Brown Stinks Up the Joint; Kay Compliments Halsey

As a Yankee despiser, I loved seeing Kevin Brown get knocked out after two-thirds of an inning on Sunday in the second laugher in a row, this time 11-4. Hey Brown, go punch another wall. Oh, the smile it brought to my face. Then Loaiza came in, and the Yankees had no chance. I tell you, it gives me hope for the playoffs that the Yankees are beatable. And it had to be a great psychological boost for Boston to be the Yankees' daddy for a couple of days...

Kenny Lofton grounded out and complained that Doug Mientkiewicz (however that's spelled) kept his foot too much on the bag. So in the eighth inning, Boston reliever Pedro Astacio threw behind Lofton and was ejected right away. The YES commentators called the attempted-plunk gutless, stupid, and pointless. A half inning later, Yankee southpaw Brad Halsey threw one right under Dave Roberts' melon. He was tossed, and the YES play-by-play man Michael Kay said something to the effect that Halsey had a terrible year, but he just earned his teammates' respect with that move. The color guys agreed (naturally), saying that you have to protect your teammates, reiterating that Astacio was a coward... After the break, they showed the replay a couple of times, and Kay asks his booth mates, "But was throwing at the head a bit much?" No, you schmuck. It's too bad he missed killing the guy. So Girardi and Kaat said yeah, he should have thrown lower... But this shows you what a coward Michael Kay is. He can't criticize a Yankee because George will get ticked, so he asks a dopey question to make his point without explicitly saying what he thinks. This way he can say, hey, those guys said it, not me. Jerk.

So what do I take out of the weekend? First, if Vazquez and Brown can't beat Boston in a big spot, and if El Duque is out of gas, forget the Yankees winning this year. And with the Angels winning two out of three, they're only a game back, so they have a chance to step in and face New York in the first round. I'm starting to like them better than Oakland as far as who can beat the Yankees because they seem to be the more complete team. They hit for average, run, field, and have the best bullpen in baseball, especially now that Paul Quantrill's arm is officially dead. The starting pitching is suspect, but the Junkees' starters aren't much better, so let's go Anaheim! Make it like 2002 and give me a postseason I can truly enjoy!