Yesterday afternoon, the Yankees played yet another close game with Boston before completely breaking down in the 7th inning to seal the the defeat.

Any worries that Schilling would continue the fine form he showed against Cleveland last week were dispelled as Melky curved a line drive around the Pesky pole for the game's first run, 1-0.

A 30 minute rain delay interrupted a rough bottom 4th for Mussina which saw the Red Sox take the lead 3-1. Schilling fared no better in the 6th, when Jorge blasted in Alex and Hideki in with a 390 foot HR to right-center. Cabrera then doubled and Minky drove him home, 5-3 good guys.

Mussina ran out of fuel in the 6th as well, as HR's by Lowell and Varitek tied the score 5-5. Then the horrible 7th...

... the top 7th was fantastic, seeing the Yankees take the lead 6-5 on a Jeter solo shot over the green abomination. The bottom of the 7th was marred by poor play in the field by Abreu, Cano and Jeter, who had two errors in the frame. Throw in poor pitching by Proctor and Bruney and you have 5 runs for Boston and a 10-6 lead.

Mike Lowell had a good day offensively, and he had two interesting plays on the base paths. 1) He unloaded an NHL-style body check on Cano who somehow succeeded in tagging him out and throwing to first for a DP as he was tumbling to the ground. 2) Lowell also kneed Mientkiewicz in the head on a close play at first, causing multiple injuries including a concussion and a broken wrist.

I'm of the take no quarter/give no quarter school. Collisions happen in baseball... but make no mistake, sooner or later, what comes around goes around.

The Red Sox got one more run in the bottom 8th for the final 11-6 tally.

As difficult as yesterday's game was, the Yankees have the stalwart Pettitte going tonight. If they win, they'll have taken 3 of the last 4 games and will actually have a foundation to build on as they climb back to .500 and hopefully well beyond.