Sox ride Papi late, Embree drags Yanks back to 4 1/2

Another solid outing by rookie flamethrower Papelbon. He'll get at least another start as the front office is mum about Wade Miller's condition. We'd like to see Papelbon stay in there, but developmentally speaking, he's pitched close to his max # of outings allowed. It may not matter if all goes as planned: Foulke will be back to his old self, and Schill will be back in the rotation... Papelbon could be a force out of the pen in Sept/Oct. They should play Soul Coughing's "Super Bon Bon" every time he comes out...

Is there a bigger clutch hitter in MLB than Ortiz? It's really unbelievable how many times this guy has come up big. It's almost to the point where it's a surprise if he doesn't get it done. He's not quite at Larry Legend level - but he's approaching...

Here's where we start the Mariano is hurt/done/back to earth - buzz. He's blown 2 of the last 3 save ops and his ERA has ballooned to a 1.41. Uh oh... Is there an injury lurking in there? Too bad, because he would have gotten serious consideration for the Cy this year, and those 2 blown saves might have done him in.

Gotta love Embree. He's our old Ramiro Mendoza, but in reverse. Since joining the Yanks, here are his stat lines thru last night's debacle: 6IP, 6H, 5ER, 3BB, 3K, 7.50 ERA. Thanks Beautiful... (Yup, still wearing the Sox colors...)




Good news Yankee fans, Kevin Brown could be back in Sept. Did we say good news? We meant for us...

Yanks go with (hee hee) Leiter tonight. Keep holding your breath with that rotation gang... Maybe you can move into the NL West...