Aaron Boone came up to bat for the Yankees in the top of the ninth with the Yankees down a run to the Orioles. The Yankees had runners on first and second with one out. Boone was mired in a terrible slump as he started his Yankee career with six hits in fifty-one at bats (a .117 batting average!). The Yankees' bullpen blew a great performance by Roger Clemens the previous half inning, denying Clemens his 305th win. This was the time for Boone to come through.

Boone pulled the first pitch hard foul down the third base line--no balls, one strike. Boone took the next pitch the opposite way and the ball hit inches right of the right field foul line. Typical for a man in a slump to just miss a game tying double. Boone then took a slider outside. And then a pitch came pouring in towards Boone's hands. Boone brought his hands in and swung quickly. The ball jumped off his bat and flew down the left field line. The third base umpire ran down the line...and called it foul.

Boone jumped into the air and ran across the diamond--a stupid move fortunate not to be noticed. The Yankees screamed. When you're batting .117, this is the worst thing that can happen for the new guy in an embarrassing starting slump. Fortunately for baseball, the umpires consulted and the home plate umpire overruled the call--by the replay correctly--and Boone became a New York Yankee with a game winning three run homer.

Lost in the shuffle of the hour long ninth inning (Rivera again struggled in the ninth but got the save with one run scored) was a curious call from Torre to the Yankee bullpen an out into the eighth inning after Clemens struck out the first batter. Torre brought in Jesse Orosco, who looked every month of his forty-seven years and blew the win. The Yankees better hope Gabe White will join the club soon and save Torre from making that mistake again.


Sammy Sosa single-handedly beat the Dodgers for the second time in a week as he collected both RBI in a 2-1 complete game win for Mark Prior. Prior looks so good it's scary. Sosa now has 78 RBI in his 97 games. The Cubbies are back on top of their division by a half a game. As Mel Allen would have said: "How about that."


Randy Johnson, like Mariano Rivera, just isn't the same pitcher this year. The Braves hacked him up tonight for seven runs to push his season record to 3-5 with a 5.05 ERA after ten starts.


The Cleveland Indians beat Tampa Bay tonight 1-0 to improve their record to 8-2 in the last ten games. C.C. Sabathia pitched a complete game shutout to improve his record to 11-7 with a 3.28 ERA. With Hafner and Broussard blossoming as rookie hitters and pitchers like Sabathia and Anderson, the Indians are going to be a really good team in a couple of years.


The White Sox are suddenly tumbling again as they have lost three in a row. This is such a strange and exciting season as both Central Divisions in both leagues feature teams flip flopping back and forth in the standings. Between the Central Divisions and the wildcard races in both leagues, it's going to be an exciting last forty games of this season.