Defeat the Empire

I usually open up with something about the AL East. Not today.

I attended my first walf-off homer victory last night, watching Chris Woodward smack one into the night off soft-tossing Chris Hammond, ending three-plus hours of good baseball and sending 37, 945 home happy.

Many things went well on this night, one of them being Kris Benson. He seems to be worth the money we gave him in the offseason, any maybe even the prospects we sent away to acquire him. With seven stellar innings last night, he lowered his ERA to 3.40. He allowed just two hits and no runs if you eliminate Padres shortstop Khalil Greene.

Another thing that went right was the changing of the lineup by the stubborn and clueless Willie Randolph. After ninety-plus games of watching David Wright slug 70 points higher (!) than Mike Piazza, he finally moved Wright ahead of Mike in the lineup. Now, I love Mike, and he's probably my favorite current Met, and I'm the first to defend him, but it was time. Wright responded with two hits, including a double.

Willie's lone bonehead move was bringing in Dae-Sung Koo in the eighth. Koo has held lefties to a respectable .243 average here in 2005, but that number is incredibly misleading. In addition to nine hits by lefties off Koo, Koo has hit 2 left-handed batters and walked 8, meaning an on-base percentage of .475. True to form, Koo walked two lefties and gave up a base hit to another in his outing, and the only hitter he retired was right-handed hitting Mark Loretta. The other out came on Mike Piazza's caught stealing of ALCS hero Dave Roberts. Luckily for Koo and the Mets, the amazing Robbie Hernandez came on and stranded two runners to get the Mets out of a jam.

All-in-all, it was a fun night. I might be back to Shea for Pedro's upcoming start, and I have tickets to see them take on the Cubs come August. Cheers to Woody for smacking the first walk-off homer in games I've attended.

Just like that...

Boston's back in first place.

I truly do hope that the Yankees enjoyed their 24 hours of fame, but hey, maybe they'll never see first place again. The above Curt Schilling certainly agrees, and he did his part last night with a nine-pitch, three-out, solid outing, earning the save in Boston's 51st win of the season.

Meanwhile, in Arlington, the Yankees engaged in a pitching duel involving Mike Mussina and Chan Ho Park. Mussina pitched six shutout innings before exiting, and Park posted seven scoreless frames before allowing a one-out RBI single to Robinson Cano in the eighth. The lead what short lived, however, as Hank Blalock would go yard in the eighth to put Texas ahead two to one. In the words of John Sterling:

"That ball is lined by Blalock...in between the outfielders, and off the wall... (Pause) ...And Gone! That ball is gone! It went over the wall!"

No doubt Mike and the Dog will make fun of Sterling over that one. It was laugh-out-loud funny for the Yankee hater, in the car ride home from a walk-off victory at Shea.

The Burnett Sweepstakes

Was last night AJ Burnett's last start in a Marlins uniform? If it he, he went out in style. He gave up three runs through six innings, en route to his sixth win.

That said, the Baltimore rumors are dying down a little, and Pittsburgh seems no longer interested in being involved. Florida may have to take Sidney Ponson or pay part of Mike Lowell's salary if they want to dump Lowell on the Orioles.

Today's Schedule

Boston plays a day game at Fenway. It's Wells (7-5, 4.73) v. Hendrickson (4-6, 6.35).

San Diego (Williams, 5-5, 4.15) @ Mets (Glavine, 6-7, 4.71)

Yankees (Small, season debut) @ Rangers (Benoit, 1-0, 0.69)