Sports Redux: Start Spreadin' the Boos

It's pretty sweet, isn't it? The Red Sox are going into Yankee Stadium for the last time (OK, OK, the last time during the regular season), Tim Wakefield made a more-or-less triumphant return to the rotation, the bullpen pitched as well as it has all year, and Alex Rodriguez was booed off the field by the Bronx more-or-less faithful. And the mighty Rays are stumbling, so the Sox are right back in this thing. It's a good day.

Wakefield fell behind, 2-1, but the Sox scratched out a couple in the third and a few in the fifth to take a 6-2 lead. It was 7-3 in the seventh when Manny Delcarmen decided to make things interesting, loading the bases on a hit and two walks with one out. Enter Justin Masterson. Enter Alex Rodriguez. Double play. New York booed, then sat down. A-Rod had already bounced into one inning-ending DP, struck out, flown out weakly, and still had an error left in him. "I screwed up anything that could be screwed up," he said afterwards.

Happily, the win was combined with the Tampa Bay loss and also one by Minnesota. So the Sox lead the Twins by 2 1/2 and New York by six in the wild card, but they're almost back to being a sweep away from taking first back from the Rays. Rumor has it the Sox are scrambling to pick up Mark Kotsay from the Braves, since J.D. Drew's going to be on the shelf for a while.

Dan Shaughnessy, who's been on vacation since the Manny trade, is back at work....well, back to mailing in lists of Red Sox-Yankee moments that might contain something new or illuminating to someone who just moved here from Tristan da Cunha.

The road-weary Revolution dropped their first CONCACAF game 2-1 to Joe Public, the champs from Trinidad. The two will meet again in Foxboro next week, where the Revs have to win by at least two or suffer the indignity of a series of tiebreakers.

You know that scene in A Clockwork Orange where Malcolm McDowell has his eyes propped open so he can't look away from the state's propaganda? That looks pretty good, compared to what Buzz Byrne did for Pink Hat Hell: he listened to WEEI for twelve hours straight.