Ramon was up to his old first inning tricks again yesterday. Though the first couple of batters who reached base were on "chinky" hits, a grand slam is a grand slam. The third time this year that he's given one up in the first. But after he finally got out of the inning Ramon looked like a completely different pitcher, going 4 1/3 more innings, allowing only one more run, four hits, no walks, and struckout seven. I don't get it, maybe Pedro yelled at him or something.

After the first, the offense was all Red Sox, as they pounded Eric Milton and the rest of the Twins for eleven runs to make the first inning look like more of a nusance than a deficit.

Hitting studds for the game were:
Jose Offerman 3-4 4R, 2RBI, 2B, 2HR
Jason Varitek 2-3 2R, 2RBI, 2B
Dante Bichette 2-5 2R, RBI, HR
Lou Merloni 3-4 R, 2RBI, 2B

Yesterday, as I had mentioned, was a must win and the boys came thru big. Cleveland lost, so we're back to two games behind the WC, and the Yankers won, so we stayed six out for the division. Tonight the Pinstripes come into Boston, if we want to win the division we need a MINIMUM of three out of four (including the make-up in NY on Monday). We'll know on Tuesday if we have any shot at the division title.

Mr Clemwad takes the hill for the Yanks tonight against Tomo Ohka. Ohka has been getting stronger in each of his starts this year, this will be his biggest test. We'll get to see what this kid is really made of, and I think we'll be very nicley surprised. Just Win Damn It! Game Time 7:05pm EST.