A long week ahead

Well play-off baseball is in full swing - 3:44 for a nine inning game that means "nothing" to the Orioles... The two AL East teams are all tied up again, with a 162 game season now boiled down to 8 games - could we not just have stayed at home for the last five months and just played these eight?

The Yankees lost behind baseball magnet Jaret Wright - what did Jaret do to annoy the baseball gods (beyond the obvious...)? In the last month he has been hit by a comebacker on the collarbone, the elbow by a broken bat, and again today by another comebacker, this time on his upper pitching arm. Today may be the final straw - after he was pulled in the second (attributed to bad pitching rather than injury) Aaron Small came in and pitched 6 2/3 strong innings - it will be interesting to see who pitches on Thursday, and if nothing else, Small has shown that he is the Yankee long guy in the playoffs, which takes pressure off Sturtz and the rest of the Yankee bullpen. Assuming, of course, that the Yankee bullpen is needed beyond October 2nd.

The Red Sox won behind a strange performance from Matt Clement - 0 ER over 6IP - but it isn't very relaxing to watch a guy walk 6 guys - 3 in the 2nd, 3 in the 4th. Craig Hansen was introduced to the brutal reality of the majors tonight - one K, one high chopped single off home plate, one slider deposited into the left field bleachers, and his major league ERA soared above 10 - which of course means he is now a bona-fide member of the Sox bullpen! Given Francona had said he didn't want to bring Hansen into a situation to fail, you have to hope that Tito is brave enough to run Hansen out there again soon - the guy has a very live fastball, and our bullpen needs all the help it can get.