Is this the real Randy Johnson?

Randy Johnson finally stepped up last night and pitched like the stud pitcher his record says he is. Some timely hitting by Derek Jeter and Matsui broke it open in the fourth as the Yankees finally won on FOX in front of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

From the outset Randy looked good and was hitting 98 MPH on the FOX gun (although 96 on the scoreboard gun) but still that is more giddy up than we've seen from the future Hall of Famer. His slider was filthy and the Cards just weren't getting near to causing any damage. Scattering four hits over seven innings and throwing in seven strikeouts, this is the type of outing that the Yankees are paying the big money for.

An early RBI groundout would turn out to be all the offence the Yankees would need but Jeter (2), Matsui and A-Rod would all add RBI's as the ball club cruised to a 5-0 win. Randy left after seven and whilst Flash got into a spot of bother, The Sandman entered a shut them down and he threw hard and got Larry Walker looking at that nasty four-seemer over the outside half of the plate which just kills lefties after being pounded inside with repeated cutters.

It was a much tighter game by the Yankees and two meeting may of hopefully started to clear the air. The strange thing is that the Yankees have been playing awful baseball and are only six games out of first and we are still a month away from the All-Star break. I bet the O's and the Sox are wishing they had buried the Yanks when they had the chance.

Still, the way the season has gone so far we'll lose 10-1 this evening ;o)