Did you notice what happened on Mike Mussina's 116th pitch tonight, after Juan (Jason Doesn't Play Here Anymore) Castro fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch with runners at first and second and the Twins leading 2-1 and the fans on edge and the winning streak on the line and seven good innings having already been pitched by Scott (Not MY Spot, Franciso) Baker and T-Phat! on second AFTER DRAWING A WALK and Lewwwwwwwwwww on first, finishing off a Lewtiful performance of hitting, fielding and throwing and Sweet-N-Sassy on the edge of her seat in Section 220 and RD's scorecard poised for the moment and then came pitch No. 116 and there was Castro with a single and T-Phat motoring home from second with more momentum than speed and a 3-1 lead and ...

... it was good.

And then Gardy showed us that he again believed in Boo's set-up arm and Boo teased the Yankees by letting them get their first 2 batters on base and then Bernie Williams grounded into a double play and Johnny (They Messed With Your Hair, Dude) Damon grounded out to end the inning with the Vice President warming up in the bullpen.

And then there were 2 more runs in the bottom of the eighth, a two-out rally started with a hustlin'-a$$ double by S. Cheeks Hunter followed by JustIncredible fighting off a pitch into left for an RBI single that he would NEVER have gotten in '05 and then there was T-Phat! again, bouncing a double into the left-field corner for the final run.

And Gardy teased the Yankees s'more by letting Jesse Crain pitch the ninth and despite his season's struggles he got Jeter, Sheffield and A-Rod easily, ending their night with a combined 0-for-effin'-12.

And the people in the stands sometimes chanted "Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck!" which may be a tad overstated, and the bullpen pitchers gave the ballboy props when he returned a beach ball to the stands after it landed on the warning track and we could laugh about Scott Baker's little problem, which S. Cheeks and Just did while the pitcher went into the dugout to, uhhhhh, adjust his belongings in the second inning. The nice ladies sitting next to RD and S-n-S filled us in of what was happening, courtesy of the 'CCO guys and El Presidente is pitching Saturday!

And the Bitch Sox and Cleveland lost and there could well be reason for hope and RD is feelin' giddy and wonders if he's gonna fall asleep designing the 2006 Twins' World Series ring in his mind while knowing that such a thought is quite a leap from a 5-5 start.

Peace, out.