4-3 THE WRONG WAY: SOX LOSE SECOND IN A ROW TO NY

Here I am in my new Dustin Pedroia jersey (with Millar's old #15 on the back) and nothing to celebrate. Dammit.

Somehow Fat Billy got the best of the Sox tonight, though I'm still trying to figure out how. Clemens threw six innings and walked an astounding five batters while striking out only two, yet somehow, through some crazy weirdness, only gave up two hits.

He actually had a no hitter going until David Ortiz's monster shot into the left field bleachers to lead off the sixth. Since it was a lead off homer there was nobody on base at the time. The only other hit Clemens gave up was to J.D. Drew who singled through the right side to put runners on first and third in the sixth. That was the best rally the Sox generated all night. Unfortunately, Jason Varitek grounded out to end the threat.

The Sox had a number of hard hit balls against Clemens that just happened to be caught. Tough luck, I guess. Lowell and Ortiz both flied out to the edge of the wall in right center field. Pedroia hit two balls on the nose that were caught by Abreu in right. It may sound simplistic to say, but it was just never the Sox night.

In sharp contrast to Clemens lucky stinginess, Josh Beckett somehow gave up 13 hits, though to my eye didn't pitch markedly worse than Clemens did. Beckett only walked one and struck out six in six and two thirds innings. He didn't pitch spectacular ball, but he was good.

The Yankees three runs in the second inning came on a hard hit single by Posada, a walk to Cano, and then two ground ball singles that happened to find holes in the infield from Cabrera and Damon. Nobody crushed the ball, nobody hit a homer, or for that matter even a double, but the Yankees got hits and the they got just enough of them when they needed them.

Don't forget how these teams were before they started this series. The Yankees had just got their asses handed to them by the Tigers, 16-0 while the Red Sox had just come from creaming the White Sox 46-7 in a four game sweep. Now its the Yankees that are on the verge of a sweep.

As far as I'm concerned, tomorrow's game is huge. A win keeps the lead at seven games with 28 to go. A loss puts the lead at five games and gives the Yankees a huge boost. Ol' Schill has got to strap it on and shut 55,000 new yorkers up tomorrow afternoon. And a little offense wouldn't hurt either. In 18 innings against New York pitching the Sox have generated six runs.

AL East: Yankees are six games behind.

Tomorrow (Thursday): Curt Schilling versus Chien-Ming Wang. 1:05pm EST.

GO SOX!!