4 8 15 16 23 42

Tara:
So if you can go back in time and replay yesterday, Tito lets Wake go complete for the first game, saving the P-Bon and Timlin for the second game …

 

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Mike:
And, consequently, that would have allowed Tito to pull Pope Montague the 1st aftah the 6th, when it was clear he was stahting to lose it.

 

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Tara:
Ah, well, it is what it is, 2-way tie for the division, 3-way tie for the joker's wild.

 

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Mike:
And at the risk of being accused of crushing on that Polyanna chick, at least our guys did win one yestahday and the loss was normal as opposed to catastrophic.

 

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Tara:
Mussina done after 1 and two-thirds, the Yankees' pitching walked 9 Orioles and gave up 14 hits and 17 runs …

 

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Mike:
Four hours sixteen minutes, 398 pitches and an 17-9 Yankee whooping. Their fans can say it means nothing, but that loss hurts the fan psyche not to mention the Yankees bullpen.

 

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Tara:
Only problem with getting too optimistic is I remember a certain team who got the crap kicked out of them 19-8 but then came back to win 8 straight securing a couple pennants along the way.

 

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Mike:
Argh. Don't do that to me. Using Red Sox history to bolstah the Yankees chances …

 

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Tara:
Buck up, fool. The Red Sox are going to make the postseason. I'm so confident that tonight at 9 I'll be tuned into Lost and only glimpsing the game during commercials.

 

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Mike:
I hope you're right. If the Sox don't make the postseason, I'll be livin' in the past like that freaky Desmond dude in the hatch.

 

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Comments

[Nat O]

Oh man, me too. I feel so bad watching Lost during the sox pennant race, but I'm insatiable.

[NewtonNephew]

Why Pope Montague? I like it, it fits -- has the right pompous, overblown sound for Schilling. But is it also a reference to the feuding Capulets and Montagues (aka Yankees and Red Sox)?

[h.b.]

Montague is Schilling's middle name. :)

[NewtonNephew]

Ah! And here I was imagining a whole elaborate analogy/allegory, with Randy Johnson as the anti-pope Capulet I, etc. LOL.

[Follower of Tito]

Ok, despite the creepy Al Davis imagery and my status as a recovering Catholic, here's a prayer that we used to say before each game at my middle-of-the-commonwealth, Jesuit institution of higher learning (no lie!):

"Mother Mary, Queen of Victory, pray for us! Just Win, Baby!"

(Ok, the first part was true..I added the Al Davis quote....)

Now my other team score watching is more complicated...Cleveland, Chicage, etc., Guess that early autumn yard work I have to do will wait until the weekend after next.

[Jason O.]

"Fortuna vitrea est; tum cum splendet frangitur"
(Fortune is glass; just when it gleams brightest it shatters)

Both teams got a little of the above last night.

[Kaz]

What's going on in the MLB? It's like what they say happens when you house a bunch of chicks in the same place for a month...after that, they all start to synchronize their ... losses.

All I know is that we hold a slight advantage against the Yankees in Fenway. The longer this stays tied, the better. Tonight feels like a break-out...or maybe it's a freak-out...I'm finding it harder to tell the difference these days.

Anyone going to tonight's game? I mean, besides me! :)

[Billy Mahty]

"that loss hurts the fan psyche..."

Uh, ha, sure. The only thing hurting last night was my behind from sitting through watching that long game. Being a GBY fan means that you go into the 9th with your team down by 8 and you fully expect they will come back. And if they don't, last night, it's alright. Not ideal, but ok.

What's the Sox's edge at Fenway? This season? Add em up... edge goes to the Yanks.

The longer this stays tied, the better.

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

h.b., to describe the nightcap, I totally would've gone with that line from Tom Petty's "American Girl" for today's strip:

Something that's so close and still so far out of reach

Meaning sole possession of 1st and the Yankees being forced to recover ground against the Sox. Oh well. You know I don't see what the Yanks fans are crowing about - if this keeps up, it comes down to the last game of the season, and they have Mike "5 runs, 7 hits, 1.2 IP" Mussina going for them.

Follower of Tito, which Jesuit institution of higher learning is this? I'm a proud grad of that fine establishment on Morrissey Boulevahd.

[d56]

Marty -

You're right, looking at the record - I think he was pointing out that the Sox have played considerably better at home, in pretty much any terms: record, OPS, runs scored, and most pitchers have performed better in Fenway as well (and I'll even posit that this improvement is definitely only relative, no one's been beating the world save maybe Wake).

You really can't ask for much more than Sox/Yankees for three games in Fenway, with pretty much everything at stake, can you?

Thank God for baseball.

[Follower of Tito]

The one on Mount St. James. "In Hoc Signo Vinces" is almost a scarier saying than "Just Win, Baby!" but if it works, what the hell, right?!

[Bob]

We seem to have a lot of Jesuit-educated folks here. I'm a Loyola Marymount U. grad myself, part of the Jesuit chain of collegees (the Golden Crosses instead of arches?).

[Billy Mahty]

Great points d56. I'm really excited for this weekend. I'm just hoping the GBY's don't need to sweep in Fenway.

And i.s.o.d.e., you're right. I don't think there's anyone on the Yanks staff that I'd feel confident about going up against the Sox offense, not after last year, and not after the way they've pitched this season. Certainly Moose's poor outing yesterday doesn't raise confidence, but he is an old-timer pro who is sometimes on, sometimes off.

The one Sock that really frightens me is Ortiz. Against the Yanks, he seems practically automatic.

Buy stock in Rolaids and Tums.. this is going to be an exciting weekend.

[Aaron]

I probably missed the explanation for this, and I'm sure I'll regret asking, but could someone tell me what "GBY" refers to?

[NewtonNephew]

I believe "GBY" is supposed to stand for "God-blessed Yankees." Seems to me that with all their money, the Yankees have more to with Mammon than with God. Wouldn't "Mammon-favored Yankees" or "MFY" make more sense? Oh wait...

[lowie]

maybe francona should watch lost tonight and we'd have someone competent run the team for a change

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

Yeah, because a 90-win season and a world series championship is the hallmark of pure ineptitude. Just like how everybody on the team is "underperforming" in leading the majors in runs scored. Isn't there an EEI talk show you should be calling into right now, lowie?

[pawsoxpop]

I'm with you Dewey. Francona is the best manager we've had since Joe Morgan, and before him Dick Williams, with Darrell Johnson and Jimy Williams in the second tier. I can quibble with some of Tito's decisions, but he has done nothing truly boneheaded, and quite often the moves I disagree with turn out to be the right ones in retrospect. Over the course of 162 games no manager is perfect, but all you ask for is that he doesn't single-handedly destroy a promising season and/or ruin a good player's career like Don Zimmer, the absolute worst manager I have ever seen anywhere. He's long gone thankfully, which is why I feel much more confident this year than I did in 1978.

[Joe in Philly]

The Lost numbers have an eeire similarity to the retired numbers on the facade of a certain ballpark in Boston.

Could it be that the RSN is in the same pergutory/limbo setting as the passengers? If that's the case, I want Locke on the hill, ninth inning to close out every game.

It's fitting since both the Sox and Lost have the market cornered on tension. Every inning/scene.

Nights like this is why TiVo was invented. And pepto. And the f-bomb.

Let's go Sox. The others are coming.

[JimmyZ]

Anyone catch the MFY fan that took a swipe at David Newhan's glove after he robbed Balco Gary of his 3rd* homer? Weak.

[Kaz]

Game Blowing Yankees?

Gonna Bust Yankees?

Got Beat Yankees?

A little high brow: Garotted Breath Yankees?

Take your pick.

[JimmyZ]

Anyone ever play those numbers in the lotto?

[Aaron]

Talk about self-fulfilling prophecy; now I really am regretting asking for an explanation of "GBY." I took one look at the phrase "God-Blessed Yankees" and laughed so hard I spilled coffee all over my shirt. Grrrr.

[Devine]

Fuck the Yankees...again please, Orioles.

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

I just think the arguments about how such and such a manager sucks are pretty overblown. Even Mazzilli, whom I can't stand and was happy to see get axed in Baltimore, I think got a bum rap for what was effectively his overperforming pitchers suddenly returning to their career numbers and their non-mashers turning back into double-play candidates. Is Tito the best manager in the history of the game? Probably not. Has he made some rather inexplicable game decisions? Absolutely. (Giving Hansen this much work in a pennant race with only one really effective pitch comes to mind.) But I just can't stand guys who make these broad pronouncements about intangibles in baseball as if it can be all summed up so simply. "A bad manager", "an underperforming team", "no big-game experience", I mean come ON.

[pudge]

Note also that last year in early September or so, the Yankees got creamed in a game, I think by the Indians. Then they went on to win the division.

Of course, that was at the END of a slump, just like the Sox last year in the ALCS, whereas this may be the beginning of one ...

[NYSoxfan]

right on Joe, I've been dropping F-bombs like a mofo all week long. All efforts to zen through these final games are breaking down. I'm turning into Ben Kingsley in 'Sexy Beast'... "You will do the job. You WILL do the job!"

[NYSoxfan]

btw, is it me, or has MLB dropped the ball on this coin toss thing? I mean where's the fuqqin' transparency heah? Why doesn't Selig televise these coin tosses live on ESPN instead of holding them in the back office at 245 Park Avenue? Cuz he sucks ass that's why.

[NV in SD]

My favorite comment from MFY fans in the office today-

"Boy you guys really blew that chance to go a game up on us."

Oh really? That's funny because as the Sox game finished I could've sworn that I saw the ny-O's game still going on. Who blew what then?

Granted theirs was a blowout and it would've been great if our bullpen held together last night, but what can you do? SSDD as they say- three way tie for the WC and neck in neck for the Division. I can't say anything about my confidence that the O's will take (gasp) two outta four, but there's always wishful thinking. I've been saying it all along- I like our chances. Now, let's see if we can string together some productive at-bats against Lilly. You KNOW we're due to knock this guy around a little bit.

Just win baby.

[Devine]

I almost wish they would just lose the rest of them, so I can begin the mourning process and stop feeling the pain.

Almost.

[liz]

if the sox don't win, i'll definitely be living in the past. i'll just pop in my city of champions dvd and watch it over and over again. have you seen this video? if not, order it immediately, it's so good. it has all the big plays from last year and everything. i think this is the website: www.cityofchampionsdvd.com