The Old Man Was Pure Spun 24 CT. Gold

45 year old Roger Clemens spun a beauty last night, taking a no-hitter into the 6th inning and finishing 6 complete frames, giving up 2 hits and 1 run. The final score was Yankees 4, Red Sox 3. Josh Beckett gave up all four runs and a career high 13 hits as he was outpitched by Clemens handily. And the Sox learned that they will be without the services of Manny Ramirez for two weeks with an oblique strain on his left side. This is the latest, from the Boston Globe.....

"Red Sox chief internist Laurence Ronan examined Ramírez yesterday, and the team later announced that Ramírez had a strained left oblique (side) muscle, which he aggravated with a swing during his last at-bat Tuesday. "He's still pretty sore," said Francona, who said Ramírez has had back problems off and on for six weeks.
"He's done an admirable job of playing through it," Francona said of Ramírez, who came out of Tuesday's 5-3 loss to the Yankees in the seventh inning, one inning after he was charged with an error for failing to pick up Jorge Posada's single. "I don't want people taking unfair shots at him."


There's gloom everywhere for the first place club, but most of those "negative waves" could vanish with a win by Curt Schilling this afternoon. He HAS to be our stopper. First pitch will be shortly after 1:05pm EST. He'll be opposed by Wang, who throws a heavy sinker when he is right. If we see a lot of fly balls in the early innings, that would be a good sign. Especially if those fly balls have some legs and get over the outfield wall. Schilling is coming off a tremendous start in his last outing. We have to hope for more of the same and get the lead back to 7 games. 5 games just doesn't sound right.

I hope each and every one of you will have a great Thursday as the Red Sox try to salvage one game in this 3 game series. If not, the world won't end, I promise you, but which would YOU rather have.....a 5 game or a 7 game lead? I'll leave that choice up to you, Constant Reader.

Please click on the title of this post for the Herald's Tony Massarotti's no-holds barred look at the state of the club without Manny and the weaknesses that have begun to show, faintly but clearly, razor sharp. And root for that club from the Hub, our Boston Red Sox, as Schill goes in his biggest Yankee Stadium start, by far, since the "bloody sock" game in that magical year of 2004. Thank you for being here and reading me, and I'd love to see your comments.