PINBALL WIZARD

Ted Lilly is up in the zone, and we're not talking about the pitches Ramon Hernandez was calling for up. If you watch his delivery, he's not following through and he has shortened his stride. He's lost 2-3 mph on the fastball and his breaking stuff is floating up and away. He managed to strike out the side in the first without overpowering stuff. All three hitters missed swinging. It could be that Lilly's delivery might actually help since the hitters have been looking at tape of Lilly with the re-worked delivery.

The A's defense hasn't helped Lilly at all and Ken Macha sure looks like a guy who has left his team without focus.

Derek Lowe looks outstanding, getting ground ball after ground ball. Lilly was getting groundballs, too, but Chavez couldn't make a play on one, Hatteberg seems to think he's still at a catcher (have you ever seen a 1st baseman try to catch more balls thrown at him in his chest?) and Tejada booted a sure double play. Then Chavez and Ramon decided they wanted to dance up and down the 3rd base line and got nailed for interference allowing Boston to score their first run.

Ken Macha flipped the line up, Chavez 'hitting' 4th and Tejada 'hitting' 3rd. Terrence Long is playing and batting 8th. Why? Why is Byrnes with a .330 OBP hitting 9th behind a guy with a .293 OBP? At least Billy McMillon is in left field.