Byrd! Always loved the guy...

Great job by our O, runnin' the picket fence on 'em for four innings. I haven't feared Halladay in quite some time. Great 7-0 win today. 10 of 13! Now we go to Tampa and Chicago. Yanks go to Baltimore and Toronto.

Ellsbury: What a great bunt he had today. However, he does get doubled up sometimes, and he does get thrown out by a step a lot. Someone mentioned that after his swing, he's leaning way back, making his jump toward first a little slow. This guy should be beating out more ground balls, and never get doubled up. If swung a little more like Ichiro, body moving toward first, he'd beat out a lot more balls. Somebody tell him.

I feel like Vik-E Mart almost leaves the bag too early on plays at first. He should really make sure he's on that bag, especially in October.

Here's another thing that bothers me. I'm afraid Pedroia's gonna get hurt. On 3-0 pitches, he just stands there. I don't mean he doesn't swing--that's almost always the case. I mean he just stands there at complete ease, so if the pitcher uncorks one toward his head accidentally, he might not be able to react in time. Always be ready, even if you know you're not swinging. (It could also make the pitcher hate you--this happened a few weeks ago, may have been Penny on the mound, and the guy did the statue-stand on a 3-0, and the pitcher got pissed at the guy.)

Yet another comment on the three-year old post about Drinkwater. This time it's someone shooting down the previous comment. And I also found the old anti-Mrs. Drinkwater comment (which its author deleted) using the Wayback Machine and re-posted it there. I love old posts that never die....

New magnet: Tito now and Tito then.

Very preliminary 2010 schedule news, if you missed it. I forgot to mention (or even think of it at the time) that I've now seen every major league team! With the Marlins game in June, and then the game I saw in Washington a week later, I officially got #29 and #30. I also saw the Expos, so my life's total stands, and will stand for a while, at 31, as long as you consider them a different "team" from the Nats.

You know who Billy Wagner reminds me of? Remember that Beavis & Butt-head episode when they called the phone sex number? And they showed the operator and it was a giant woman in a trailer? And they show her two sons, who are just standing there like Pedroia on a 3-0 pitch, and one goes, "Hey mah-mmy, it's your phone sex ad"? Yeah, that kid. Or the brother. One of those two. If anyone has the DVDs, check that episode. My memory could be way off here.

Funny moment after the final out today: NESN cuts to shot of boy in crowd who they surely had the camera trained on so they could show us his wild, boyish excitement. And the kid just stands there like Pedroia on a...

A similar thing happened last night, when they showed us Buchholz' reaction to the last out. Just kinda stood there, not even a fist-pump. Oh, and earlier in that game, they cut to the bullpen robot cam showing the front row of the bleachers, and the woman front and center under an umbrella gives it a nice...long...yawn. These are the dangers of filming, instead of the game, artsy crowd shots. These networks care more about the Emmy than about the fans who are tuning in to see a baseball game. I say film all that stuff if you want, but save it mainly for replays.