Projo Sox Blog

The trip ended in the wee hours this morning when rookie Brett Gardner outdueled Jonathan Papelbon and delivered a game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving the celebrating Yankees (above) a 5-4 win and a split of the four-game, holiday-weekend series. Joe McDonald looks at the battle from Gardner's point of view while Sean McAdam gives us Papelbon's perspective. The fans' feelings? That was best articulated by Chad Finn under the appropriate headline &$%#@*&! (If your windows were open just before midnight last night, you probably heard that very sentiment expressed in full voice as, writes McAdam, Manny Ramirez watched -- and didn't swing at -- three pitches from Mariano Rivera to end the 10th.)

One interesting side note to last night: McDonald reports that the Yankee-Red Sox tong wars may have been reignited by Kevin Youkilis and Joba Chamberlain.

'A DORMANT VIRUS . . . just waiting for a trigger to become active again.' That's how the New York Post's Joel Sherman describes the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, and he thinks Chamberlain/Youkilis could be that trigger.

THE LEADUP: The series had started well enough as far as Boston was concerned, as Jon Lester tossed a complete-game shutout Thursday night and the Sox followed that with a 6-3 win on the Fourth of July. But then they were shut down by Mike Mussina -- and their own inexplicable inability to hit with the bases loaded -- in a 2-1 loss Saturday. McDonald has all the details.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL . . . It's old news now -- and it even landed Johnny Damon on the disabled list (New York Times) -- but we'll long remember Damon crashing into the wall and the ball teetering on the top of the fence before falling back into the field of play (left, AP Photo). McAdam has the report.

LUCKY SEVEN: The Sox may have lost last night, but they -- and the Cubs -- were the big winners yesterday afternoon as both teams had seven players named to their respective All-Star squads. McAdam answers the rhetorical question how a second-place team can have more All-Stars than anyone else with a concrete answer: One has nothing to with the other. The standings, he writes, "aren't about the number of All-Stars you have. They're about how well all of your players -- stars and role players alike -- perform." Right now many of the role players, mainly the ones in the bullpen, and at least one of the stars (more on that in a moment) aren't performing well enough to keep the Sox at the top of the heap.

COME AGAIN?? The selection that has everyone shaking their head is Jason Varitek, for reasons we articulated pretty loudly last Thursday. He was actually voted in by the players and McDonald finds him appropriately grateful.

NOT A 'TEKKIE: Others are appropriately apoplectic. ESPN.com's Keith Law, in the midst of a rant about some of the omissions (including Jon Lester), had this to say about Our Captain: "Varitek has been so bad at the plate this season that he's below replacement level for catchers -- that theoretical player who any team could grab from Triple-A to fill that roster spot." Who'd have been better? "[Various] multicellular organisms capable of wearing a catcher's mitt."

INTERESTING POINT: Peter Abraham says Varitek's selection in the player vote shows just how much A.J. Pierzynski -- specifically mentioned by Law as being better qualified than Varitek -- is hated by his peers. (LoHud Yankees Blog)

AS FOR THE REST . . . McDonald caught up with many of the Sox' selections, including Youkilis, Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew. He also talked to Mike Lowell, who admits to being disappointed about being left out. Selecting the team, says Terry Francona, was no easy task; McDonald talked to him, as well.

QUIBBLES: Baseball Musings' David Pinto doesn't think Pedroia should be starting at second base over Ian Kinsler, or that Ramirez belongs on the team. But he thinks Drew should have been a starter. No word on Varitek, though.

NOTE: This is a correction of an earlier post, in which I misread what David had written. My apologies.

COOL MOOSE: Mike Mussina says he's okay with his All-Star snub because there are "just so many guys who can go." (New York Daily News) Besides, he's accomplished what he set out to accomplish this year: Prove to everyone that he can still pitch.

IF HE MAKES IT, HERE'S WHAT TO DO: The Yankees who made the team: Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, who were voted in by the fans, and Mariano Rivera. Jason Giambi is on the Internet ballot for the 32nd position on the team and Jim Rice provides a scouting report on how to pitch to him.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: All the Yanks' stars -- and even their bubble candidates -- are in their 30s, and McAdam writes that that's part of their problem, since this was the year they were supposed to begin getting younger.

ROYAL STATEMENT: A friend of mine made an interesting observation about the Rays on Thursday, on the eve of their wraparound weekend series with the Royals: "This is big for them. They're coming off a sweep of the Red Sox. It's one thing to be up for the games against the contenders. But good teams don't have letdowns; they beat the bad teams. Let's see what they do now this weekend."

What they've done so far is win three straight with ease, including yesterday's 9-2 romp which, writes Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune, "[reinforces] the notion that [the Rays] aren't inclined to play down to lesser competition." Joe Maddon says it's another example of Tampa Bay's whole being greater than the sum of the parts. (St. Petersburg Times)

SUM OF THE PARTS = TWO: And that, of course, referred to the fact that the Rays -- owners of the best record in baseball -- had only two players named to the A.L. All-Star team. (Tampa Tribune) That is one more than they usually get, and the blog Outs Per Swing prefers to accentuate the positive . . . and urge fans to get out the vote for Evan Longoria, who is one of five players listed on the Internet ballot for the 32nd and final spot on the roster. The St. Petersburg Times' John Romano has one complaint: He thinks Terry Francona should have chosen Joe Maddon as one of his coaches.

LOOKING FOR MORE ENERGY: They may have the best record in baseball, but the Rays still feel the need to use gimmicks to lure fans to The Trop. The latest: Free gas if you car-pool to the first game after the All-Star break. (Bugs and Cranks) The blog Curt's Bloody Sock may not think it's such a good idea to increase the number of Rays fans in one place, since he finds them -- or at least the ones he encountered during last week's Rays-Red Sox series -- to be "pompous, spoiled, arrogant" . . . and another word I can't use here. (Beware the NSFW tinge to the post.) Bugs and Cranks may have supported his point by describing the Blue Jays, the opponent in the get-free-gas game, as "perennial losers/cellar dwellers."

Perennial losers? They're had winning records in 6 of the last 10 seasons. Cellar-dwellers? They've finished last once since Tampa Bay entered the league . . . and that was the only year the Rays didn't finish last in those 10 years. The number of seasons the Rays lost 99 or more games exceeds Toronto's total number of losing seasons since 1998. I mean, I understand winning for the first time is intoxicating, but let's be real here, shall we?

Can't imagine our pal Tao taking this lying down.

LOOKING TO BEAT THE SOX HERE, TOO: The Denver Post reports the Rays are pressing to acquire Brian Fuentes from the Rockies.

SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING JOE MORGAN WOULD DO: Joe Posnanski, writing on joeponsnanski.com, couldn't stop laughing at the cartoon on The Trop's scoreboard in which the heroic Rays destroy Dr. Stat, who wants to "use his knowledge of useless statistics to destroy the game."

THEY'RE REALLY SOMETHING: Writing for the Kansas City Star this time, Posnanski identifies the difference between the Rays and Royals: Good players. More specifically: "For years, the Royals have had players with talent who could become something. But in Tampa right now, they have players with talent who are something."

THE DEAL: The trade season officially began yesterday when the Brewers, as rumored last week, apparently won the C.C. Sabathia Sweepstakes. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has learned the identity of the minor-leaguers headed to Cleveland and the blog Baseball-Intellect breaks down the transaction from both sides. Foxsports.com's Ken Rosenthal says the trade is a lesson in the new baseball order: Prospects are power.

GO WITH OUR GOOD WISHES: There's no bitterness towards Sabathia on the blog Let's Go Tribe! "Go get your ransom, C.C.," they write. You've earned it."

ON THE FRINGES: McAdam tells us the Red Sox did some sniffing around but were never serious players for Sabathia. They're just happy he didn't end up in New York or Tampa Bay.

WHO'S NEXT? And now that the Sabathia domino has fallen, other teams are shopping in earnest. Among them:

-- The Cubs, who are pursuing the A's Rich Harden. (Chicago Sun-Times)

-- The Phillies, who may make a run at the Mariners' Erik Bedard. (Trenton Times)

-- The Yankees, who will work out free agent Victor Zambrano. (New York Daily News)

MEDICAL REPORT: Fresh disabled-list entrant: Mike Napoli (Los Angeles Times) . . . A new candidate: Adam Loewen (Washington Post) . . . Brandon Inge, however, is working his way back (Detroit Free Press) . . . The White Sox also anticipate the returns of Bobby Jenks and Paul Konerko. (Chicago Sun-Times)

HERE AND THERE: The Miami Herald reports that Alex Rodriguez' wife will file for divorce today. An A-Rod confidante says Cynthia Rodriguez believes Madonna has "brainwashed" her soon-to-be ex-husband (foxsports.com) . . . Ryan Church says his absence from the Mets' lineup yesterday was because of a migraine and wasn't related to the concussion he suffered earlier this year (Newsday) . . . The Phillies have reached agreement on a three-year contract extension with Brad Lidge (Philadelphia Inquirer) . . . The Mets are thinking of moving Carlos Beltran to the No. 2 spot in the batting order. (New York Daily News)

-- ART MARTONE