Pain in the neck

I felt this one coming. As we watched Pedro Martinez take his warm-ups, I asked Christine if she thought tonight would be a clunker from Pedro. In other words, Pedro's good stretch was due to end.

Sure enough, it did. He lasted three innings, giving up three earned on seven hits and three walks. Even worse, he left the game with a stiff neck. Maybe I was a little too premature in believing Pedro found the fountain of youth when he tossed 130 pitches in his virtuoso performance on Sunday.

The Phillies trailed the Braves 6-0 in the 9th before making it interesting. Ryan Howard crushed a two-run home run, and they kept chipping away at Rafael Soriano to the point that Jimmy Rollins came up with two outs, two on and the Phils down by three.

"You feeling J-Roll?" I asked.

"No, you?"

"I don't think he ends the game, but he won't tie it."

J-Roll singled in a run, but the game ended in the next at-bat when Ben Francisco popped out.

Christine wasn't happy that I was getting some psychic vibes and that the Phillies couldn't lower their magic number from eight.

Red Sox: The Orioles bullpen blew up a pitching duel between Jon Lester and David Hernandez. Both starters left after six innings with the score tied at 3. But the Red Sox - highlighted by J.D. Drew's three-run homer - exploded for eight runs in the 7th and 8th innings. In the 9th, the Red Sox lead 11-3.