Joe has come to his senses. Giambi's hitting third, with Jeter moving back to the 2-hole and the slumping Nick Johnson, who will be reduced to pinch-hitting for the games in Florida, bats seventh.

Redman, some might say, felt the Game Seven pressure against the Cubs and was gone after three brutal innings. I mean, he gave up a 2-run homer to the pitcher, fercryinoutloud. But he was much better in his other two playoff starts, and had a very good year. Have I mentioned that the Tigers were insane to let him go?

Pettitte has risen to the occasion in two other "must win" Game Two starts, beating the Twins and Red Sox to square each series before going on the road. The Yankees deperately need him to complete the remarkable hat trick. Andy wasn't quite as sharp in his second ALCS start, but he still exited with the lead. This could be another interesting duel, if the Yanks' slumbering lumber doesn't wake up.

Maybe the worst anthem since Roseanne. Who was that? She even forgot the words.

That's more like it. Green light on a 3-0 cripple, and Godzilla blasts a three-run shot over the wall. It more than made up for Soriano's baserunning misadventures.

A beautiful bunt by Johson and a line drive over the right-fielders head makes it 4-0. But the chances of this happening for a pitcher who throws strikes is slim to none. Redmen's got to get his act together in the third or it'll be a long, long night for a worn out Marlin 'pen.

Pettitte is looking amazing tonight, putting to shame Conine and Encarnacion (apologies for spelling) and Gonzalez to strike out the side in the top of the third.

The hitters just look clueless. The mix of pitches and location are superior to any other display I've seen this post season.

That couldn't have come soon enough. Helling's probably the one about to surfuce on the Yankee Stadium mound. Unless the Marlin's can get an offense together, Helling's out there as long as he can go in the role of mop up man.

Soriano hits his shot (6-0 Yankees)...and the *talented* play-by-play team begins to comment on how Soriano has now proved the nay-sayers wrong when they called for him to be removed from the leadoff spot.

These guys are morons. I don't care if he can hit the ball out of the yard four times in one game. He still doesn't know how to take a pitch.

I'm not going to read anything more into a Yankees romp than I did into last night's failure to hit. The Fish got blown out in the second game at Wrigley, too. However, it's a lot harder to come back from a 6-0 deficit playing small ball than long ball, and it's very good for NY to have Soriano and Johnson contributing.

The hitters just look clueless.

Conine took three called strikes. Not an outstanding at-bat.

the *talented* play-by-play team

I refuse to listen to McCarver any more. Miller and Morgan are doing a terrific job on the radio; especially Jon, who is even better than he is on TV. Little Joe's signal-to-noise ratio is improved as well, because he has to pick his spots.

Beckett versus Mussina will be a big game. Tonights game was a mismatch.

It wasn't a mismatch anymore than last night was (taking into consideration Wells' ability to pitch big games). The difference is that the top of the order isn't producing like it did last night for FLA. Offense tends to be a very contagious virus for teams that play a small ball game with young talent whose mental game goes up and down like a yo-yo.

Rodriguez pegged Posada with a fantastic throw. But with Boone right infront of him, IRod could have just as easily bean him with the ball and had the runner called out on the interference call.

The question is whether or not to leave Pettitte in there for the 9th. His pitch count is fairly low at this point but coming off 3-days rest, is it worth pushing him the extra mile to give Rivera another day of recovery from the three inning prefermance.

The Marlins just got jobbed out of two outs as a foul ball that apparently glanced off Cabrera's ankle was called fair. If he had played soccer, the over dramatization of a ball to the ankle would have forced the umpires to call that a foul ball.

Here's some smart, but no brainer, managing. Contreras and White up in the Bullpen. This saves Rivera an appearance and Pettitte from a Mark Prior type of usage.

Normally it wouldn't even be worth mentioning but the way many of the pitching staffs have been handled this fall, Torre deserves to have this recognized.

Speaking of strange bullpen decisions, can anyone explain why Jack used Pavano, his scheduled Game 4 starter? It's not like this is a must-win for the Marlins, who have achieved their objective of a split.

Speaking of strange bullpen decisions, can anyone explain why Jack used Pavano, his scheduled Game 4 starter?

He could have used him to (a) get some work in; or (b) get his World Series debut over with to try and reduce his nervousness on Wednesday.

In today's Star, Richard Griffin overreacts to Torre's lineup changes.

There is an aspect of speed at the top of a major-league order that cannot be explained by formulas, nor quantified by someone hunched over a computer dissecting historical statistics. Computers, for example, won't spit out the scene of Yankee consternation with Torre and his staff Pierre saw in the dugout when he approached the plate in the third inning of Game 1.

Yikes! The zombies are becoming hunchbacks.

It's ridiculous to assume that the Yankees need to, or are trying to, become more like the Marlins. Joe didn't drop Nick Johnson down because he's slow, it was simply that he hasn't been producing. Soriano may be fast, but his game is absolutely nothing like Pierre's, with last night an excellent example -- his homer atoned for a botched baserunning play. Speed has its limitations, too -- when you're down 6-0, it takes a lot of bunts and steals to make up the deficit.