THE PITCHER'S BEST FRIEND

***YANKS LOSE 5-3***

...and yet, miraculously, they're still in first place. Nova had a tough night. When you only give up 4 hits, but the opponents score 5 runs, you've done something wrong. I think the reason that Nova only gave up 4 hits, was because he couldn't throw a ball close enough to the plate for anyone to hit it. He only walked 5, but the Texas hitters probably should have taken more pitches and they certainly would have had more walks. All this goes away, of course, if the Yanks could have hit something other than ground balls.

"These are the saddest of possible words:

Andrus to Kinsler to Moreland.

A trio of Rangers, and fleeter than birds,

Andrus to Kinsler to Moreland.

Ruthlessly pricking our pinstriped bubble,

Making a Yankee hit into a double,

Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:

Andrus to Kinsler to Moreland."

(Apologies to Franklin Pierce Adams)

Hitting into 6 double plays is absolutely ridiculous. If baseball is truly cyclical, as I've often stated, the Yanks won't hit into another double play until two weeks from Sunday.

Phil Hughes is now on the DL with a "dead" arm, whatever that is. Maybe he should take up the knuckleball. With Hughes gone and Nova stumbling, the Yanks are down to Sabathia, Burnett and three days of rain.

***WHERE HAVE ALL THE RED SOX GONE?***

They lost again and would now have to win three games in a row to TIE for the worst record in baseball (providing certain teams lose all three). The Sox can't score: they're on a pace to score 620 runs for the season or less than 4 runs a game. They can't pitch: they have a team ERA of 6.79 which means giving up 1100 runs for the season. I'm no math major, but that can't be good.

Pedroia is hitting .348, no one else is over .260. Crawford is the most disappointing, hitting only .137 with no homers and 2 stolen bases. As to the pitching, Matsuzaka has an ERA of 12.86, Lackey's is 15.58. Both pitchers have given up more earned runs than innings pitched: Matsuzaka, 10 runs in 7 innings, Lackey, 15 in 9.

From Janice Hough:

"Now, the most famous food from Montreal is smoked meat. But for fans hoping to retaliate, unfortunately nothing is getting smoked in Boston these days except the Red Sox."

And you thought the Yankees had problems.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia for you history buffs: On this day in 1940, Bob Feller threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in Major League history. What's even more interesting is that the season STARTED on April 16th, and game 7 of the World Series still ended on October 8th. Are you listening, Bud?

CP-