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We're only 2 games into the season, and I'm already neglecting my YES network subscription. Even more pathetic was the fact that my complete lack of internet access last night meant I wasn't watching the game on GameDay, or MLB.tv, but rather, by virtue of blackberry technology.

And I don't mean like the cool blackberry technology where you can access Pentagon files or detonate volcanoes in Hawaii. But the crude ESPN refreshing system that effectively depleted my battery just around the time when the game was tied.

This is the last thing I saw before I was cut off from any kind of virtual contact with the outside world. What the hell did we do before the internet?? Fortunately, I have my mom as a testimony to the age of B.W.,* who for some reason uses a Jitterbug and has an aol email account (as my friend Pete rightly noted is the go-to platform of allll parents.) Like Juju Fruits.

But I digress big time. As always.

Burnett opened up looking like indiscernible hybrid of Good/Bad AJ, but since there's actually no real grey areas in his performances, any hiccups typically indicate we're looking at a long time of the AJ of the bad persuasion.

Sux took an early 1-0 lead on a Youk sac fly. Yanks answered in the next inning with a ribbie double from Swisher. When V-Mart's 2-run ding made the score 3-1, I was getting frustrated.

The thing about watching a game on a refreshing screen is that you have zero idea what the team even looks like. A 3-1 game is nothing if you can see the team is eating up grounders, running hard 90s, taking good cuts. But a 3-1 game is troublesome if you can see they're lackluster.

I could only hope that what was transpiring at Fenway fell in the realm of the former, not the latter.

I got my answer in the 4th as soon as the Yanks loaded up the bases with 0 outs. It's quite remarkable how far this squad has come in terms of its history of stranding runners.

I'm not saying that we can release the fireworks just yet based on one game, but when I think about how the Yankees had this Mets-like aversion to momentum in the first third of 'o9, and a few of the years prior, it's more than refreshing to see Tex, A-Rod, and Cano act like the terrifying heart of the order they're billed as. 4-3 game.

V-Mart ties it up, and that's the last time a Suck crosses the plate. Nick Johnson does what he was brought in to do with sublime perfection. Walks with bases loaded. Brings in Posada. Cano seals it by going yard. Final: 6-4.

So here's what we got:

  • Come from behind win in the 7th circle of hell

  • Cano, who once refused to get on base if there was another runner already populating the paths, now seems to have shed his fear of RISP and is trying to live up to his much-hyped role in the 5-spot

  • A-Rod doubles deep to tie the game. Again, doing it in the 7th circle of hell makes it that. much. more. f'n. satisfying

  • The pen demonstrates that Game 1 wasn't a reason to sound the alarms just yet. As I said in my recap, the pitches themselves didn't look troubling. Except for Chan Ho Park, the rest of the relievers paraded in on Sunday had decent stuff. The outcome of the game significantly undermined their actually fair performances.

  • Joba. That's right. "Joba." As long as he's pitching like this, he shall not be called Justin. In the eighth, with a runner at second and one out, he struck out the next two batters. Aces followed up by pitching 2 scoreless innings.

  • Lester was quite hittable it would appear. And for me, there's no greater relief than seeing Boston's relief. DelCarmen and Okajima= complete jokes. And don't get me started on Bard. If I hear one more (*&@#$ thing about his velocity, and NESN's nauseating lionizing that practically has the guy's space in Cooperstown already being prepped, I may have to throw the kid in the same silo as Papelbon, in terms of unbridled hatred for Boston pitchers.

  • On the opposite end of the spectrum, in terms of legitimately legendary hurlers who actually deserve as much lionizing as a person is capable of doling out, Mariano Rivera gets the save, setting a record for most in AL history.

  • From ESPN: When Rivera made his first appearance of the year Tuesday night, the Yankees achieved a unique distinction -- 16 straight seasons in which a particular trio of teammates played together. No other team in major league baseball, the NFL, NBA or NHL has done that.

  • And lastly, the Sux's defense that they prided themselves so so so much on all offseason, once again demonstrated it may have a flaw or 2. Marco Scutaro lets Jeter on base in what should have been a routine ground-out. He Knoblauchs it, allowing Johnson to load the bases thereafter. Nice pickup, Boston.

Tonight, I'll be placed squarely in front of an actual tv. I'd like to actually see a live unfolding of the Yankees closing out this series. Partly because I love watching the cameras pan to fans in the stands of Fenway when they're cranky and disappointed. I know, I'm not proud. But it's what it is.

There's a fable that tells the story of a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across the river. The frog is scared the scorpion will sting him, but the scorpion assures the frog that if it were to sting him, they'd both drown. The frog agrees by this logic, and sure enough, the scorpion stings him, mid-river. As they're both drowning and about to die, the frog asks why.

"I'm a scorpion. It's my nature."



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1 Comment:

  1. Larry said...
    or, since three is such a special number in baseball, just subtract it from each team's score.

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