Yanks: .399, .355
Halos: .340, .325

Over a 5 game series that could translate to roughly 10 more baserunners for the Yankees.

Take advantage, fellas.

Back from del Boca Vista - took the family to visit my parents...(actually Bradenton FL)

Enjoyed, really enjoyed Saturdays win with my dad, a 75 yr old lifelong Yankee fan.

Best of 5 scares me. So does Moose, but great to see the Sox getting CRUSHED right now. Gosh I hate that team

Enjoy everyone ! Go Yanks !

While I'm worried about the Angels, with the way the Yankees have been playing lately, I'm also fairly confident about how this series is going to go. Bartolo Colon is a good pitcher, but the Yankees do have a history of beating him about the head and shoulders.

Tonight? My prediction: Yankees 6, Anaheim 4. Moose: 6IP, 3 runs, Mo gets the save, A-Rod goes 3-5 with another home run.

Roster's finally posted. Womack over Lawton for the final bench spot. Leiter and Embree both make it, Jaret Wright doesn't.

http://www.yesnetwork.com/yankees/news.asp?news_id=1434

C'mon bats - break out and score big !

Love to see the Sox lose - I can already hear the whining !

I've got a good feeling about Cano batting 6th...

Remember when he used to swing at anything that moved?

I KNEW he'd come through.

Someone say two out hit?

Hell yes, we will pour it on. Let's have fun here.

I have the bullpen locked in my closet!

Agreed. Preach it my boy, preach it.

FUCK YOU COLON FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

We have to retaliate for this, we have to, right?

Lets go JG!

- And of course Buck mentions Colon is pitching hurt. Why is this the first time I'm hearing this...

It's times like these you need a Pedro or Clemens. They have no problem plunking plunk plunking guys.

On the other hand, the Angels look sharp against a not so great looking Moose, but so far so good, knock on wood.

Onto the third for Moose

Nice inning Moose, keep it up!

Is it a bad thing if I have actually found myself agreeing with McCarver a few times tonight?

This is the time of the game that I leave the room while the other team bats. I can't take it.

On a completely unrelated note, is anyone pissed when Manny stares at his homeruns? I know Bonds and others do it....but....

I'd love it if he got knocked down the next at-bat. That really gets me pissed - especially against the Yanks (last weekend)

On the other hand, wouldn't it be a bit more alarming for a baseball player to say Shakespeare in Love is his favorite movie?

Dammit, for Alex with that second K.

I hope Buck and Tim come up for air once or twice next inning. Can they just stop talking for 10 seconds please ?

Okay, we need a quick inning in the fifth. Its Moose's disaster inning

We need a DP now.

OK, Moose don't start.

And Rocky V?!?!?! I love the Rocky films and I stop at IV, which is no great shakes either. To think he's making a part 6 as well.

5th inning over. inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

83 pitches by Moose, he can give us two more, though I would be happy with one more.

6-7-8 batters coming up for Colon, I hope they at least make him work.

BTW, I hate that I'm OK with the name Chone now.

Two first pitch outs by Cano and the master, Posada

I'm more annoyed with Posada. Robbie contributed tonight.

2-3-4 coming up. Getting OC out is key here.

Alex, was that, "Nice grab, san"?

Don't let Vlad come up with men on.

FUCK THE LOOGY CONCEPT

That solves the Leiter problem.

Maybe he has a niche

I was nervous and morbid enough to look back at the pitch-by-pitch of Moose's nightmare 5ths against Cleveland and Toronto in August....6 runs given up to the Tribe, 8 runs to the Jays, numerous doubles, walks, hit by pitches, homers after lights out pitching for 4 innings.

Obviously Joe must have had flashbacks, because that was one heck of a tight hook on Moose. Thank goodness for Mats and for some bonehead Angels baserunning this time.

Still not going to exhale until the ninth, especially with our O going to sleep.

A-Rod is not having a very good night...

That said, worth seeing if Sturtze can get two outs from the bottom of the order to keep Mo and Go to one IP a piece. But if anyone gets on . . . anyone at all . . .

Well, I am fine with gordon for 1 1/3, knock on wood

Homina, homina, homina.

Um, a few runs please. Is that too much to ake?

Speaking of God, Happy New Year.

Thought that was gone off the bat of Sheff

Hope Gordon puts that all behind him starting tonight...I'm not ready to have Mo pitching 2 innings plus...

I'm not Jewish, but there are a few Jewish Yankee fans last time I checked, so I figured I'd give the shout out.

I've been very happy with Torre's use of the 'pen so far. Moose tiring and with the lefty up, in comes Leiter; but only to pitch to the lefty; then Sturtze in for the righty, and he gets pulled in favor of Gordon as soon as he got into trouble; and now Mo for the 9th. Just as we would have done it, huh? =)

Shaun, I would have gone straight to Gordon instead of Sturtze and I would have let Moose pitch to Erstad.

Good.

Its so terrible to have stats thrown out that are essentially meaningless. Give me Mo's ERA against the Angels over the last 3 years if you want to give me something useful.

Sorry for the rant - FOX is just annoying me. Let's go Mo!

Maybe the Yankee Stadium experience isn't as pure as the driven snow, but the thunderstick, rally monkey, waterfall thing is another level of dumb.

Get the dp, Mo!

Bear down, Mo, c'mon . . . we need this one!

Come on Mo

One more to go - why does it always have to be heart-rending . . . and crap, here's Kotchman.

I guess the advantage of not starting Kotchman is he can PH wherever because he's better than everyone except Vlad.

That bat didn't just break, it exploaded!

Crucial win!

I don't know how Moose did it, but I'm glad he did. A heck of a risk on Torre's part, but Moose made it pay off big-time.

That's one. And I'm more ascared of Lackey than any other Angels starter, so it was a huge win tonight.

Brilliant job by Moose. I had a feeling he might do well. That's as important a game as he's ever pitched in New York, particularly considering how unsure we were of what to expect.

Pretty crisp game. Couple of nice--or fortunate--catches by Sheff, nice over the shoulder nab by Anderson.

Mmmm.

Good win. Anxious ninth but honestly, as long as we're ahead against this anemic offense I'm ok.

BTW - the local Boston FOX affiliate just showed that its cheaper for a Red Sox fan to fly roundtrip to Chicago, get a good ticket to Game 2 at the Cell (with all sorts of ammenities), stay in a pretty decent hotel and come back the next day - than to get a ticket in the same part of Fenway. Forget parking, food, anything.

Damn. Now we know how Boston affords the second-biggest payroll in MLB.

And as for Torre's move of starting Moose, I would say it was a very lucky thing that Moose pitched well. Maybe its got to do with the extra day or rest, so maybe we should give him 6 days, who knows...

What I do know is that Torre ran out the right lineup today, didn't pinch hit for Bubba and left him in for defense, and though the decision to go to Lieter could have backfired, otherwise, did very nicely today.

Now, if he starts Sierra tomorrow, well, who knows...

Ticket at Fenway, no ammenities: $525
Comparable ticket at the Cell, with ammenities: $200
Roundtrip flight to Chicago from Boston: $199
1 night at decent hotel (+ cab fare/transportation costs): $125

Crazy, isn't it? I'm sure there are people in Boston who are flying to Chicago tomorrow morning.

Torre seemed to have a bit of an edge when he was asked in the post-game whether he felt "vindicated". I can't blame him...not because he didn't deserve to be questioned, but the way he was roasted for the Yankees loss in the last game at Fenway, you'd have thought the team lost the division...the spin in the press that the Red Sox "really won the weekend" by getting the wild card and White Sox for an opponent was nothing short of absurd.

I just thought the negativity over a meaningless final game was over the top, and I'm glad Mussina justified his faith. Long way to go in this series, though.

If anything, he's going to give Moose and RJ a longer leash for a batter or two, but I think everyone else will get pulled the instant they get in trouble.

We criticize Joe's moves here all time, but I've got to think that Joe knows what's on the line here and won't give his guys the show of confidence he gave during the season.

I can't remember what the situation was, but he pulled the Rocket from game seven in 2003. I think he got really burned last year in game seven - but he didn't have any real options.