"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

"FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST! THANK GOD ALMIGHTY WE ARE FREE AT LAST!" -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"That was the best use of the 'last' button on the remote ever." -CYC

I divided my time between the Yank game and the Bruins/Flyers game, and trust me when I say the latter was an attention investment based solely on the former. Can that sound any less confusing?

Of course, my first priority was to see the Yankees demoralize the Twins as they are want to do. But I'd be remiss if I didn't keep my finger of the pulse of the what had the potential to unseat the Yankees notorious spot in the "Blown 3-0 playoff lead" throne.

So I flipped back and forth, starting at 7:30 when I saw the score was already 2-0 Boston. I flipped back to the Yankee game, and AJ is creating jams for himself like a boyfriend creating plans to avoid brunch with the gf's parents. 1-0, Twins.

That was the most unsatisfying flip of the night.

Gardner was the improbable game-tying long ball. And this wasn't a short porch cheap shot. Little GGBG treated a crowd of 45,195 to a shot akin to that of Cano or Teixeira.

Seriously, think about this season so far and tell me you aren't surprised by the source of our power? Cervelli? GGBG? THAMES (Tim)? Swish? Did anyone expect these guys to be leading the offensive charge? Maybe they were sick of the Yankees buy their team mantra, too, and decided to take matters into their own hands. I'm into it.

Cano roped a double to bring home Tex and take a 1-run lead in the 4th, which Joe Mauer eliminated shortly thereafter (the lead, not Tex).

And so it went for the rest of the game. Our wide-eyed cast of supporting actors setting the stage for the big bats to bring in the bacon, bacon being runs. That metaphor was confusing even me.

With a 3-2 lead in the 7th, Marte comes in to replace a so-so AJ, who had gone 6.2 innings, gave up 7 hits, 3 runs, and 4 BB. Marte wastes approximately zero time sparking up the Twins rallying hit parade. His numbers on the day look a LOT better than what I actually saw play on out on tv.

2 outs, Denard Span on second. Marte immediately manages to give the Twins the lead with two swings of the bat. Mauer singles in Span, takes second on throwing error, and is plated when Morneau's subsequent double.

Thanks for coming out, Marte.

However, when the Yanks lost the lead, my first thought was that this was only getting things ready for our big walk-off finale. Because that's what the Yanks do against the Twinks. And giving them a 4-3 lead in the 7th was only going to make pie sweeter.

Bottom of the inning rolls around and Cervelli and Jeter earn their paychecks with a single and double. With 1B open, Gardenshire makes the worst decision of the night and the one that cost 'em the game and one that I really don't think he can justify.

He walks Tex to get to A-Rod.

In the words of Kim Jones in the post-game, "Arod's got 586 homeruns... are you really sure you wanna do this?"

I mean, this is 2010. You can't say, "Oh the guy's useless with runners on, I figure him for an automatic double play."

Even Yankee haters know this isn't the same Arod. But whatever, you want to walk the 3 batter to get to our cleanup guy, be my guest.

WHOOOOOOSH!

That was the sound of the ball sailing into the LF bleachers.

Credit my sister with that one, since she assumed her position in another room. I think the only Arod homeruns she's ever seen live have been when we're actually at the game. It started as a joke, when she was coincidentally in the bathroom or something when Arod would go yard. "I'm like bad luck or something."

You obvi can't say that to a raving lunatic whose baseball fandom is delineated by a host of superstitions that make less and less sense every season.

It then became customary for her to leave whenever he bats in big spots.

She shuffled into the kitchen, heard my yelps, and raced back in. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN A GRAND SLAM FROM HIM. EVER."

And she probably never will, unless this practice loses its luck luster, anyway.

7-4 Yanks. We were in the clear.

Reliever Guerrier was on the other end of it: "I felt like it was an out. But you put backspin on the ball and hit it that high, and it's going to go away."

You felt like it was an out? I don't really understand this. In the 0.4 seconds it took for your pitch to reach home, you cultivated a good feeling about it. I guess this type of logic makes sense coming from a player on a team who thought it wise to load the bases for Arod...

It was then that I flipped back to the Bruins game, which I had been neglecting on account of the more pressing matter in the Bronx. Besides, last I'd checked, the Flyers had completely shockingly taken the lead. It seemed that every time I had flipped back to them during the game, they had netted another one. Unbelievable.

And in my final flip, I saw it. And my and Lauren gasped.

"Oh my God."

"That was the best use of the 'last' button on the remote ever."

The Flyers had done it. Come back from being down by 3 games. Then come back from being down by 3 goals.

And now we're free.

Now sports fans can no longer refer to the Yanks, when they talk about the last time they saw a team squander a 3-0 lead.

Now when the playoffs of ANY sport come on, and they show the annoying statistic on the bottom of the screen, it won't be the Yanks.

And the best part of the whole thing, our succesors are Boston.

I felt a calm and exhilaration at once. I'm not kidding when I say it physically felt like I had been liberated from a coat of lead. Like shedding your jeans after trekking home in a thunderstorm and replacing them with dry ones. Everything's lighter and cleaner and fresher. You're a new person.

Thank you, Flyers. Words will never be able to express how truly grateful I am. Thank you.

Ahhh.

And we're back to the Yanks now.

Joba pitched amazingly, and my sister pointed out how much restraint you can see if you look closely at his fists after a strike out. They're almost ready to explode in twirls and gyrations, but become fiercely tightened and tethered to his side.

Maybe the kid's maturing after all. Struck out the side. Young, Casilla, Punto. Done.

Twinks bring in Alex Burnett in the 8th, and I'm DYING to hear Kay make some cheesy comment about the game being started and closed with Burnetts. Also, on a side note, I'm pretty sure a scorer messed up something here, since the numbers for Minnesota's pitching seem a touch off...

Hm. Sounds the Burnetts were mired in the premise of that movie "Class Act."

Mo comes in, 3 ground outs. Yanks win, and now the Twinks haven't beat the Yankees in the Bronx since 2007.

But hey, history means nothing to Minnesota. Gardenshire, in trying to explain his costly intentional walk move, said, "We're aware of the numbers."

Are you? Because the fact of the matter is, Arod is 4 for 4 with two homers and 14 RBIs following international walks to Tex.

Maybe the Twinks are aware of the numbers, but after 11 straight losses to the Bomb Squad, they've just simply repressed them.