For one night only...

Let's hope it is not for just one night, but the full Schill is back, and as a nice bonus, he racked up win #199 of his regular season career.

That was Schilling at his impressive best - great location, nice curve, superb splitter... 8 strong innings, one run given up. As he said in his post-game news conference, that one run was a summary of his last five starts - two quick outs, then the mistakes crept in, leading to a Cabrera double, a Damon single to plate the run, a Jeter single to increase the threat, then a nice battling AB by Giambi ended by a pop up to shallow left / third.

The difference in this outing, was that in the next inning he settled back down quickly - a 1-2-3 inning after Ortiz and Manny added 4 runs to the evidence for "best 3-4 punch in the majors category", followed by another 4 innings where he faced the minimum, helped by two nifty double plays.

Foulke came in to the 9th to get Michael Kay excited as he gave up 4 runs on very hard hit balls - but I am guessing I wasn't alone in calling the A-Rod homer...

The Yankees are looking pretty beat up right now - Terrance Long made his debut in LF and had a few adventures out there. However, Sheffield is apparently driving up from Trenton and will be activated if he wakes up feeling ok in the morning - clearly he is unlikely to be back to his best in his first AB, but he really does help to change the look of the lineup.

The Sox are playing well, and it would be nice to take advantage of the Yankees injury travails - but I don't think the Yankees travails are solved by Sheffield coming back, nor would they if Matsui was suddenly to reappear in left. It is still all about the pitching, and the re-emrgence of the Big Unit would do more to solve Yankee woes, than any signing or call up.