Mr. Selig of Milwaukee has made a special request that all the gentlemen on both sides behave themselves. No doubt, there have been some staff meetings advising the Fenway employees about taunting their guests.

I'm still wondering how Pedro's actions warranted a $50,000 fine but no ejection. If it's a special "don't toss the superstar at home" rule, Phil Cuzzi apparently didn't get that memo.

There's a rumour that David Wells strained his groin leaving the dugout to join the donnybrook on Saturday, but he's still the scheduled starter for tomorrow afternoon. David Dellucci is in RF, as Karim Garcia's hand is too sore to play. On the radio, Joe Morgan made a good point about how the rainout helped the Red Sox. Not only do they get to skip their worst pitcher, Burkett, but with the possibility of four games in as many days, Mariano Rivera may no longer be available for those two-inning saves.

I have great respect for logic, which is why I use it so sparingly, but it seems to me that Mr. Wakefield can't be quite as good as he was in the opener, and Mr. Mussina can't be quite as bad. Even though few of us care any more who wins this series, this could be a very good game.

Wakefield waffled through the first inning, dancing a knuckler by a none too pleased Posada to end the threat.

It serves Garcia right to have a hurt hand but the Yankees should also deduct his pay for the game(s) he misses and then multiply it by the degree they feel disadvantaged by playing Dellucci in his place.

This VirtualManager question thing is really getting on my nerves. It has *nothing* to do with managing the game (today's question was "who is most responsible for game 3's incident?"). What was amusing was the play-by-play crew asking Boone who he believed it was. Boone responds: "Who threw the first pitch?", anaylst responds that it was Pedro and Boone says "there, you've got your answer." It was obvious Boone was dancing around the answer, like he's done so many times when it's come to critiquing a player/manager but at least this time FOX had the guts to point it out afterwards. I believe the line was something like "are you scared you have to face Martinez next year?" Then they cut to commercial as the inning ends, awkwardness ending.

Uh oh, Fox's worst nightmare. A ballgame has broken out.

Ahahah, I guess third time isn't the charm.

I can't believe they did it again. The idea is to try to build a big inning early, not to try to score 1 run.

Seriously though, Little has *got* to stop this if he plans on winning the series. It has cost him at least a couple of runs already in some fairly tight games and this time it's the difference between men on 1st and 2nd with 1 out and a man on 1st with 2 out. At least this time the batter swung...But the runner was still out by a country mile.

Grady isn't just a fool, he's a stubborn fool. There should still be two men on and another out to work with.

Tim Wakefield is making a bid for MVP if his team advances. Just "thinking out loud" here, but if the Sox face elimination in Game Six, I'd consider starting him again, or at least have him ready early. If Boston wins today and tomorrow, they have the luxury of staying with Burkett a little longer and using the regular bullpen, with a Clemens-Martinez rematch in Game Seven.

The all-important first run comes on another solo homer by Todd Walker. If Mussina loses, it's about time people started questioning his playoff results, which haven't been close to his regular season performance.

Jeter hit a roller off the third base bag that turned into a double, driving in Dellucci to tie the game. Giambi just missed a three-run HR, pulling one just foul, then popped to center too shallow for Soriano to score on Damon's arm. That reminds me -- the other day, Mike Wilner said Damon "throws like a girl," but still has a better arm than the other center fielders still active, who throw like "infant girls."

(I've tried to post the message twice but an error occurs, is it just me?)

That was a SHOT by Nixon to the deepest part of the park. He's also making a few waves with his post season performance but I'll go with Coach on the Wakefield for MVP (conditional on a BoSox series win) idea. Though it's definately a result of no one else has making an impact greater than the strong but far from MVP callibre (in most circumstances) showing of Wakefield thus far.

Am I the only one salivating over this RadioShack (or RadioShaq ;-) contest offering World Series tickets for life?

If Grady puts on the hit-and-run, Walker should just pretend he missed the sign.

Coach, he didn't reach the manditory 3-2 count, therefore crisis averted. The only reason they have 2 runs is because Little can't hit and run when the ball goes over the fence.
There's always arrogance but this display of it is purely destructive. My worst nightmare is the one time it works and he tries to gloat about it afterwards.

That was quick, four pitches, three outs. The best part was after Jeter took the first pitch, the play-by-play guy says "you'll probably see Jeter take a few pitches here," followed by a second pitch pop-up to Mueller.

So, who was right on the number of years McCarver played, Tim himself (19) or Gleeman-proclaimed "Announcing God" Bret Boone (21)?

BTW, I agree that Bret Boone has been fun to listen to even though he seems to dance around certain questions and situations. It's fun to hear him argue with McCarver.

Little needs to get his bullpen ready just in case. It's not unusual for Wakefield to lose the "touch" in the eighth inning. If the knuckler is still working, great, but if anyone gets on base, there's nothing wrong with bringing in a rested Embree to face Giambi, turn around Williams and Posada, and if he's sharp, stay in for Matsui and Johnson.

Donkit, McCarver appeared in parts of 21 seasons, including a cup of coffee when he was 17 years old and a few at-bats at age 38.

Good hustle by Varitek to avoid the GIDP and count a huge insurance run.

Wow. Super-close play at first. Probably out by a sixteenth of a step, but I can't fault ol' blue on that call.

Good hustle.

Completely insane baserunning. Incidentally, sheer insanity byt he opponent is exactly what Felix Heredia requires to have an effective relief outing.

What the hell was that? Another Grady Little baserunning play?

Varitek might have been confused about a sign. He might have realized halfway through that he wasn't supposed to go.

Well, the Lord sure wasn't paying attention at third.

I dunno Mike, FOX seemed to uphold Umpies' good call.

Varitek must have been still been recovering from the shock of being getting down to first safely.

I think Little called that play, hoping Soriano would get confused and Nixon was supposed to break for the plate. Why he would take the bat out of Damon's hands against a LNOGY, we may never know.

I realize that Bernie Williams almost ended his streak with a long fly out to the deepest part of the park, and Matsui's shot into the corner was just foul, but if you string Mike Timlin's postseason appearances together, he's now in the eighth inning of a perfect game with nine strikeouts.

And Matsui swings at a pitch hurled vaguely in the direction of Marseilles to end a Yankee threat.

The Sox should just try to get five innings out of Wakefield every day that Pedro can't go and let the bullpen take over. For a pen that couldn't get anybody out in May, they've retooled rather nicely.

I hate Boston fans, but "We Want Nelson" is a pretty cool chant.

Felix Heredia hitting a lefty batter? What a surprise. It's OK, though, Grady will get the pinch-runner thrown out.

I agree that Timlin has certainly got the job done but in Matsui's AB Timlin was nowhere near his spots. The KO pitch was supposed to be inside and it ended up high and away.

McCarver just labeled the Varitek running play as an "attempt to steal a run" and I'm just not buying it. I know Little has proven a small IQ in terms of managing a running game but that would be *the* worst trick play in the world...and on that assumption, it was a piss poor execution.

Adam, you're right, this was Timlin's first shaky appearance, but he has yet to allow a baserunner against Oakland or the Yankees. Like Craig, I think the Boston bullpen has gone from weakness to strength. It helps to have deep pockets, but Theo kept tinkering. Williamson is making it interesting, though...

Soriano strikes himself out and it's a best-of-three.

This is going a bit backwards timewise, but shouldn't Jeter have gone home on Varitek's grounder in the 7th? It would've taken away the possibility of the DP, but that was a tough play and Millar is no speedster. That third run ended up being huge.

"If Mussina loses, it's about time people started questioning his playoff results, which haven't been close to his regular season performance."

I'd agree that Mussina hasn't been quite as good as he was during the regular season (he was pretty darn good last night), but in his three playoff starts this year, his team has scored a grand total of 5 runs, and the defense behind him has been shaky. Not too many pitchers would have great results with that kind of support.

Mike Timlin is in the game and there are two conversations going on. One is about Timlin winning two World Series rings. The other is about how pitchers report early to spring training to work on covering first base. Both conversations go on, two people talking at each other, for a good 40 seconds.

And I was sitting there muttering to myself, "Please, someone say 'You know, partner, Timlin actually ended a World Series by fielding a bunt and making a play at first base ...'"

Am I remembering that wrong? Or did this occur to anyone else?

Mick, you remember it perfectly. Otis Nixon tried to drag-bunt his way on base with two outs -- for reasons that will forever remain a mystery -- and Timlin, the rookie reliever who had been brought into the game to replace Jimmy Key, deftly fielded it and tossed it to Joe Carter, who started jumpin'. But of course, I wouldn't expect the talking heads to remember back (or north) that far.

That reminds me that Cito Gaston, who had a generally brilliant managerial stint in the '92 playoffs, also deserves huge credit for taking out the trusted veteran and bringing in a rookie setup guy to close the World Series. As gutsy WS managerial moves go, that one ranks near the top.

"If Mussina loses, it's about time people started questioning his playoff results, which haven't been close to his regular season performance."

I'd agree more, but, I happened to be at the game in 2001 against Oakland when Mussina and Zito traded zeroes except for one Yanke run and Jeter's play-of-his-life. Otherwise, I, too, notice that the Moose seems to "play just well enough not to win."

Retribe

Nitpick: Timlin wasn't a rookie in '92.

What I found particularly egregious about the whole announcer converstion is that the mentioned how the 1993 series ended without mentioning the far more relevant-as far as Timlin was concerned-1992 ending. McCarver is such an idiot.

"If Mussina loses, it's about time people started questioning his playoff results, which haven't been close to his regular season performance."

It will never happen. Mussina is a Yankee, and by definition, a Yankee is Clutch.

ESPN Radio reported this morning that Mussina is now trying to blame this postseason failure bit on his teammates. Sure you can argue that they've scored peanuts for him but have some class...wait til it's all over and then bitch ;-)

Is it me or does Grady sound like Forest Gump..

wait til it's all over and then bitch ;-)

Wait until you know for sure that Mussina actually said that, and then bitch ;-)

From the New York Daily News via Baseball Primer.....

Mike Mussina on the loss.......I don't bear all the responsibility......I can only control 60 feet, six inches, the other stuff has to be attended to by other people, not me.