Game 8

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 2, New York Yankees 5

Terry Francona does not care about my fantasy team. The manager was quoted before the game as saying that he expected his ace to have a bit of rust on him and that this start would be to shake that rust off. As a rust shaking start goes, it wasn't too bad, especially first first four innings plus; Curt Shilling was virtually untouchable, striking out five. By the end of the sixth, however, at 108 pitches, his high fastballs weren't sailing past the Yankee hitters, they were flying out of the park. After five runs, including two homeruns, Tito pulled his starter, leaving me with a terrible score on the day. Not too big in the scheme of things, I suppose, but a mite upsetting. The bullpen kept the rest of the game scoreless, but the offense seemed to have lost its drive today - maybe we should have a group of Sox legends running around center field before every game?

Unlike in his previous start, Jared Wright, while not commanding, had enough control to last until the seventh without too much of a beating. The Sox failed, as they have a few too many times so far, to capitalize on offensive opportunities and Renteria, even though he went 2 for 4, has gotten to the point of liability in my mind. He can't seem to get hits when it really matters. Mueller hit into another double play; Big Papi went hitless for the second game in a row, Manny has reverted to looking a bit lost again, Johnny Damon can't seem to start anything out...where is the offense that was fun to watch? Where is the back to back powerhouse? Where is my 2004 team?

I'll be missing tomorrow night's rubber match of Arroyo versus Johnson, but this evening's game reminded me again why I don't like watching YES; the announcers just rub me the wrong way. I think in the scheme of things, I would rank TV broadcasts as follows:

1. NESN - duh
2. ESPN - palatable, although Joe Morgan is the most boring man to ever sit in front of a microphone. Also, the man can't do a radio broadcast to save his life.
3. WPIX - Actually, this is cheating, because I've only watched them once (this past weekend, Mets vs. Atlanta, when Smoltz had 15 strikes before his bullpen bottomed out on him) and it was on mute the whole time so I could listen to the Sox simultaneously.
4. YES - I can stomach the secondary announcer for about 5 innings and then it needs to be muted.
1,000,000. FOX - The world would be a better place if Joe Buck and Tim McCarver just realized how terrible they are and disappeared without a trace one day. Maybe took on fake names and moved to other countries in their shame. Then FOX could hire Al Leiter and move up to number two on my list.

Some day FOX will find this list and try and sue me for libel. You can't deny if it's true! HA! Go Sox!!!