Sox seem to like their new digs

Ever since that strange sight of Red Sox mimicking snow angels on the grass at Yankee Stadium after completing their historic comeback in 2004, I've always considered New York a second home for Boston baseball.

I know it's an extremely small sample size (less than two games), but the Sox are settling in nicely to their new second home.

I didn't know last night's game was on ESPN until I went to bed around 11 p.m. The rain pushed it too late for me to watch anyway, but it looked like I missed a good one. The Red Sox scored a run in each of the first four and withstood one shaky inning by Jon Lester (three runs in the 5th) and the first run given up by Ramon Ramirez this year to win 6-4. Lester finished with 10 strikeouts in seven innings. Jason Bay and Mike Lowell homered, and David Ortiz had two doubles. I have a feeling that tonight is the tonight he is going to finally put one over a fence.

Christine put the over/under for last night's game to end by 1 a.m. I said 1 a.m. give or take 10 minutes, meaning from 12:50 to 1:10. It ended at 1:13.

Things got off to a good start tonight. They scored four runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Papi and a three-run homer by Jason Bay. It's now 4-3 in the 7th. Joba Chamberlain, who might have other things on his mind, couldn't make it out of the 6th.

Phillies: They beat the Cardinals 6-1 last night and are leading 7-3 in the 5th tonight.

Injuries: Reports on Rick Ankiel are good the day after he bent his neck while crashing into the wall. Cole Hamels is still on target to start Friday, but suddenly Chase Utley's status is questionable because his foot is still injured after being nailed by Mike Pelfrey last week. Like the Phillies, the Red Sox' leading MVP candidate was scratched today with injuries sustained by beanballs. Even in a AAA rehab start, Daisuke Matsuzaka labored, and then Jacoby Ellsbury left the game early tonight because of a tight hamstring.

Wave that white Hank-y

Less than two weeks after the Yankees' brass popped open champagne to celebrate Manny Ramirez being shipped off to Los Angeles, Hank Steinbrenner is already saying wait 'till next year.

We're going to win it next year. If we need to add a top veteran pitcher, we'll do that. We'll do whatever we need to do. Next year we'll be extremely dangerous.

He said that Tuesday when the Empire was five games behind the Red Sox for the wild card with about a quarter of the season left to play. Hank says it's because the 2008 Yankees have been decimated by injuries more than any other squad in history. I really feel sorry for the $200 million men, especially when the low-budget, first-place Rays have lost Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford to injuries this week.

I have complimented the Yankees for making Joba Chamberlain a starter, but can we see him pitch, I don't know, maybe one full season before proclaiming him the most dominating starter in baseball? What an idiot. (Hank, not Joba.)

Red Sox: They were on ESPN tonight, but we didn't notice until the top of the 9th. I missed out on watching Jon Lester give up three earned on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings. Lester improved to 11-4 as the Red Sox beat the Rangers 8-4.

Mike Lowell was placed on the DL again. The Rays are waiting for a phone call from John Henry to concede the division.

Competitors: The Twins beat the Yankees (although according to Hank, the Twins' opponent tonight is irrelevant), and the Rays and White Sox are winning.

NL: The Phillies lead the Dodgers 6-1 in the 2nd. Ryan Howard, Greg Dobbs (not pinch-hitting) and Jayson Werth have each hit two-run homers. Mets won; Marlins lost.

Where's the reset button?

Today was one of those days - personally, professionally and especially baseball-y - I wish I could have a do-over for.

Josh Beckett had a decent outing, but was outpitched by Joba Chamberlain. The Red Sox lost 1-0, allowing the Yankees to climb within two. The Rays are playing late tonight.

I disagreed with the Yankees' decision to move Chamberlain to the rotation. Why mess with the shutdown bullpen he and Mariano Rivera provided? I thought it would be great for the rivalry to have Joba and Jonathan Papelbon duking it out at the end of games. Plus, I thought Kyle Farnsworth would be a disaster at Fenway Park in a close game. Tonight looked to be an example of that. In the 8th, the Sox had two on with one out against him, but in comes Mariano to shut the door. He faced six batters in his five-out save: three backward K's, a weak ground out, a fly out and a shallow single. Blech.

It appeared as if the Phillies would also go down 1-0 tonight to the Braves. As Christine says, when Kyle Kendrick gives up one run in six innings, you should win, but the story is that they lost 8-2 after heading into the 9th trailing 1-0. Brad Lidge came in, and he got beat around worse than at the All-Star game: five earned runs, four hits and a walk without an out. His ERA nearly doubled to 2.36. Clay Condrey allowed two more runs. Ryan Howard hit a clutch two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th to put the Phils on the board. Double blech.

Both NL East competitors won, so the Phils are again tied, but this time for second place with the Marlins, two games behind the Mets.

Defending the enemy

With both teams playing in later time zones (the Red Sox lead the Twins 6-5 in the 8th; the Phillies are tied with the Giants 1-1 in the 3rd), I'm not going to attempt to wait out either game.

So I'll chime in on the topic of the week out of New York: Joba Chamberlain's fist pump. I hate Joba, but primarily because he's a Yankee who's hard to hate. And I hate having to defend a member of the Empire (especially since I haven't seen the video footage), but living with Manny Ramirez, I can't pile on the pitcher.

Yes, it's bush league. Yes, I don't like it. And I wonder why it was necessary to do it in this spot. Yes, he got "revenge" for David Dellucci's pinch-hit homer earlier in the week, but when you're a stud reliever, you're supposed to get Dellucci out 8 of 10 times.

But a lot of players show similar emotions, so you just have to live with it. Unfortunately, grandstanding players like Joba and Manny just make you have to eat more crow when they don't pull through. But they're superstars for a reason, so they don't have to eat humble pie too often.

But some of the Yankees fans are comical. One caller to WFAN had the nerve to say Manny is showboating and disrespectful while Joba is just showing emotion. I wonder if Joba fist-pumped tonight. Oh yeah, he didn't pitch - the bad guys lost again. I wonder how the kid is going to react after getting an out in a big game, say a postseason victory.

[Photo credit: Getty Images]