Let me preface this recap with the following: Moose is frustrating. This will be a given ALL SEASON. I don't see why anyone is acting surprised. As long as he is in the rotation (and doesn't somehow find Ponce DeLeon's fabled fountain of youth) this is what you will see. Mediocre starts with a few good ones mixed in. Basically a #5 starter on most playoff bound teams.

In any case, Mussina was mediocre last night and took the loss. Manny did most of the damage, taking Moose deep for a solo shot in the second and after a Pedroia singled in Jacoby Ellsbury, connected on a 2-run shot in the third. The Red Sox scored another run in the third to make it 5-0 when Youkillis, J.D. Drew and Varitek connected on 3 straight singles and that closed the books for Mussina.

Josh Beckett started the game for the Red Sox and was dominant for the first 4 innings before giving up a 3-spot in the fifth. Melky worked a walk, Damon followed with a double and Jeter drove in both and then came around on a Bobby Abreu double to make the score 5-3.

Jonathan Albaladejo then came in for 3 innings and allowed two runs in the fifth (Manny single, Youkillis single, J.D. Drew double) to get the game to 7-3 before turning the game over to Farnsworth and Billy Traber.

There was a little bit of drama with Farnsworth and Manny when Farnsworth threw a 97 mph fastball behind Manny's head in the 7th. The ump warned both benches and while the sportswriters and MLB/ESPN seem to want to make this into a bigger deal, no one on either team was particularly riled up. Heck, even Manny wasn't steamed as he even pointed out that A-Rod got hit on Wednesday by Boston reliever David Aardsma.

Finally, the Yankees did score two off Papelbon in the ninth (I like seeing that by the way - next time, when it is a save situation, knowing that you've scored a couple off their closer can't hurt the old pysche). Papelbon gave up a double to Jorge who scored on a Cano groundout and then a solo-shot to Melky (he's up to 3 now - remember, only 8 all of last season) before striking out pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui to end the game.