GAME 108: Yankees vs Red Sox

Lineup via PeteAbe
YANKEES (65-42, First Place AL East)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
Pitching: RHP Joba Chamberlain (7-2, 3.58).

RED SOX (62-44, Second Place AL East)
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez C
Youkilis LF
Ortiz DH
Drew RF
Lowell 3B
Kotchman 1B
Lowrie SS
Pitching: RHP John Smoltz (2-4, 7.12).

Rivalry Weekend: It's Yankees vs Red Sox in a 4-game series in the heat of a pennant race. The Yankees are in first by 2.5 games, but as everybody knows, the Yankees are 0-8 this season against the Roid Sox. This is a big weekend for both teams and can argue who it is more important for.
Joba the Heat: Joba Chamberlain is 3-0 with an 0.83 ERA since the All-Star break. He has allowed only eight hits over 21.2 innings while striking out 19 batters.
Locked In: Nick Swisher is 11 of his last 34 with six extra base hits and Johnny Damon is 10 of 22 with two home runs and six RBIs.
Who's in Left? Kevin Youkillis will play left field for the Red Sox tonight, as Yankee-killer Jason Bay is dealing with a bad hamstring.
Welcome to the Bronx, Big PA-P.E.D.: It's David Ortiz's first game in Yankee Stadium since finding out he tested positive for PEDs in 2003. Although I believe chanting "steroids" would be hypocritical, the Red Sox fans did have their fun with A-Roid, so expect the Yankees fans to get a bit creative and boo a bit louder with Roidtiz.

UPDATE 6:56: Word on the street (and by street I mean various tweets on twitter) is that David Ortiz will address last week's steroid report to the media on Saturday at Yankee Stadium before the game in joint presser with Micheal Weiner. Weiner is the guy replacing Donald Fehr...interesting.

UPDATE 7:14: Joba looks a little too pumped up. He just gave up a double and quick walk to Victor Martinez. Girardi out calming him down.

UPDATE 7:16: And Joba gets Youkillis out, and Ortiz gets booed. Still getting booed. And they are not stopping. Good job Yankees fans.

UPDATE 7:56: There is non stop screaming going on in my living room after that play. Why on earth would Posada not slide on that play? I tmakes zero sense. Posada just cost the Yanks to strike the first blow in the game. I am still baffled on why he did not slide. Martinez was standing up for Christ's sake. Very frustrating.

UPDATE 8:00: Well that sucks. Pedroia just hit a Yankee Stadium home run after throwingout Posada last inning and it's 1-0 Red Sox. Thanks alot Posada.

UPDATE 8:16: Johnny Damon ties it up in almost the same spot Pedroia hit his home run. Tied at 1-1 in the third.

UPDATE 8:21: Four hard hit balls that inning and only one run. That could be a sign the Yankees offense is about to erupt.

UPDATE 8:26: Think there's no problem with Yankee Stadium and home runs? Just watch this game. All three would have been outs anywhere else. 3-1 Red Sox.

UPDATE 8:38: Posada scored without sliding and Cano got an RBI with a RISP? What is going on this inning? 3-2 Red Sox.

UPDATE 8:43: Melky Cabrera is clutch. And that was no cheapie either, as it goes saling into the second deck. 5-3 Yankees still nobody out in the fourth.

UPDATE 9:03: I was so excited over the Posada 3-run HR I forgot to update it on the blog. Anyway Jorge won't have to worrry about not sliding into home plate as he blew the lid off this game. 9-3 bottom 4. See how Joba responds inthe 5th.

UPDATE 9:17: One out in the fifth. Oh yeah, and Joba walked the bases loaded and now Mike Lowell is up.

UPDATE 9:23: Well that was almost disastrous. Joba strikes his way out of further trouble and it's 9-4 Yanks after 4 and a half innnings. That has to be it for Joba, who labored through 5 innings, but is in line for the wins.

UPDATE 9:59: So Robertson strikes out 3 batters and can't finish the inning. The first strikeout of the inning was a passed ball and Ellsbury reached first so he is safe but it is still recorded as a strikeout.

UPDATE 9:59: Yankees just acquired Chad Gaudin from the Padres. Yeah, I have no idea what to make of it, I guess he's better than Mitre.

UPDATE 10:22: We're bringing in the fresh legs...er... hands to finish the blog for the game, as it's Jim here taking over.

We love giving Michael Kay a hard time sometimes (check that, all the time) but before when they were talking about Posada possibly hitting for the cycle, Kay told a story that was relevant and that he had never told before (at least to my knowledge).

While discussing whether Posada was capable of hitting a triple, Kay mentioned that Posada actually pinch ran in the 1995 playoffs. I never knew that.

UPDATE 10:30: In case anyone was wondering, according to Baseball Almanac, the longest 9 inning baseball game in MLB history took place on August 18 in a game between (guess who) the Yankees and Red Sox. That game lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes.

UPDATE 10:37: So, the plunking of Pedroia adds some intrigue to the rest of this series. And while Pedrioa didn't go try to take out Jeter at second base, he changed his mind at the last possible second. You can tell because that was one of the ugliest slides I've seen in a while.

UPDATE 10:39: Rob Cano doing his best Derek Jeter impersonation right there. Pretty play.