Afternoon Baseball

Shawn Chacon's picture on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard has him looking as if he's surprised, as if he's just had a photog jump in front of him and snap his picture. The same look could have applied to how he faced the Red Sox lineup Saturday afternoon.
He started off well, getting two outs and pounding David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez inside with hard stuff. But then he lost Ortiz to a walk after being ahead, and then dumped a terrible (and slower) fastball over the inside part of the plate that went for a long HR.
From then on, Chacon was afraid to pitch. Against the Red Sox, that's a fatal error.

The Yankees' offense, on the other hand, was useless and made Schilling seem like a fully recovered pitcher, which he probably is not. At least not yet. But with a solid, if not safe, lead in the AL East, the Red Sox can feel lucky to count that as a pressing concern. The Yankees are in a tie with Oakland, but both are looking up at the Cleveland Indians. The Indians' trio of Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook and Kevin Millwood may only have a combined record of 36-29 (and Lee accounts for all of that positive margin), but that is in large part due to lack of run support squandering excellent pitching.

My old friend and work-study co-worker John predicted almost 2 years ago that 2005 would be Cleveland's year. He may just yet be correct.