Even after that great series against the yanks, I was kind of worried, but strictly for the reason that our next three games were in Baltimore. Twelve runs later, I'm feeling better. Also, Pedro pitched way better than his line shows. And it was great seeing (I actually saw the game tonight because I was out at my parents' house, in NESN territory.)Pedro strike out Karim Garcia repeatedly, as Garcia was booed by the Sox' home crowd in Baltimore. And Mariano blew another save tonight, and Torre used the two stooges even though they must be ready to drop. Although that stubborn Quantrill would never admit it. So even though they won, it was a good day overall. The magic number is down to 72.

Speaking of that yankee bullpen, I've been thinking lately that maybe "Flash" and the "Amazing Mr. Quantrill" really were one person, since no member of the New York media has said one name without saying the other right away since the two were acquired. But that wacky arch-nemesis of mine, Michael Kay, beat me to it. Today he referred to them--and Mariano--as QuanGorMo.

It just gets more and more pathetic. At least Kay was admitting that they're getting totally overused. (If you've kept up with this blog, you know I've been predicting the fall of this bullpen since preseason.) But Kay also just keeps letting the arrogant yankee fan in him come through while he's trying to do what's supposed to be a neutral talk show. It's like listening to the average yankee fan at work, the way they get all mad and pissy when the yanks lose to the Sox. You know whenever yankee fans start bringing up 1918 and all that crap, it's because they're so scared it's all gonna come crashing down. And since the yankee fan is so insecure by nature (attaching themselves to the champion to cover up for their own shortcomings), it's just fun to hear them in these troubled yankee times. And yes, these are troubled times in the Bronx, and they're all livin' real close to the edge.

Anyway, Kay also said, in his little tantrum, the following line, that I will not forget: "The Red Sox have no chance of winning the A.L. East, they're just not good enough."

We'll see, psycho-boy.

More notes on the Sunday night game:

Good to see the guy going against Bush saying "Go Red Sox."

I never thought  I'd ever like Ben Affleck this much. I might even go out and rent some Voyage of the Mimi episodes.

The Youkilis thing, where he predicted Damon's HR off the pole was priceless. He seems like a wacky guy. We saw him in pre-game warm ups a few weeks ago imitating Axl Rose while a Guns N' Roses song was playing.

And they play Marilyn Manson when he comes to bat, so he's definitely down with the "rock" I hear so much about. But what do you expect, he's from Cincinnati, he grew up listening to Dr. Johhny Fever on KRP.

The yankee announcers must have told the ESPN announcers to tell America that Fenway Park is "quiet." Here's what I mean. We all know how Kay and Kaat like to lie through their teeth and say that the Fenway crowd isn't as enthusiastic as the yankee Stadium crowd, and that Sox fans sit quietly and wait for something bad to happen. When we know, and you can clearly see and hear it on tv, that the exact opposite is true. Now, granted, it gets quiet when the visiting team scores. That's perfectly natural and can be expected at any sporting arena in the world. So when Matsui hit a grand slam, and Fenway quieted down for two minutes, the ESPN announcers must have thought, "Hey, that Kay is right! It's quiet here! They must be waiting for something bad to happen, these cursed assholes!" It just makes me sick.

However, I did notice that at that moment, when they were saying that a hush has fallen over Fenway, that at least on the broadcast, I heard plenty of noise; more like a pissed-off buzzing at what had just happened. So maybe there's something going on in the Fenway annoucers' booths where they can't hear the crowd noise. I don't know, it doesn't make sense, especially since ESPN's Jon Miller is a good guy, who used to announce for the Sox, and I never thought Kaat was that bad, but since Kay's sunk his teeth into him, it's been a different story.

More Oriole action tomorrw, hopefully we've finally solved that team. Go Sox.