It's always a party when the Yankees and Red Sox get together.

The Yanks made it two in a row as they pounded an erratic Tim Wakefield and the BoSox, 9-5, on Friday night in Beantown.  Chien-Ming Wang was good enough and Scott Proctor may have ignited a fire under the Yanks when he hit Kevin Youkilis in the bottom of the ninth.  I was listening to John Sterling at the time and he seemed surprised with the whole scene.  Sterling didn't even realize that Youkilis was hit by the pitch.  Glad he's doing play-by-play on the airwaves.

The Good:

Robinson Cano.  Cano was bumped up to sixth in the batting order and he responded with a two-run homer in the second that gave the Yanks an early 2-0 lead.  Looks like Robbie has turned the corner.  He finished 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs.  

Jorge Posada.  Jorgie's three-run double in the fourth broke the game open and gave the Yanks a commanding 9-3 lead.  I keep expecting Posada to fall into a funk, but he refuses.  I like that.  He went 2 for 5 with 3 big runs batted in.

Joe Torre.  Again, I was listening to the radio during most of this game so I'll assume Bobby Abreu was safe on the attempted steal of third (John and Suzy thought so).  The Yanks have been hosed on more than a few calls during the season so it was just a matter of time before Torre blew up.  I'm not big on guys freaking out in order to spark the team, but I think Torre's ejection may have done the trick.  He was arguing a call with the Yanks up 9-3.  It just shows that Torre didn't want the Yanks to become complacent and that every run is important.  Good show, old boy.

The Bad:

Seven pitchers used.  Wang was off and delivered only 5.2 innings of ball, but it shouldn't take 7 guys to finish a game when the Yanks score 9 runs.  The Yanks did receive some bullpen help as Matt DeSalvo was sent down and righty Chris Britton was called up.

The Ugly:

Nearly four hours of ball.  If you like your baseball games loaded with walks, wild pitches and errors, Friday night was for you.

Act II will feature Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina on Saturday afternoon. 

Is everybody ready for the encore?