Jesus Is Loose, and He Saves

Where were you when Jesus Montero hit his 1st major league home run? I was sitting here at the computer. Not on hand at Yankee Stadium II.

Good thing, because that game would have driven me crazy had I paid the big bucks to see it unfold in front of me. Especially to see Scott Proctor back in a Yankee uniform.

Scott Proctor? And Boone Logan? Pitching for the Yankees? In the same damn game? As they say in the U.S. Army, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"

It should surprise no one that the Yankees, with those 2 numpties pitching for them, allowed 10 runs, even to a pathetic team like the Baltimore Orioles.

The O's chased Freddy Garcia with 1 run in the 1st, 4 in the 2nd, and 2 more in the 3rd. They scored single runs in the 5th, 8th, and 9th -- including one off Mariano Rivera!

Somehow, the Yankees did enough scoring of their own. Mark Teixeira hit his 36th homer of the season in the 1st, Robinson Cano hit a grand slam in the 2nd, Montero hit his 1st in the majors in the 5th, and his 2nd in the 7th.

That gave the Yankees an 11-8 lead, but the O's did score those single runs in the 8th and the 9th, and they had the tying run on 3rd and the potential winning run on 2nd, before Mariano got the last out.

Another "Whew!" But these Yankees are showing that they have the character to do what needs to be done: Yankees 11, Orioles 10.

WP: Aaron Laffey (2-1). SV: Rivera (38 -- 5 more for the record). LP: Jim Johnson (5-5).

Fortunately, John Sterling did not use the obvious line: "Jesus saves!" Instead, he used the Spanish pronunciation, and said, "Jesus is loose!"

Throw in Brett Lawrie's walkoff homer for the Toronto Blue Jays, being Pesky in the Yankees' favor as well as their own, for once, and you have a 1-0 Red Sox loss.

The Yankee game is 11-10. The Sox game is 1-0. Who cares: Both results are favorable to us and unfavorable to The Scum.

This home series with the Orioles continues tomorrow night, as an increasingly distressed Oriole manager William Nathaniel Showalter III (Buck now looking a bit older than his 55years) sends Tommy Hunter out against Phil Hughes.

*

Jeter hits 3065 DONE
Rivera saves 597 5
A-Rod homers 628 135
A-Rod hits 2768 232
Magic Number 21 (to eliminate Scum, 14 for Rays, 6 for Jays, O's done)