Given that the Yanks bullpen, besides Mo, is nothing special, and that the Red Sox make pitchers work, I don’t know that the Yanks get the clear edge there. 

It’s nice to see Yankees fans already claiming the division.  And people think Red Sox fans are arrogant?

Thoroughly enjoyed “The Godfather” reference as well.

Nice little series of events in the bottom of the 4th of the Yankees—Rangers game, as Vicente Padilla plunks Mark Teixeira for the second time to load the bases(though V-Pad [umm that kind of sounds like a woman’s personal hygiene product, sorry Vicente] was definitely not throwing at him) and Teixeira jaws at him. Well more like whines at him somewhat aggressively. A-Rod stepped to the plate looking to pick up his teammate, and did what A-Rod does best in situations in which he feels some kind of pressure to perform, he flailed and failed, chopping a hard(ish) hit grounder over towards what I believe was the second base side. The ball was fielded cleanly and slung over to second base in what looked to be a sure-thing double play. And yet, Teixeira dialed it up to a gear we may never see him reach again and went flying into second to break up the play. It was a cleaner break-up slide than you’ll often see; he even took the time to swipe the bag with his hand as if to say, “See, this was a legit slide!” It was a nice piece of aggressive play that didn’t hurt anyone and showed some of that competetive fire that is sometimes lacking in the great game of baseball.

Is there a way to change the default ‘refresh’ setting on the box score pages?  Whenever I click on one it refreshes every 60 seconds.  Not really needed when I look at them the next day, and annoying to be browsing the box and have the screen go blank for a second.

I click through to the box scores once in a while (like today to see how amazing Mauer has been so far this season), but not so often that having every link makes a significant difference.  I can find the box scores on my own if I want to.

Papelbon is aging Francona right in front of us.  If Daniel Bard is all they say he is and gets over the ‘I’m in the Big’ stage and settles down I can see the Sox letting Paps go in a year or two (I think he has a couple of arbitration years to go b/f being a FA) and handing the ball to Bard in the ninth.

I read ATH every day and have clicked on boxscores only 2 or 3 times this season.

Frenchy had some comments after the game about wanting to get back to what he used to do.  That’s not really what I’m looking for.

I still can’t even believe Failcoeur homered.  Yesterday was a dream.

@J.W. - As a diehard Rangers fan and Yankee hater,, needless to say that I was very disappointed at pretty much everything that happened after Nelson Cruz’ HR that put Texas ahead.  Except, of course, Tiexera getting plunked.  Your perception of him as a whiner is dead on, as I observed during his time here.  We were not at all upset to see him go.  I only wish he had the stones to charge the mound, so we could be rid of him for a while.  He IS a pesky offensive force, no matter that he is nothing more than a big crybaby.  He would have NEVER taken a slide that hard FOR the Rangers, kind of like Roger Dorn.  Anyway, win or lose, this is a series packed with emotion for us lowly first place Rangers fans, and, if we play the Yanks again after this series, we hope it’s in the ALCS so we can try a Division Series against somebody different…..

@Mike Green - Very good points about Mauer’s potential to hit .400, and the fact that he’s a catcher means he’s likely to have more days off, i.e. fewer ABs, even though he does DH sometimes.

The odds are stacked against anyone achieving the feat, but it’s always fun when someone makes a run at it.  The guy’s been a beast so far, and it will be interesting to see what he does the rest of the season.

Man, I sure do love baseball!