THOUSANDS of empty seats (*Just got the "official" attendance--33,000. So over 20,000 no-shows*)at the toilet bowl tonight. (Including Michael Kay's, mysteriously.) Looks like a lot more yankee fans have given up aside from the two I know who claimed the Red Sox will win it all this year. What happened to "sold out the season"? I've got tickets to Fenway tomorrow night, and if the team was 8-11, I'D STILL BE GOING. What we are seeing now is the perfect example of frontrunning yankee fans. The good fans were there tonight, but were almost outnumbered by the ones who can't be bothered to go to a game when the team is THREE whole games below .500, and have to make up 4 1/2 games with only 143 to play. I guess this A-Rod mania isn't as big as everyone thought.

Funny how the NY media justifies the fact that the yanks win the high-scoring games, acting like offense is the key to winning. Take it from a Red Sox fan, it only took us a hundred years to figure it out, but pitching is what wins.

The magic number to beat the yanks remains at 140, since the yanks won, and the Sox were rained out, but the "real" magic number is down to 143 with the Orioles' loss. Funny, I've always been able to get the Orioles radio station (1090 AM) WAY better than the Hartford station (1080 AM), and usually against my will, but it always comes in handy when the Sox play the O's---however, for the first time in at least 7 years, I can actually switch to it to find out how Baltimore is doing, because they're actually the closest team to the Sox in second place. We'll see how long that lasts.

Key moment in yankee game tonight: Crowd gives Jeter a standing O while he's up, trying to get him to get a hit. As he grounds weakly to short, crowd boos loudly before the play is even over. Sleep well, Derek.