Bad Moon Rising

I must be a masochist. When the Yankees scored 6 in the 4th inning, I hung on & watched the rest of the game. Tim Wakefield and Doug Mirabelli struggled through 3.2 innings until Wake was mercifully lifted in the fourth frame. He was a little like the girl in the poem: when he was good, he was very, very good (9 pitch innings in 1 and 3) but when he was bad, he was horrid. Wakefield actually gave up only 5 hits but those 5 hits add up when they're sandwiched around 6 walks, 2 passed balls, 1 HBP and 1 wild pitch. Even the current edition of the Yankees can salvage some runs from that.

Yankees starter, Chien-Ming Wang, took the mound in the second with a 3-0 lead but promptly gave back two and watched as the Sox tied the game in the third. He managed to get the outs he needed to get the Yanks to their explosion in the fourth.

And now the game just got really interesting. Yankee reliever, Scott Proctor, was just tossed from the game in the bottom of the 9th after hitting Kevin Youkilis high on the shoulder, the ricochet barely missing Youk's face. (Back story: there were 4 hit batsmen prior to this with Mike Lowell forced from the game after being hit on the left wrist by Wang.) With Ron Villone on the mound, David Ortiz followed by lashing a single through the shift to move Youk to third. Villone was pulled for Mariano Rivera to face Manny Ramirez. He worked the count to 2-2, then sent a long drive against the wall that scored Youkilis & sent Papi to third.

Wily Mo Pena grounded back to Rivera, who erased Manny at 2nd but Pena beat the relay to first. Ortiz scored; 9-5 now. Eric Hinske (in for Lowell) grounded out to 2nd to end the game.

The Yankees are in town, the moon is full, and the bad blood is boiling over. Sounds like a perfect weekend. Curt Schilling faces Mike Mussina tomorrow at 4 pm. It's the Fox game of the week, which means we'll be treated to Joe Buck. Lucky us.

Notes:
Youkilis extended his hitting streak to 23 games with an infield single to shortstop in the 6th inning.
Dustin Pedroia also has a double-digit streak of 11 games as he went 3 for 4 with 1 RBI.
J.D. Drew also left the game with a hamstring injury. He is day-to-day as is Lowell.
The bullpen (Snyder, Romero, Lopez, Pineiro) held the Yankees to 1 run and 5 hits over 5.2 innings.
Manny Ramirez went 4 for 5, 1 RBI and also had a great put-out of A-Rod at 2nd base.
David Ortiz: 3 for 4, 1 BB, 1 RBI

Best Fan Taunts of the Night:
The fans wearing masks depicting women with long blonde hair.
The hairy dude in the long blonde wig.

*****
I have the privilege of knowing a young man who worked hard to get where he is today. Congratulations to my young friend Patrick on his high school graduation. Dude, you did it!