The Day Got Better and Better

When I got up yesterday, the news was spreading like wildfire that Cliff Lee was heading to New York, as a deal by the Mariners was supposedly 99% completed.

Not good, I thought. But later in the day, it was revealed that the Mariners got cold feet about one of the prospects the Yankees offered in the deal, and instead sent Lee to Texas with Mark Lowe for big time prospect Justin Smoak and three other minor leaguers. That was good to hear.

I was at MCU Park for the third time this year, watching the Brooklyn Cyclones play the State College Spikes. (Cyclones won, 4-2.) Seems like whenever I have to follow the Sox game while I'm there, they don't do well.

But every time I went to check a score last night, the run total for the Red Sox kept climbing. And climbing. It was 10-0 by the third, and then 13-0 by the fourth. The whoopin' sticks were out last night in Toronto, as Bill Hall, Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron all launched home runs for the Sox. The hideous sweep in Tampa was a memory.

Jon Lester was beneficiary of all the runs, and he went six innings, allowing just two runs. The final was 14-3. The Rays were beaten by the Indians in St. Pete, so they gained a game on second place Tampa Bay. But New York won again, as the Mariners, without Cliff Lee who was scheduled to pitch before the trade, rolled over like dogs like just about everyone in the Yankees' way these days, so the Red Sox are still five agmnes back, two behind the Rays for second.

John Lackey takes the mound this afternoon in Toronto, the penultimate game before the All-Star break.