BIG UNIT, AND A ROD SHRINK IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGE

Randy Johnson is supposedly New York's ace. Randy Johnson didn't look like an ace last night. He couldn't come near the strike zone at all. He threw 92 pitched, 49 for strikes. He also mixed in a pair of wild pitches.

The Red Sox dominated this game in all aspects. Pitching wise, Beckett outclassed Johnson and the Yankees staff. 7 innings and 3 earned runs is impressive against the New York Yankees lineup. Just imagine if steroids didn't exist, Giambi wouldn't have hit that homer and we would have won 14-1.

Defensively, the Sox made some solid plays and the Yankees made 3 errors, 2 by the "MVP" E-Rod.

Offensively the Sox were very good, getting big hits and taking advantage of Johnson's lack of control and the Yankees lack of defense. As a team we went 16 for 45 with 3 doubles and 2 homers.

Every Sox player that had an appearance reached base at least once. That's 12 different guys on base. Ten Sox hitters had hits, nine scored runs, and six knocked in runs.

Mark Loretta has been hitting really well as of late. He went 3 for 6 with 2 RBI. Ortiz went 1 for 4 with a double. Manny went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and a solo HR. Lowell went 2 for 6 with 2 doubles. His last 8 hits have all been doubles. Gonzalez had another big night going 2 for 4 with a homer, 3 runs, 3 RBI, and 2 walks.

The one thing that confused me was the use of Keith Foulke to pitch the 8th. We were up by 8, Foulke pitched 2 days ago, and we might need him in tomorrow night's game. Other than that this game was pretty much a flawless victory for the Red Sox.

In fact, I'm going to start a new designation on the sidebar. Flawless Victories. These will be games in which everything went right for the Sox. This game will be the first.

It was nice seeing the supposedly calm, cool, collected, and "business-like" New York Yankees get riled up. Bernie Williams should get a short suspension for tossing his helmet in the direction of the home plate umpire. And why was Jeter whining and moaning about a strike call when his team was down by 8 runs? Just sit down and take the beating like a man, Yankees.



It's also nice seeing the Yankees F**k up. E-Rod had two errors, the replacement right-fielder had an embarrassing Yankee Stadium debut with a dropped ball, and Randy hit the backstop twice.



The Man of the Game is Josh Beckett who settled down after a steroid driven homerun to go 7 innings and allow only 3 runs. If we really needed him to, he probably could have gone 8. After the Giambi homer, he retired the next 12 men he faced. He struck out 7 and walked nobody on his way to his 4th win of the season.

How come no one will call Yankee fans classless or accuse them of treating Randy Johnson like a common criminal after they booed their own "Ace?"

Isn't it awesome when the Sox make clever Yankee fans like these ones shut-up?



Damon went 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts. He is 0 for 7 against us as a Yankee. That probably won't last, but it is still nice to keep his bat silent, even if it is for a mere two games.

Curt Schilling will take the mound tomorrow night against Mike Mussina in a matchup between each team's best pitchers. Schilling is going for his 6th win of the season and 199th of his career. Mussina has been one of the best starters in the AL, holding opponents to less than 3 runs in every one of his starts. He's won his last 4 games and is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA.

The Sox have seen Mike Mussina a great deal. Our lineup has 329 career regular season at-bats against Mussina. Historically, we've had some trouble hitting him. The Yankees have 248 at-bats against Schilling with similar levels of success.

I think this will be a close pitching duel with both guys going at least 7. It might come down to bullpens, which is why using Foulke in the 8th upset me just a little bit.