Beckett = Good, Moose = Bad, Me = Unhappy

I think the only thing that was enjoyable about tonight's Yankees/Sox game was watching David Ortiz go 0-5. Other than that it was a pretty crappy game.

My man Moose did not have anything tonight. He was downright awful. Talk about ineffective. I got a called from my friend Dave during the game. Needless to say he's not a big Moose fan. and right now I can totally understand where he's coming from. I know people are going to be ragging on him and wanting him yanked from the rotation, but that's not the answer. It's a bad outing. It was really no different than Wang's outing the night before. Both were awful. You could even argue that Wang's outing was worse. So before anyone decides to bag on Moose, just remember that he's pitched pretty well so far, today not counting of course. He pitched pretty well last week in Fenway. The only mistake was pitching to arguably the best right-handed hitter in the game. Manny is on the verge of hitting his 500th HR. He's made many good pitcher look bad during his career. Manny absolutely owns Moose. I don't think you can look at this start and assume Moose will continue to pitch this way. With the exception of David Ortiz, the Sox bats are pretty hot right now.

Derek Jeter continues to show what timely hitting is all about. Jeter is absolutely amazing with 2 out and runners in scoring position. He's now 3-6 w/ RISP and 2 outs. As I pointed out yesterday, he hit .418 in 67 ABs with RISP and 2 outs last year. In 2006 he hit .369. If there's a guy you want up with 2 out and runners on, it's Captain Clutch. Right now the opposite of Derek is A-Rod. His foul out to the catcher now makes him 0-7 on the year with RISP and 2 outs. you'd think the reigning MVP would do a little better there. I think Alex's problem is he's looking longball. He needs to shorten up that swing and concentrate on keeping the line moving. Base hits score runs.

As much as I dislike him, you've got to tip your hat to Josh Beckett. He threw a pretty good game. He didn't really give the Yanks much of a chance tonight. When the Yanks got to him in the 5th and I thought maybe they could scratch their way back into the game. Beckett retired every batter he faced from the end of the 5th on. The Yanks just couldn't get it going.

Joe Girardi definitely needs to figure something out with the rotation. The short starts are going to kill the bullpen. They had this problem last year and that didn't work out to well. There's speculation that once the off day comes along that they're going to slide someone in between Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. I hope they do that because right now they're running the risk of too many short outings in a row. It makes total sense to move Pettitte up a day and have him throw between the 2 youngsters. Pettitte and Wang should be able to throw 6-7 innings per game. A rotation of Wang-Moose-Hughes-Pettitte-Kennedy should give the bullpen the relief it needs, especially if Moose has a decent outing.

So we're done with Boston for a few months. I like the break. These guys play way too often and it takes away from the rivalry in my opinion. I thought they matched up pretty well against the BoSox. The Yankees never play them well in April and going 2-3 against them isn't that bad.

Phil Hughes gets the call tomorrow against Baltimore and he needs to have a good outing. His last 2 outings were horrendous. He definitely needs to put those starts in the past and pitch the way we all know he can. Another short outing isn't going to cut it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie