No Curse For This Kennedy

The third of the Yankees' trio of future aces made his debut for the Yanks today, and color me impressed. Ian Kennedy gave the Yanks 7 strong innings en route to his first big league win, striking out 6 along the way and only allowing 5 hits. A-Rod hit his 45th bomb of the year (and later had his bat confiscated. I'm expecting a suspension from Bud Selig any minute now), and even Joe Torre's negligent bullpen management couldn't cough up the lead.

Here's a hypothetical for you: Say you manage a major league baseball team. Say you're I don't know, maybe 4/5 of the way through the season and you have one reliever who you've used more than any other reliever in the league. Say that reliever came to you a week ago and complained of a "tired" arm. Say you have a 6-run lead in the eighth inning of a game. Would you bring that reliever in, or use a guy who has a fresh arm? Well, if your name is Joe Torre, you bring Vizcaino into the game, then seem a little shocked that you have to call on Mo in the eighth inning for a four-out save. I wonder why there are rules for Joba.

The Mariners lost to the Blue Jays, so the Wild Card lead stands at 2 games. Boston is currently beating Baltimore 1-0 in the third inning, if that score holds up the Yanks will remain 5 games behind Boston in the East.

Pettitte takes the hill tomorrow, going for the series win.

Player of The Game: Ian Kennedy. The rook gets the nod because A-Rod dropped a pop-up.