Yay, Pedro schooled the worst hitters in baseball!

Record: 8-5

Whoops, sorry about that previous post folks! It would appear that marginally talented blogger and Walt Whitman fan Ed Cosette from Bambino's Curse broke into ECA World Headquarters at some point and made a post posing as me! I don't know how he got in here, or how he found the time without interrupting his obviously rich social life, but rest assured Mike is foregoing his Babylon 5 marathons and Hentai gaming until he's beefed up security here at East Coast Agony.

So yeah, taking 3/4 from the Yankees was certainly good, but before Red Sox Nation starts jumping up and down declaring the Evil Empire dead, let's remember our results from the first series against our no good neighbors over the past few years:

2001: Took series 3 games to 1 (remember Manny's awesome single through Rivera's legs?)
2002: Took series 3 games to 1 (Darren Oliver was the winning pitcher in the first game? I don't remember that. Maybe my brain won't allow me to grasp that as a concept)
2003: Only a 3 game series this time, Yankees took it 2 games to 1

Early season success against the Yanks doesn't appear to factor much into our overall record against them, as they've won the season series all three of those years. It was good that it was our backup crew, complete with THIRD string first baseman David McCarty starting (because Terry Francona has the same brain chemistry imbalance as cliff divers and snake tamers that makes him secretely hope he dies from doing his job poorly) was able to get the job done, but the be fair this isn't the same Yankees group we'll be seeing in September. Every single starter for them looked AWFUL, especially Rodriguez, who apparently played in a division where no one throws breaking balls. A few other random notes:

Mark Bellhorn should be starting over Pokey Reese every single day D-Lowe is not on the mound. He has an amazing batting eye and has shown he can hit for power (20 homers could be a lucky break, 37 homers however denotes SOME skill is obviously there) and has an incredible batting eye. Of course, for some reason he was being pitched to as if he were Barry Bonds with men at second and third in a tie game, but anything is better than seeing Pokey failing to check his swing at a ball thrown at his head, or seeing him panic and swing when the pitcher throws over to first.

Kevin Brown has the most evil sinker I've ever seen in my life. It's just as heavy as D-Lowe's, but easily 4-5 MPH faster. I still am fully confident he'll get hurt before the All Star break, however

When Torre is wearing those sunglasses, he's sleeping. I don't care how often people have already made this joke, I SAW his head start to droop forward and he was drooling a little. Without Crazy Zimmer there to whisper sweet nothings in his ear, I think it's even harder for Joe to sit and concentrate on staying awake so he doesn't enter the bittersweet fantasy dream world where his nose doesn't resemble Mr. Potato Head's.

As far today's game, the only thing that matters is that we won. And, Pedro was good. However, the news isn't all good. The Blue Jays are stuck in the worst collective offensive rut since the 2001 Mets, so both his "good" games coming against them doesn't suddenly mean he's out of danger. Also, and I know velocity is overrated, he was really reaching back on the two occasions I saw him throw over 90. In the past few years, 90-91 is what he threw at comfortable, and when he reached back he could hit 94-96. This all pales in comparison to the 97-00 golden years when he literally threw 98 MPH on every single fastball, but regardless I don't think he can repeat the last few year's success with that kind of heat. Also, Carlos Tosca had this to say:

"He doesn't appear to be throwing as hard, and his arm angle seems to be lower," Tosca said. "He's pitching at around 88, 89 and I've seen 93, 94 with his arm slot higher." Tosca thinks Martinez has lowered his arm angle because he might be hurt. "Obviously, something has gone on which would make him think that that's what's best for him."

Maybe he's just annoyed because we swiped Scott Cassidy from them in exchange for a book of car wash coupons, or he's just trying to rile the Sox fans, but either way it's still something to worry about. A start against New York and Texas will be better indicators of whether Pedro's going to be okay, or a constant source of torment. He gave up two runs in 7 innings though, which should be taken at face value. One of the runs wasn't even earned, and the other one had something to do with Johnny D screaming "Caveman Powers Activate! Form of: Badly Misplayed Turf Bounce!!" out in center field.

Here's hoping this is the last "I'm worried about Pedro" post for awhile, I've been neglecting my Mike bashing lately because of them.