassi-Ginepri match is heating up. Deuce #5.

How much did you have to shell out?

Oh God, its Tim Mccarver and someone else, this could be really really painful!

Papi is f-in ridiculous. how the hell did he get a walk? i don't get too watch many games (no cable), so i never get to SEE this guy hit. he is a scary dood. if i were pitching that wicked little grin would scare me every time.

Zack, don't comlain, I get to watch Nats-Braves down here in DC.

crapola

oh

Ouch. That ball's got to be lopsided now.

shit

I already can't stand the Fox guys, I wish I could get a radio broadcast

Chacon had two strikes on Ortiz, Manny and Nixon, couldn't put any of 'em away. Not good. Here's hoping this is a slugfest, because if it's not, it'll probably be a blowout.

OK, now we've got to work Schill, and then t-off on him. 2 runs is nothing.

zack (and all),

GET XM SATELLITE RADIO!!! every game. all home broadcasts. so worth it.

By the way, I included Nixon in comment #13 before he singled. Saw it coming. Note again that Small kept Ortiz and Nixon off base until he walked Ortiz with his final pitch of the night. Against Chacon, both reached in the first inning. As those two go, so do the Red Sox vs. the Yanks.

Curt, with his dyed hair, his extended prayer, and his egomania...man I want us to crush him

Why do I get the feeling that Curt has his first good start against us? I hope I'm wrong.

No mention by McCarver and Stooge #2 that a pitcher barehanding a comebacker is a bad idea, just praise for Courageous Curt.

The FOX broadcasters are just ridiculous! This is a national broadcast, guys. Try to at least pretend to be professional.

//G.T.O.U.S.'s (Game Threads Of Unusual Size)//

again, funny!

How did Olerud manage to resurect his career? The powers of Fenway I suppose

41 pitches, and only three outs.

Pregame show said Posada has a little whiplash from Fairytek collision and will sit out today and tomorrow.

Well, we do have Lieter to throw out there

that first great start WAS against the sux...

On Yankee radio they said Posada had a sore shoulder from that collision, sits today, Flaherty catches Unit tomorrow, off day Monday, he should be ready to face the D-Rays on Tuesday. No Posada (after a big night last night) and no Sheffield, this is pretty brutal.

McCarver is so awful. How long until he mentions that Varitek is the MVP of the Red Sox? Does anyone else feel badly for Lawton and his struggles? I really hope he can come through today and find his sea legs as a Yankee.

Cripes, they're in swing mode today. Nine pitches for four outs?!

Why are we not taking pitches?????

This is game 6 all over again, except Jeter didn't swing at the first pitch.

I liked the Lawton pick up and want him to do well, but the guys been playing right field in the AL for eleven years now, no excuse for the way he performed out there last night.

Leave it to the Yanks to go down lightly against a guy (granted its Schilling) who the Royals and Rays smacked around, and smacked aroudn early

This will be a very long game

Grrr. I don't know why they're not making Schilling throw more pitches.

Yanks are trying to make it a very short game.

Well, gee, Curt was here in uniform at 8:30 in the morning, no wonder he's pitching so well! He's so great. Have we mentioned how he took in that family from New Orleans?

First six men down in order on 17 pitches. Never mind working Schilling (which they very much should be doing as he has yet to build up his endurance and has struggled since coming off the DL), but they need to give Chacon a breather.

Say, isn't Shilling tossing a no-hitter? There. It had to be said.

Did Flaherty just come up to bagpipe music? I've not heard that before (though I did hear it for Keilty during the Oakland series)

My, Bklyn, it does appear to be a no-hitter. There's not a single Yankee hit on the board. In fact, it's a perfect game. Absolutely perfect.

Some heavy metal song starts with bagpipe music, Buck from the Royals comes up to that song, although I'm not sure if it's the same song. Leave it to Flaherty to make Schilling work.

Hey guys, 8 in a row for Schilling!

I think a few of 'em do, but my favorite is "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock n' Roll)" by Bonn Scott-era AC/DC, which has a bagpipe solo.

Awwwwww, so much for the perfect game. Hey, he's still got the no-hitter going.

Great play by Schilling! God, I loved that! Listen to McCarver blame Olerud!

AAAAANNND, Derek swings at the first pitch

Well, Cliff, it worked getting the perfect game out of the way... Glad you pointed that out. ;-)

I'm not gonna blame Jeter for first-pitch swinging there, he killed that ball to the opposite field gap.

he killed it right into someones glove though

I do think it was Olerud's toss that was the problem.

john fucking olerud?!?!?!

What the hell, its John Olerud for God's sake

Okay, get Leiter up.

did mccarver just say "brandon arroyo"?

And Mccarver busts out the Brandon Arroyo comment

Leiter and Felix up, very nice Joe!

McCarver always says "Brandon Arroyo."

Rodriguez in. I imagine because Leiter takes too long to warm up.

Start warming Leiter. Chacon is losing it.

Mccarver: I think this pitching move is being made because he realizes he's facing a very effective Curt Schilling"

Actaully, I would say he is making the move because Chacon has totally sucked today

FOX is covering the ^&(689 Nats and Braves down here. I assume the yankees are following up last nights nice win with their ususal half assed effort?

So I posted four pitching lines in my series preview yesterday. Unless Schilling falls apart, only Small will have lived up to his numbers. Can you put a rainbow in your mouth? No! Such is baseball.

F-Rod in? I can only assume because walking the bases loaded is fun.

We cant afford to lose this game. We need to start hitting fatty next inning.

aaand the bases are loaded

So now Svuem holds a runner at third? With a single to Bernie and a runner coming from second? Okay. This is ugly.

This is a blast

Baring a DP this is FRod's last man.

This could really suck.

Well, FRod F-ed up the DP, so big Al gets the call.

why has time stopped on Sportsline? Renteria hit it out didnt he

Well, here comes Leiter. At least he's used to pitching with the bases loaded.

We're bringing in Leiter?

To face Ortiz?

With the bases loaded?

This is a very interesting match-up. Can Leiter be used to get the big lefties out of the pen? Ortiz-Ramirez-Nixon due up.

well that was a close pitch

What's with Chacon? Maybe the league adjusted to him. Maybe throwing like 500 pitches in 3 straight games wore him out. He hasnt pitched well lately.

that one too.

...and murphy starts drinking.

Leiter did his job. Brutal play by Matsui losing it in the sun.

Dammit Godzilla.

Is it worth pointing out that the Red Sox have hit into three outs already this game, but the Yanks only converted one?

Sorry, this inning

and on that note, I have shit to do. If the Yankees dont care, neither do I.

Ya, know... a full pack of Camel non-filters, Bass Ale and shots of Jameson do not actually taste that bad before noon... this season has been hard on my health...

Is it too early to scratch the optimism in post 73?

Here's hoping this is that bullpen meltdown I predicted. Might as well get it out of the way. The Yanks are rewarding the pesismism of your hosts today. Blech.

This blows. I'm with Mattpat11. I'll check back later...please, please let the offense wake up. Boston's pitching is bad enough to give up a 13 spot.

oh my god. did that really just happen? is olberman's mom ok?

Check out that throw by Cano! A Hail Mary to Keith Olberman's mother!

I don't freakin' believe this.

Nice, Murph! Great minds . . .

Bench Cano for the season.

I'm really leaving now.

Our only hope is for the Red Sox to suffer an even worse collapse.

Between this game and the damn Notre Damn beating up on Michigan, all sorts of annoying people are celebrating today (no offense ND fans)

before I go, I'd just like to note that every crappy hitting team in baseball has hit Curt schilling this year.

The fielding in this series thus far, on both sides, has been jaw-dropping. What has it been? Eight errors in a game and a half?

yeah - i was on the fence about the cano bashing on last night's G.T.O.U.S, but i think i just made up my mind. then again, he'll prolly hit it out of the damn stadium in his next at-bat.

Now, about that no-hitter Curt Shilling is throwing...

And Bernie swings at the first pitch.

Was that Alice Cooper in right?

Sometimes it scares me how much I hate Schilling...

Thanks, McGasbag, it works everytime!

I had a feeling this was going to happen as soon as the announcers mentioned the no-hitter. Snerk.

I had a feeling this was going to happen as soon as the announcers mentioned the no-hitter. Snerk.

there's your no-hitter.

Follow the leader

wow. the giambino? bye-bye no-no!

Giambi fixes that no-hitter problem. Thanks, Bklyn!

so what about that no hitter did u want to talk about Bklyn Bomber???

time to redeem yourself Matsui..Let's go baby....get a double

Hat tip to McCarver, too. Now we have to get some stops and creep back into this one...

Yeah, what a shame, ynks4life... I really feel bad about helping jinx that... ;-)

Doesn't Fox realize that the whole world hates Brandon Mccarver?

Whatever helps brother...whatever helps!

Alright! Now let's make Shill work this innning!

A walk! A walk!

What an AB from Cano! This is full fledged rally!

Seriously, do we still have a chance in this game today? the fat bastard is throwing well... it figured that his first decent game of the year would be vs. the Yanks.

wow! Cano actually saw a minimum of four pitches ! maybe this is a start of something special...

Alex called it.

According to Yahoo, Schilling has thrown a whopping 50 pitches

We gotta get into their pen ASAP, like next inning — and obviously hold 'em to 8. We're helping out Shilling too much at the plate, though. The lack of discipline is maddening...

you're right Cliff. Alex called it. I'm not liking Alex right now.

The 2005 Yankees: Making pitchers with ERAs over 5 look goooood.

Nice D in the sixth, where was that in the fourth?

would you guys say Giambino is back to his norm or even better yet...is he playing better than he ever has in NY??

His '02 season was sick, so not better than ever, but I'd say he's all the way back, yes.

God, we should be ashamed of ourselves. 1 hit. I am sure we will now be stuck with Schilling as once again the man who will save Boston and be the most amazing pitcher ever (and he will have no problem denying it either). Amazing how pathetic we look against him at times

Well, Agassi beat Ginepri, but it took five sets. Gonna be tought to recover in time for the final at his age.

C'mon, A-rod! Let's get something going here!

Wow. Notre Dame just spanked Michigan. Ruh roh Scooby.

can somebody please knock this motherfuckin bible thumping red stater off the mound?!?!?! if he is on the back pages tomorrow, so help me god (hehe... deliciously ironic), i will beat the shit out of every yankee!!!

Come on Ruben!

Jesus must have called a slider there.

There ya go Cano!

Ah... a rally, and up comes Flaherty. That doesn't seem like the ideal situation. Yay, bagpipes.

Why is Flaherty playing! Jorge being punished for his 3 for 4 yaesterday?

Bagpipes killed our rally.

Stormer, Posada is hurt from the collision yesterday.

Give me a break. Is that what they are saying?

Isn't there at least one more Molina available?

So hurt that Po can't pinch hit?

If so, why wasn't Vagitek beaned?

Torre said Posada jammed his shoulder in the collision, and it was affecting the way he swung the bat. Guess he didn't really feel it until the next morning. Posada says he could play if they really needed him, but Torre wants him to rest.

The Yankees' offense is disguising how bad Schilling still is.

Triple, what, how, was there a misplayed ball, god damn I hate Fox! I'm in Chicago for the week and it has Pale Sox on.

Then Vagitek should have eaten a baseball.

And remember, Boston did all this without their offensive catalyst.
Hey, at least it's not 17-1...yet...

Jeter falls below .310 :(

Ortiz should be beaned too.

Then I agree with Rich, the collision was unneccesary, why don't we at least beam Varitek? Have we lost all our fight.

That is a good point, with the game alreayd past the point of winning, hit Varitek and Ortiz for God's sake. Don't have to bean them, but show some backbone!!!

Because Torre has no fire in his belly. The multi-millions have sated him.

I said this yesterday. We score 8 or 9, and it's always always followed by 1, 3, 2, 3, 2. It's a fucking joke, this offense is incapable of scoring more than one day consecutively. They should be embarassed. Not to say we should score 8 every day, but how bout more than 1 or 2? The Sox seem able to do it with less talent, huh huh, Jesus!

Maybe Jorge should come up to bat with some red food coloring on his back, reverse the PR man.

Several players have put up Katrina victims, but Schilling has been on every damn news network patting himself on the back, while others have not.

Why is Matt Lawton playing to day? Did Joe have an answer for that?

here's a question if anyone would mind answering...given our problem to score runs what would be the ideal lineup b/c Torre's is not productive ???

Who woke up the Yankee bats?

I think Schilling is tiring. They should have worked him harder from the beginning.

"His heart is always in the right place."

Fuck you.

Damn. Two on, and Giambi, A-Rod, and Matsui couldn't do anything.

The Yankees Prayer, as recited by out sorry ass Offense Today!

Our Yankees, who art in the Bronx,

Hallowed be thy past,

Thy fans have come,

George's will not done,

In New York as it is in Boston

Give us this day our daily 2 runs,

and forgive us our errors and pittiful hitting,

as we lay down for teams with more heart,

and lead us not into the Playoffs,

but deliver us our paychecks,

for thine is the trophy Boston,

and the power hitting,

and the heart,

for ever and ever,

Amen.

randym,

They just blow, all year in those situations let's just face it.

Although I do still think there is something to that God Awful God Belss America curse.

what curse Stormer ??? what are you talking about?

And my Mother tells me I didn't learn anything in 13 years of Church. HA!

What other team plays plays their best CFer, who sucks in LF, in LF?

I think they were just pushing too much. Lawton got a walk, Jeter hit a single, Bernie hit a single. Then the big guns all fly out.

Two things:

1) Mad props to Leiter for saving the pen for tomorrow.

2) At this point all I want is for Schilling not to finish this one himself. (mean, a seven or eight run rally in the bottom of the ninth would be nice, but let's be real)

ynks

some people have percolated on, and hypothosized, that we haven't been the same since George started playing that God Awful version of God Bless America in the 7th, instead of Take me Out to the Ball Game, and I'm starting to believe it.

Oh my God, I've become them!

Rich, Bubba is the Yankees' best defensive CF. Matsui doesn't cover much ground in CF (even if he seems to make fewer goofs in center), he's no better than Bernie, he just has a better arm.

Serenity Now!

Serenity Now!

Serenity Now!

Uhm, hasn't that been since 9/11, Stormer? You really want to blame everything that's gone wrong since then on that?

One thing I do know about the use of God Bless America is that when the Yanks started winning in May, they switched from Kate Smith to a recording of Ronan Tynan and pushed Cotton Eye Joe to the eighth inning. If you ask me, Cotton Eye Joe, God Bless America and YMCA all have to go.

Cliff, and I would be fine with playing Bubba because he brings more to the table right now than Lawton, but I think that Matsui is a significantly better CFer than Bernie, if only because he gets a better jump on the ball off the bat. His weakness is that he is afraid of the fence.

Why does he play again?

George grant me the serenity,
to accept the sorry display this team shows daily;
courage to stop buying tickets to watch it;
and wisdom to know it's time to get on their sorry asses.

Living one game at a time;

Enjoying one run potential very day;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to the October golf course;

Taking, as He did, this overpaid squad, as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right
if he purges that bench and pen next year;

That I may be reasonably happy with this team and supremely happy with Him,

Forever, in the seasons to come.
Amen.

C'mon Cap, don't swing at the bloody first pitch!

I don't know if the hurricane stuff is affecting him or if he's having trouble adjusting or he just sucks, but Lawton is hurting the team by playing.

And Jeter ends another game. What are the fucking odds?

George is supposedly going to replace Cashman with Damon Oppenheimer, the guy whose idea it was to sign Woemack.

Cliff,

hell no. It's just a theory. And I, as you, can't stand it. There are very good versions out there, and George chose the worst possible two.

Not to mention it's a downer, I mean it's a ball game, I don't need to be reminded of 9/11 at the game, for that matter, I believe a lot of people attend for just the opposite, to forget.

And, Cliff, have we won since 9/11/2001?

Well that sucked. Glad I missed most of it, enjoying the good weather here.
Hmm, maybe I'll pull for the Cardinals in the postseason. Doesn't look like the Yankees will be there.

yankz,

As to Lawton, EXACTLY!!!!!

But that aint gonna stop Clueless Joe from trotting him out there again tomorrow!

If the Yankees don't make it, I'll pull for the Padres for the sheer hilarity of it.

rbj,

If anyone, pull for the White Sox, they get no love in their home city, play baseball the way it is supposed to be played, and have a great manager, play hard, and play with heart.

And further, LaRussa is in no way associated with the White Sox, that alone should be enough.

I was very much in favor of the Lawton trade, but he's been in a hell of a funk -

.118/.231/.206 - 4H (1HR), 3BB in 37ABs - ouch

Meanwhile, I wish Sierra would piss Torre off so his ass (and his .115/.115/.231 - worse than Lawton!) would get nailed to the bench.

What a way to lose. Sox threw 126 pitches, the Yanks threw 175 (!) pitches. Sigh.

It was a good hit, just not quite good enough.

Lawton does not belong in the outfield. He was like this with the Pirates, too, so I don't think it's Hurricane Katrina or adjusting to the bright lights of Broadway that's to blame. Just a poor judge of the ball.

That did suck. Unit has to deliver tomorrow or we're in deep shit for the division title. 5 games is a lot to make up with just 20-something left. See y'all mañana..

I've said this everytime the offense goes into a funk - you can't expect to score runs when you're running a lineup with 3 or 4 black holes out there. Today, it was Lawton and Sierra (those are his numbers in 34 September ABs) + Flaherty (.167/.209/.231 overall) and Bernie (.231/.310/.269 in 26 Sept ABs). Combined today - 1 for 14, 1 BB (Lawton), and the hit was a single by Bernie.

Meanwhile, outside of Gabe Kapler and his sub .300 OBP (and he got two hits today!), the lowest OBP in the rest of the Sox lineup is .343 (Renteria). 1 hole vs 4 holes. I'm not surprised by the outcome.

I don't have a problem with the Lawton trade; it was a reasonable move. I have a problem with Clueless continuing to play him.

"can somebody please knock this motherfuckin bible thumping red stater off the mound?!?!?!"

murphy, try living in the greater Boston area - most of these people worship the obnoxious know-it-all (no surprise), the local media included (also no surprise). I hate having to open the Sunday Globe to find his face on the front page.

Sheff is still hurting clearly, and Rich is right - Lawton has to sit - as does Sierra . . . why aren't we seeing Vento (RF) and Phillips (DH)? Joe, you're killing yourself.

I don't understand why they were swinging so early today. They had success yesterday against Wells by making him throw lots of pitches. And Wells throws a lot of strikes. I just don't get it. The Yankees used to be known for their patience at the plate.

randym77, clearly they are pressing - you'd think someone who knows better would notice it and point it out to at least Jeter, who then could communicate it to the team. Tino, maybe? O'Neill?

Its like what happened with Hendrickson on Thursday. "Oh, Schilling's got a 5+ ERA - even the Royals beat up on him. This'll be easy!" Except its not.

Oh, congrats on 400 posts yesterday - very nice.

Shaun P,

Sox fan from Vermont here. Let's be perfectly clear about this. We put up with Schilling and his smug, self-satisfied, sanctimonious noise for one reason and one reason only: he consistently makes 55,000 Yankee fans turn suddenly silent.

If not for that, he'd be more than welcome to take his self-righteous ass right back to Arizona. As long as he keeps doing what he did this afternoon, he's more than welcome to hang around Red Sox Nation, where he's paid less than Randy Johnson and delivers what he promises.

There is simply no excuse for this. If they lose 8-6, I might even live with that, but they just can't score more than one game in a row anymore.

They're pittiful, doing pitchers' jobs for them, it's ridiculous.

Lawton, Siera will be out there again tomorrow I bet.

Joe, you're giving your job away, or, maybe that's what you're trying to do.

Again, as yesterday's decisions; Fuck you Joe!

debris,

He promised 100 innings and a 5.00 era?

"randym77, clearly they are pressing"

If you're prssing in September, hang em up!

I hate to be doom and gloom, but if they lose tomorrow and Cleveland wins today and tomorrow, it's over. If Cleveland wins today, with 6 games remaining against KC, tomorrow is the most important game of the year.

My bad, 6.28 era, to be exact. What a stud!

Oh please stormer, get a clue. He was worth it last year, he was worth it in the post season. He gets injured and is making his way back. If he's good from now on and into the playoffs after injury what more do you expect?

Jesus, take off the blinders.

Debris, I'm not sure I knew you were a Sox fan, but now that I know...well, nothing really, but its always good to know thine enemy right?

My one comment to the Schilling thing is that he actually hasn't been that great agains the Yanks, regular season mind you, but still...13 career games (this is prior to today), 3 wins, 4 loses, 55 innings, 55 hits, 5.20 ERA.

And the funny thing is, the pitcher Basbeall Reference says he is most similar to through his career, stats wise: Jimmy Key. WHo woulda thunk it...

Apologies if I'm repeating what someone has already said, but I'm too depressed to go back and read all of the posts and risk reliving that game. The lineup construction today...wow. Just wow. Four nine-hole hitters. It was basically like the Sox had nine innings and the Yanks had six. I don't think I've ever been more pissed at a Yankee than I was at Sierra today. At least Flaherty took some AAA-level at bats. Sierra was swinging the bat like he was trying to hit a gnat with a wet noodle.

Man, if only the payroll were $400 mil., then we'd have a servicable bench. Leiter really took one for the team today.

scoreboard worser and worser. So now After Boston wins and the Yankees lose, the chances of a division are thin to nil and thin is on his way out the building. For a while I've dismissed beating Boston for the division as no longer worthy thinking about but thought we certainly could and should get our nose in front at the WC wire. I'm now depressed because the WC is now becoming quite improbable. With the Yankees losing, both LAAAofA and Oakland have won and now the blow is Cleveland has just opened a lead up in the 7th. The Yankees need to beat Boston tomorrow not because of the division but because they simply can's afford many more losses to have a shot at the WC. The Indians are the ones on the exciting late run to take the WC, not the yankees unfortunately. They're starting to party like it's 10 years ago or whenever they were last int the playoffs. In fact while I'm writing this it sounds like they're about to make it a blow out win.

I guess the Indians won their division in 2001. they've just blown the game wide open and they now lead 7-2 in the 8th so it's a clean sweep in the WC. Everyone else wins, Yankees lose.

Stormer,

re: post 189. What our beloved Bible Thumper promised, way back in '04, was a World Championship. When the Yanks visit old Beantown in three weeks, if you people are still watching baseball games, observe carefully the flag waving proudly above the Green Monster.

What he didn't state at the time was there might be little left of him after he delivered said World Championship.

I might add, that after this afternoon, he might just be primed to pitch his team to a repeat. We wait, with baited breath, until Thursday next.

What baffles me utterly, as I read through the above, is that some of you, as the $208 million behemoth falls 1.5 games behind Cleveland, are regarding the Wild Card as a lost cause. Do you really think that the Yanks are not up to gaining 2 games on the lowly Tribe over the next three weeks? Oh, ye of little faith.

My God debris, you are right, we are starting to sound like Sox fans, overreacting after one loss! A la predicting Schilling is ready for a stretch run!

I am kidding, sort of...

Cleveland win now official. Oak has not yet won as I may have inferred but leads Texas 5-4 in the 7th. I can't believe how fast the WC hopes are fading and how hot Cleveland is

Wow another 200 post thread day or actually 201 once I click this

The Yankees don't deserve to make the playoffs. It's not even fun to watch them anymore.

btw, Posada may be out until Tuesday. Clean play or not, Torre is a pussy for not ordering that Fairytek be hit by a pitch.

This team has no heart and no guts, and their manager bears some of the responsibility for that sad fact.

Debris,

This is exactly why I dont converse with most Sox fans.

Was Schiling in the mound in game 7? No.

Did he win his first ALCS start? No.

Was he able to convince the bean town bumbling fans that he "delivered" the WS title? Yes.

Who has blinders on?

Stormer,

Schilling, of course, did not deliver the goods single handedly and I would argue against any notion that he inspired the rest of the team. I don't have the facts, but I'd bet he's not the most popular guy in a close-knit clubhouse.

But, after pitching hurt and ineffectively, he got sewn up and shut up Yankee Stadium, allowing them to appear in game 7. (And then, of course, he shut down an alreadly nearly defeated Cardinal team.) Would Pedro have done that? Would Wells? Could Arroyo?