Not so cut and dried

Same homeboy from previous posts, e-mailing me about having conflicting feelings on who should win. He now would prefer that the philthies win because he won't have to hear it from their fans like he would from Yankees fans.

He was offered a ticket (at face value) to Game 6. He asked for advice on what he should do with it. I told him either go or pass. Then we got into the series. Here's most of what I mustered, left clean for Corporate Big Brother's filters.

The best result would be for the Yankees to get shut down by Petey. They would be soiling themselves with angst at the prospect of a Game 7.

For me, the indignity of a city with a severe second-city complex putting one over on NY far outweighs the fallout from a Yankee victory.

They really messed up by starting Burnett yesterday. I could tell from the first pitch that he didn't have it. I was 100% sure after the first batter.

We didn't discuss it, but I was an advocate of starting Gaudin over lining up Burnett, Pettitte and CC to go on short rest. Punting the game would have been a more viable option, especially with a soft bottom of the order. The only issue with Gaudin would have been if he would have been knocked out so early so as to tax the bullpen. With a day off, that wouldn't have mattered and, as it turned out, he couldn't have done worse than Burnett. Knowing that he would only have to go 4 or 5 innings, I'm sure Gaudin would have done no worse than 3-run ball. That 3-run ball might have won them the game is beside the point.

They'll make the argument that, as it turned out, they had the tying run up twice...yeah, after being down by 6 going into the 8th. That's like being down 4-0, scoring 1 in the 88th, two more in stoppage time, have time for one more long ball from your own end with the keeper in the box, having it cleared out, the final whistle blowing with your opponent running toward your empty goal, and telling me you had a chance to salvage a draw.

On short rest, it's no guarantee that Pettitte's stuff will be any better than last time. The question is, will Pedro's smoke-and-mirror act work twice? As it is now, if they lose again tomorrow, they'll be saying, we got CC in Game 7, but, inside they'll be nervous. They'll be $h!tting bricks when, down by two in the B8 of Game 7, they see Cliff Lee on the mound for to get the last 6 outs.