Give the Devil His Due
Like him or not (and I do not), Randy Johnson shut the White Sox down for six innings last night, proving a number of his critics wrong, at least for the moment. Johnson’s no-hit performance through six was so good that it managed to overshadow his minor meltdown in the seventh (single, walk, double, double, yanked). Maybe a few people saw this outing coming, but I sure didn’t. We’ll see going forward if this was an anomaly or if Johnson can find some consistencty.
Overuse caught up with Kyle Farnsworth (well, that and a regained infatuation with his slider) and Mo continued to hiccup a bit against the White Sox. I’m not sure whether this is something to be concerned about, as Mo has been markedly less dominant since the all-star break, or if it’s just a bump in the road. I recall him enduring a similar “effective, but not dominant” stretch around this time last season. Something to keep an eye on.
The Red Sox are teetering right now, no doubt about that. But, again, if writing the Yankees off in May was a mistake, so is writing the Red Sox off right now. They’ll get Wakefield, Nixon and Varitek back soon enough and they’ll make a run. It’s a matter of how much distance the Yankees can put between themselves and the Red Sox before that happens. The Red Sox were kicking themselves for not being able to shut the door on the Yankees, and the Yankees could very easily find themselves in a similar position come September. Don’t print those playoff tickets just yet.
Pinstripes and Pessimism 
see? now don’t you feel a little better about yourself writing entries like this?
i feel exactly the same. i was wrong about johnson last night. i’ve been wrong before, and i will be again. that doesn’t change my opinion on how the season will end.
Mariano typically has dry spells like this once or twice a year: In the beginning to the middle of April, and from mid-July to early August, I think he’ll be over it soon.
johnson is like a box of chocolates you never now what you are gonna get…kinda of like beckett except johnson is a hall of famer right know and beckett is not there yet
i think the trick is to quickly figure out which Randy you have during a game
and have a long-reliever ready to go in case ‘ace’ Randy is not there
he makes that difficult, though. he’ll set the side down in order in the first and second, on 20 pitches, and then give up three runs. then work around a couple of walks and get out of an inning, then give up four more runs. next thing you know, you’re down 7-2 in the 5th.