Whatís the best way to avenge a tough loss? Beat the snot out of Barry Zito. Oh, baby, when I heard that Giambi hit a three-run bomb off of his old teammate, in the second inning, I was set with my pleasure quotient for the weekend. Whatever else happens, it was worth it for that. Bernie responded too, going 4-5. He hit a homer, his first since May 10th. Godziller and John Flaherty went deep as well and the Yanks won a slugfest, 10-7 (Tejada had two more hits and Chavez went 4-4 for the Aís).

The 1973 Aís were honored before the game and my boy Reginald Martinez Jackson threw out the first pitch. (You were expecting Blue Moon Odom maybe?)

Jeff Weaver started, and had a mediocre start. He have up two in the first, one in the second, and one in the third. But he got through the middle innings before running into trouble again in the seventh. He hung in there on a lousy day is the way I look at it. I am not discouraged with the start. Of course if the Yankees had lost 4-1 I would be a little less forgiving.

Zito fell to 8-9, even though he still sports an excellent 3.30 ERA. I like Zito personally, but I love to hate him on the field. Heís just so nasty, that beating him is almost like beating Pedro: a treat to be savored. (Cause it wonít happen often.) Mulder is too non-descript to hate, and I love Hudson too much to hate him. Even when heís sticking it to the Yankees, I love him so much I want to marry him.

The beauty part is that the Red Sox lost again to the Orioles. Boston led 2-1 going into the bottom of the sixth when Baltimore plated seven runs. The Oís won, 11-2. Derek Lowe took the loss. Mike Timlin and Ramiro Mendoza both gave up runs, and Todd Jones gave up two in relief.

The Yankee lead is now 4.5. The Sox are in a slide since they played the Yankees and received all sorts of glowing reviews for their performance on and off the field. Red Sox fatalists are probably saying ‘I told you so,í at all of those who foolishly jumped on the bandwagon. But this Boston team has been resilient and instead of wilting against the likes of the Mariners and Aís (14 straight games starting August 11th), I think they could step up and excel in those games.

You never know.