As could be predicted, the impossibly hot Giants, Royals and Yankees were all cooled off a bit today. There is no way that these teams are going to play .800 baseball this year. The six run blown lead by the Royals today will be a test of their new found success. Success depends a lot on the mental aspect of the team and its individuals. A game like that can really shake a team that isn't used to winning. We'll watch that one closely.

The Giants and the Yankees were stopped by unbelievable performances by top stars on their game. The Giants were no-hit by Kevin Millwood. The Yankees ran into Alex Rodriguez at his best as he went 5 for 5 with six RBI including a grand slam.

Millwood, who was given away by the Atlanta Braves in what had to be a cash saving measure, was brilliant. Millwood had one year of injury in 2001 that limited him to a 7-7 record. But that year was sandwiched around years where he won 17, 18 and 18 respectively. Why give up a pitcher like that? Today he displayed the kind of pitching that was very Brave-like by limiting the Giants to three walks and no hits. Without taking away from Millwood's performance, I am still not sure that these Giants will hit consistently. Besides Bonds, there isn't a single guy in that lineup who has a career of consistent production. All that said, you can't take away from what Millwood did today.

Alex Rodriguez is a guy who is going to erupt on you if you don't bring your best stuff to the mound. Jeff Weaver did not seem sharp and his good fastball wasn't there. There are a lot of teams where you can get away with less than your best stuff. But you are not going to get away with that in Texas. Between Gonzalez and Rodriguez and Palmeiro and Everett and now Blalock and Sierra, you have a lot of firepower. Don't bring your best and you're looking at a ten spot.

Rodriguez is one of those guys who seems to have the world figured out. He oozes this confidense that you can't miss. Jeter has the same thing. They don't swagger. They don't look arrogant. They just look comfortable in their surroundings. Even when A-Rod struck out to end the game the night before when the Yankees won their second game of the series, he didn't look like a guy who failed. He looked like a guy who would come back another day to beat you. And that's what he did today.


Speaking of guys who have that certain confidense, Pedro Martinez is pitching tonight on Sunday Night Baseball. He doesn't have the same velocity as consistently as a few years ago, but he just knows how to pitch better than anyone else I've ever watched. I have watched Martinez and Clemens a long time and Clemens has most of his career behind him now. Martinez will have to pitch as long as Clemens to be compared in the same sentence. But Clemens never looks comfortable. He is always twitching and fussing. His uniform always seems like his enemy and it never seems to sit on Clemens correctly. Martinez is in total control all the time. Tonight is another typical dominating night for Martinez. He always seems like he can put any pitch he throws anywhere he want to pitch it.

Pedro just struck out his tenth batter in six innings. Jon Williams just mentioned that it was hit 88th game with ten or more strikeouts. That seems awful low. Let's see...he's been involved in 264 starts and 88 out of 264 is one third of his starts. I guess that makes sense. It just seems like it would be more than that. But what seems even more unreal is what in the world were the Dodgers thinking when they let Pedro get away? The Expos were short on money. That's understandable. Sad, but understandable. But the Dodgers back when they were bringing 3 million people in the stands every year? Man, they blew it didn't they?