It's the ninth inning of a scoreless game between the Red Sox and Blue Jays. Roy Halladay and Jon Lester had both pitched brilliantly, holding the other team scoreless through eight innings. Papelbon came on to help Lester, but with the shay back end of the Toronto pen--closer B.J. Ryan coming off TJ surgery, setup man Jeremy Accardo with an ERA over 8--the game was Halladay's to win or lose.  Three times already, he'd gone the distance, but had lost two of those games when Toronto failed to muster enough offense to give him the win. Would this time be the charm?

With two outs, Ortiz worked him for a walk. Manny Ramirez poked a sinking liner to center. With a depleted bench, Ortiz would have to run for himself. Sure enough, Kevin Youkilis, his upper hand delicately fluttering on the bat handle, the bat waving in the air, sliced a liner into short center. Vernon Wells, seeing Ortiz lumbering around third, set himself up for the throw.

Continue reading "Roy Halladay's Heartbreak"

In the days following the excavation of the "cursed" Ortiz jersey from the fresh concrete at "Yankee Stadium--The Sequel" we've seen Jorge Posada go on the DL for the first time in his long career, and ARod join him for the first time since donning pinstripes.

A plague of flies on Joba Chamberlain in last year's playoffs, the attack on poor Alexa Rodriguez at Fenway earlier this season by a maniacal hawk--is there a biblical curse on the Yankees, or is the natural world merely rebelling against the pollution-spewing NYC denizens? All I know is that I'm going to check the weather report very carefully the next time there's a rainout in New York, to see if it's real precipitation and not frogs or blood . . .

But in all seriousness, this does point to two disturbing trends. First, the slow crumbling of the Yankee dynasty. Of course, it's far too early for dire prognostications of AL East doom, but with the resurgence of low-rent teams like the Rays (did the "Devil" in their name gravitate to the Yankees? Is Steinbrenner's pact with the devil losing steam as his health declines?) and the continuing strength of the BoSox, the loss of these two players is going to be hard to overcome.

Continue reading "Yankee Injuries = Ortiz Curse?"