Sox win again, Yankees beat Howard

Well the Sox batters keep pounding away - all but one starter contributing a run or an RBI, and all but one starter chipping in at least a hit. If only we played in the NL East... we might be more than 2 games up on the Mets!

The bigger story today was Francona publicly stating that the time has arrived for the young arms in the pen - the proof will now be in his bullpen usage. Hansen pitched two innings tonight and looked very good, albeit that he gave up a couple of cheap runs in the 9th on defensive swings.

Down in Philadelphia, Arthur Rhodes again proved that no manager should ever bring him into a game against the Yankees where the manager actually wants to win that game. Ryan Howard proved that you shouldn't make mistake pitches against him - 2HR and a triple driving in all 7 of the Phillies run, although he was the final out in a 2 inning outing by Mo with 2 men on in the 9th - hopefully the Phillies fans booed him to keep up their rep!

Arthur Rhodes career line (yet another hat tip to David Pinto's day-by-day database) prior to tonight's 4 runs without retiring a hitter effort:

	IP	ERA	HR/9	K/BB	BB/9
v. NYY	81.0	6.78	1.67	1.89	4.9
v. MLB	990.0	4.52	0.99	2.24	4.0