Pedro Martinez (4.2IP 4H 4R 4ER 1BB 4K): Just the line alone tells you that something is wrong, that definitely wasn't our Pedro out there last night. He could have escaped without the thrashing though as our good 'night and day' friend, Rolando Arrojo, decided that Pedro's ERA needed to rise and promptly gave up a grand slam to Greg Vaughn allowing all the inherited runners (Pedro's runners) to score. Rest up Pedro, and hurry back.

Trot Nixon (2-4 R 4RBI GS): Seems were getting into, it's someone different every night, mode. Which is great, we need to get more contributions form the likes of Trot and a few others who have disappointed to this point. Trot's salami couldn't have been timed better, it took Pedro off the hook and put us back in the game in a hurry.

Brian Daubach (2-4 2R RBI 3B): This guy just seems to have a flair for the dramatic. He's actually been scuffling a bit lately, so a big hit like that will hopefully jump-start another good streak.

The pen minus Lowe last night (3.1IP 4H 2R 2ER 0BB 7K W): Doesn't look so bad at first but you have to add in the 3 runs charged to Pedro that Arrojo allowed to score. The line then reads (3.1IP 4H 5R 5ER 0BB 7K W). Not a good time for the pen to go in the tank as well, before the game last night El Guapo was placed on the DL and Sunny Kim recalled from AAA. I expect that Ohka will get the call to replace (bad word) Pedro in the rotation until he can return. The O has been picking up the slack of late but this is really a time when we need the pitching to come back together.

Obviously this is a huge blow, but if it's only for a couple of weeks like it has been in the past, we can get thru this. Pedro only goes once every five to six days, that leaves four games in between where he's not a factor. We've been wining those games, and we need to continue to win them starting tonight.

The tribe did us a favor last night in beating the Empire 5-3 (I believe). That puts our lead at 3 and also makes these next two games with Tampa even more important. We can't afford to lose any ground on NY while playing this team, especially with us headed to Toronto and Cleveland before coming home for Atlanta to finish up the first half. Nomo tonight and Castillo on Thursday need to reach back and get it done these next two nights, because the next ten after this series are going to be a dog fight.

paul@redsox2000.com