Some Joementum For The Yankees? The Yankees and Dodgers were tied 3-3 after 5 innings last night. In the top of the 6th, LA starter Jeff Weaver had thrown a total of 27 pitches after he intentionally walked Miguel Cairo to load the bases with two outs. Javier Vazquez was scheduled to hit, but Joe Torre did not opt for a pinch-hitter. Vazquez made the third out -- he lined out to second, but I don't know if it was hit hard or softly.

Back out on the mound, at 86 pitches through five innings, Vazquez allowed a leadoff single to Adrian Beltre. Two of his first three pitches to Juan Encarnacion were wild and Beltre was able to advance to third. On a full count, Encarnacion doubled to left and Beltre scored. When Alex Cora dropped down a bunt, Vazquez's throwing error allowed Encarnacion to score. ... That was the end of Vazquez's night. The Dodgers added a run in the 7th and won the game 6-3.

By welcome contrast, Terry Francona had Mark Malaska warming up with the Red Sox down 7-2 in the 5th. When Boston rallied (thanks to some fielding straight out of the Bad News Bears) and took a 9-7 lead, Francona tried to buy an inning with the already-warm lefty. It didn't work. Two of the first three hitters reached (walk and single) and Tito quickly went to Mike Timlin. ... Excellent move. Almost immediately, Timlin got a 4-6-3 double play to end the Giants rally. Then he pitched the 6th and 7th, throwing only 21 pitches in his outing. When Alan Embree faltered in the 8th, Keith Foulke got up and ended up pitching the 9th.

It was a great (and fun) win. Kevin Millar drilled a pinch-hit three-run home run (in the same inning that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez went back-to-back). Ortiz's HR was an absolute bomb, just to the right of dead center. Boston got consecutive home runs from Trot Nixon and Doug Mirabelli in the 9th.

I had to listen to the Giants announcers on Fox Sports Net last night. And honestly, they weren't that bad. But they were a little confused in the early innings. In the bottom of the first, as second batter Michael Tucker swung and missed, one of them said that the Giants hadn't hit even a foul ball off Wakefield yet. Now, Wakefield had just thrown his 5th pitch of the game -- so big deal -- but leadoff man Ray Durham had fouled Wake's 3rd pitch down the first base line. ... And when Mirabelli took a strike to open the 3rd, we were told that Jerome Williams had thrown first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 18 Red Sox batters. But only 16 Boston batters had come to the plate at that point -- there had been a first-pitch strike to 13 of them.

Pedro/Noah Lowry at 3:15 pm.
Bonds against Pedro: 11-for-30 (.367) with 3 doubles, 1 home run, 10 walks and 7 strikeouts.