Look, one thing you can say about the "Manny being Manny" hoopla and the annual "will the Red Sox trade him or won't they" controversy that occurs twice each year (once at the trading deadline, again during the offseason) it can't be denied that Manny Ramirez is a great ballplayer, full of enthusiasm, and it is, indeed, a joy to watch him play. You never want to see your team lose, but it's a much better feeling know that it was at the bat of a great player like Ramirez, who went 2-for-5 with two homers and three RBIs in yesterday's 8-7 win by Boston over the M's, rather than a ninth-inning three-run home run off the bat of, say, Marco Scutaro.

Undeniably, I was very much impressed by Manny Ramirez in yesterday's ballgame. Much more impressed then the last images I had of Manny playing against the M's, was last July when Manny was kicking the ball around left field and then pointing at Coco Crisp to retrieve it as if Coco was Manny's personal caddie. Very interesting, and amusing, to watch, and of course his play was dismissed as "Manny being Manny." The M's won that game with a memorable inside-the-park home run by Beltre, but yesterday the M's were beat by Manny being Manny at his best.

Color me unimpressed by Daisuke Matsuzaka, however. I'm not sure what return you should get from a $100 million investment in a starting pitcher, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that having the first three batters lead off the game with bases on balls is far from it. Admittedly, I turned the game on just at the tail end of the first inning, so I missed Matsuzaka's struggle with his control. But his numbers in two games versus the M's break down as the following: 12 innings, 13 hits, 10 runs, all earned, six walks, and five K's. The Red Sox should feel lucky that the Mariners aren't a divisional rival.

I wonder what it is about the M's line-up that unnerves Maisuzake so much, with successful results against Dice-K? Is it the presence of two Japanese regular hitters, who may be familiar with Dice-K's offerings? Has the 'battle of the blood type' all but decided, with the Mariners' Japense blood types coming solidly on top?

Speaking of being unimpressed, it's hard to win when the first four batters in your line-up combine to go 0-for-13, as the M's 1 thru 4 managed to contribute yesterday. Sure, they did score six runs as they were smart enough to keep their bats on the shoulders when Daisuke was unable to find the strike zone, but when you compare Ibanez's hitless in four at-bats day, with a measly RBI on a fielder's choice, compared to Manny's day from the Boston four-slot, you can understand the advantage the Red Sox had the Mariners in yesterday's ballgame.

This advantage was assisted in the poor showing on the mound by Horacio Ramirez. Unable to match the feat of dominating a line-up with little experience against him, as Miguel Batista was able to do with the White Sox in yesterday's ballgame, the Red Sox had a field day against Horacio's offerings, collecting 14 base runners in four innings. Watching the game yesterday, it didn't appear that Ramirez was throwing up soft-toss batting practice offerings a la Jeff Weaver. Instead, he struggled to find the outside corner all game that can make him effective. With a 45% walk rate (43 walks our of 96 pitches thrown the Red Sox were able to be patient and wait for mistakes to feast upon. And feast they did.

Ultimately, as I predicted even if I got the score wrong, the game was decided by the teams' bullpen. The M's bullpen picked up another solid outing in relief of Horacio's early departure, pitching three solid innings before Manny's game-winning off of Chris Reitsma in the eighth. perhaps the most disappointing fact for Reitsma was that Manny's homer came right after Chris made Ortiz look foolish by striking him out on a curveball in the prior at-bat. Oh well. You can't win them all the time.

Regardless, the M's come into New York sitting a game over .500. I'm sure that everyone affiliated with the M's, from the players to the manager to the front office, are breathing a sigh of relief that their record is where it stands. Today was to be the day that Felix made his return to the mound, but with the Mariners looking to give Felix a little bit more time and not rush him off the DL and jeopardize the health of his arm, he won't be returning until the next time his turn in the rotation comes up, on May 9th. And so, in a match-up right out of the World Baseball Classic, Korean right-hander Cha Seung-Baek has one more audition to prove that he's more Meche than Weaver and thus deserves a spot in the rotation, and faces off against Japanese left-hander Kei Igawa.

There is not much history by these two pitchers facing off against their opponent. Baek has one career appearance against the Yankees, in which he tossed five innings of three-run ball in a no-decision, with those three runs being the result of giving up a three-run home-run to Bobby Abreu. Kei Igawa's season has not gotten off to a good start, with his 2-1 record burdened by an ERA over 6.00, twice allowing seven runs in a start. Having all ready been briefly demoted to the bullpen, Igawa made a case for his return to the rotation by tossing six scoreless innings in relief against the Red Sox last weekend. Igawa does have better splits at home and against right-handed batters, so unless Hargorve inserts Broussard into the line-up to get anotehr lefty in there, the M's may not be able to beat up on Igawa as other teams have. Still, they just did finish giving a far superior Japanese pitcher fits, so don't be surprised to see the M's come out on top. Final score, 8-5, M's.