Randy "The X Factor" Jonhson: 6 innings, 5 runs (4 earned), 8 hits.

Outpitched by Bruce Chen. Which is funny, since sportscasters everywhere chuckled at this match-up.

Too bad the yanks won, thanks to a cheap bloop double (which is going unmentioned in articles about the game) and a Ruben Sierra home-run, which prompted a curtain call from yankee fans. Curtain call. Ruben Sierra. April. Have these people just lost their minds or what? The cheers and boos seem to come almost at random nowadays.

The O's already got a win against the yanks in the series. That seems to be all we can ask of them lately, so I guess we have to take the one, but with the bonus that they've got one more shot tomorrow. And then it's ring time.

As for our own shortcomings:

The fat one continues to falter. Maybe he could call for every park to be blown up until he finds one he can win in. But I will continue to root for him. We'll see if he can get straightened out. I heard he actually didn't do too bad, except for the home run followed by another home run, followed by yet another home run. (As if we wouldn't notice, Boomer...)

Didn't catch any of the Sox game, and only got to hear a little of Sterling and the untalented traitor in the car, as Chan and I were in NYC. On our way home, we stupidly got caught in yankee Stadium traffic. And who drives up along side us, but Mariano Rivera in his silver billion dollar car. We tried to follow him, but he cut through the traffic, escaping up the Thruway. (Probably because everybody was letting him merge into their lane.) My plan was to respectfully tip my hat at him. My Red Sox hat. Next time.

Also, at one point, there were two other Sox fans nearby, and between them and I, there was a Sox hat on three different corners of an intersection. And I saw a girl with an "I do it with my Sox on" T-shirt.

I heard yet another sportscaster say, "Criticize Mariano on the radio or to your friends, but if you want to boo him, please stay home and don't go to the game." I'm so baffled by these supposed "freedom"-loving Americans who just love to try to tell people what they can and cannot do. It's like a new trend. LIke "I don't like Barry Bonds...so he should be forced to retire." And "I don't like your point of view...so you should shut up." It's kind of like the mentality of "If you don't like this country, get out." Not "Speak your opinion, it's what this country is based upon," but "Get out." Wouldn't these people be great as suicide hotline operators? "You don't want to live? Well, go ahead and kill yourself, then." It's all dictated by the media, anyway.

Maybe these sportscasters have never had to pay 5 dollars for a bottled water and 50 dollars to park (happened at Fenway at least once). With fans paying these prices, expect them to voice their opinion.

Would I boo a guy who helped my team to four championships? Doesn't matter. The point is that I'm allowed to. And so is everybody else. Do I like it when yankee fans make themselves look like fools? Of course.

Another thing people are forgetting is that there isn't a sound you can make as a group that means "We love and are grateful for what you've done in the past but we wish you'd stop losing to to our arch-rivals over and over and over again, although sports reporters everywhere seem to think it's only been either 2 or 4 times in a row."

Maybe it is the "true" yankee fans that booed him. The ones who watch every game, and have seen this guy decline over the last few years, despite the newspapers failing to report it. The ones who've seen every blown save to the Red Sox, not just the ones in the playoffs.

Eh, who am I kidding? No yankee fan watches every game.