Season's over, no need to watch

After Hank Steinbrenner declared his team dead when the Yankees were five games out at the three-quarter mark, Jimmy Rollins now says fans shouldn't boo because the Phillies are already in the playoffs.

Huh? What did I miss? When I woke up, I heard the Phillies blew Wednesday night's game, their third consecutive loss, and are now tied with the Mets for first place.

The whole thing was, look, here we are in the playoffs, we’re at home, we’re in first place. There’s really nothing to boo about. We’re not going to win every game, as long as we win by one when it comes down to the finish. But, go out there and support us. When [struggling catcher] Carlos Ruiz comes up to the plate, don’t boo him because you want [backup Chris] Coste in the game. This man has a job to do today. Encourage him to do his job to the best of his abilities.

And that was the clarification of calling Philly fans front-runners. He said he was sticking up for his teammates, not himself. Yeah, that's because the Philly fans haven't booed the MVP, even though he hasn't played well this year - not even after he was benched for not showing up on time for a game against the Mets. I have a feeling that's going to change next week at Citizens Bank Park, especially if the Phillies continue to play like they have been against the Dodgers.

Christine always gets indignant when national media drums up decades-old incidents to paint Philadelphia fans in a bad light. I think it's worse when they're done in by a man they have really cheered for. A player, by the way, who spoke so highly of the fans' passion in Phillies commercials this year.

Games: Phillies trail the Dodgers 1-0 in the 4th. I'll recap the loss tomorrow. Oops, I'm being a front-runner again. The streaking Mets won; Marlins lost.

Red Sox: Good game by Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K, now 14-2, went seven innings, giving up six hits and five walks, striking out five. His pitch count was decent considering the number of walks: 115.

The Red Sox beat the Rangers 10-0. Nine of those runs came in the 2nd inning, highlighted by a three-run homer by David Ortiz.

Competitors: The Rays won a tough game, but might have lost Troy Percival to injury. It's weird; I want the Red Sox to win, but I'm also rooting for the Rays to make the playoffs and show Hank that it's possible for a team decimated by injuries to gut it out and win. White Sox won, Twins were off. We're three behind the Rays, but lead the Twins for the Wild Card by three.