And Joba is ice cold. I’m not a professional lip reader, but I could have sworn Girardi said to Rothschild, when Joba had bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with a 10-3 lead and two outs, “I’m not bringing Mo in.” It was painful to watch. Thankfully, Huff cleaned up the mess and got the out, and the Yankees won the series opener at Fenway with another Janer.

Back to Soriano. I cannot believe all the RBIs lately. Six homers in six games? Amazing. Once he got that 2,000th hit he’s been pure gold. And how about Mark Reynolds: first time up as a Yankee and he went deep. Welcome, Mark.

There were plenty of others who showed up offensively, but I have to mention Ichiro, who batted in the ninth against reliever Drake Britton. Britton seemed to have a fondness for throwing high and tight. He got much too close to Gardner’s head and before that he buzzed Ichiro above the neck. Ichiro responded by hitting a chopper, legging it out for a hit and scoring. Well done.

And Pettitte finally had a solid outing until the seventh. My faith in him has been restored.

The game did have its share of sloppiness; there were errors and the Red Sox ran the bases as if they were the desperate ones, not us. But it was entertaining (until the bottom of the ninth).

I’m assuming I’ll be blacked out by FOX tomorrow afternoon – we’re always stuck with a west coast game – but I hope the boys keep up the good work. Their season depends on it.