It's exactly like the 2004 season. All summer I said we should be winning, and the Yanks should be losing, based on what was actually going on on the field. I was sure we'd eventually come around, and they'd eventually fall apart. The difference, though, is that we're the ones in front now. I'm happy about that. But I'm still ready to break stuff.

I don't know what's more frustrating, getting all these hits and not being able to drive runs home, or the fact that the Boston media, combined with the, what do you call those guys--oh, right, fucking idiots who call sports radio stations, have decided that "we" are "panicking." If you look at only the Yankee scores, you don't know that they're not playing any better now than they have all year. They've stepped ass-backwards into some wins while we're pulling off the most incredible performances of leaving runners on base. It's like a well-rehearsed Broadway show. You can't teach that kind of runner-stranding.

Tonight, after the fifth, I said to my girlfriend, Okay, next inning is the one where Dice gives up a few runs, so let's widen this one-run lead right here. I know what you're saying: "I said that, too!" We didn't score, and Dice went into multi-walk mode. It's a tough situation. You can't take the guy out in that spot. You never know when he's about to throw no-hit ball the rest of the way, and you know he's not tired. But he usually does have the bad inning. And we did get MDC in there, but it was a pitch too late. That guy continued to get the job done, holding it to a one-run deficit. Glad to have MDC on our side. Then Mighty Oak came in because the guys who normally come in when we're losing are tired, I'm sure, since we always seem to be down a run (or more) when the game gets late. But the run he gave up didn't matter, as we couldn't score any more anyway.

Also note that we're gonna have to deal with the fact that the umps either don't fully watch Dice's crazy pitches, or that they're doing that whole "you're a 'rookie,' so you're not getting any close calls" thing. Hopefully this changes next year.

Do you still not believe me that outfielders purposely put their glove over the wall on a catch that's close to a "rob" but not quite? That center fielder did it tonight. That was killer, as was the ball Coco hit last night that hit off the wall. Add a foot to each ball and we win the last two nights. But, still, even that first run we got tonight, it came from two balls that could've been inning-killing double plays, but were barely beat out at first. We were trying to frustrate but couldn't quite do it--until we ended the inning by getting thrown out on the basepaths anyway. We need to forget all this frustration, come out tomorrow, and get back to the way it was before. Unlike the Yankees, we have a "before." We can do it.