Still Tied At The Top


Yankees rookie Robinson Cano hits a 7th inning homer

AND THEN


dressed up like a cheerleader in a kinky Yankee rookie hazing "tradition"

The Yankees and Red Sox both won their games yesterday to leave the AL East knotted going into baseball's final regular season week.

The Yankees won their final regular season game 8-4 as Chien Ming-Wang won his 8th game of the season behind Cano's two-run homer in the 7th and Gary Sheffield's three-run homer in the 8th. It was their 12th win in their last 14 games and they finished 53-28 in the Bronx.

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Jason Varitek scores in easy win

Meanwhile the Red Sox completed their three game sweep of the Orioles with an easy 9-3 victory yesterday.

Unlike the Yankees, who have played their last game of the home season, the Red Sox have played their last road game of the regular season.

The Red Sox will play host to Toronto for four games starting Monday. Then they welcome the Yankees on Friday.

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Royals celebrate their unexpected victory

The Indians finally gagged on a game, losing to the lowly Kansas City Royals yesterday as Cleveland center fielder Grady Sizemore lost Paul Phillips' ninth-inning double in the sun, allowing Angel Berroa to score the winning run for the Royals in a 5-4 victory in Kansas City.

The loss dropped the Indians AL Wildcard lead to a half game over both the Yankees and Red Sox and, coupled with the White Sox third consecutive victory, now drops them two and a half games behind for the AL Central lead.

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Jimmy Rollins maintains a 30-game hitting streak in the middle of a wildcard race.

In the National League, the Phillies kept charging, defeating the Cincinnati Reds 6-3 which, coupled with the Astros 3-2 loss to the Cubs, moved the Phillies to within a game of the Astros. Both teams have 6 games remaining.

Chase Utley added his first career inside-the-park homer and Cory Lidle turned in his longest outing in seven starts as the Phillies improved to 39-39 on the road this season, including 6-3 on the trip that ended Sunday.

The Astros have two at St Louis to face the Cardinals and then move home for the final four games of the regular season against the Chicago Cubs.

The Phillies will now host the Mets for three games and then travel to DC to close out their season against the Nats.

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Jets Lose Game And Both QBs


If this guy is Joe Montana, he's Joe Montana playing for the Chiefs, not the 49ers.

Well, you can pack up the welcome wagon and send those horses running off in all directions. The Jets season is over and we might as well start looking for a new head coach now.

Bad enough to start a season full of hope with a pathetic one win in three games. The Jacksonville Jags did us one better, they knocked starting QB Chad Pennington out of the game with YET ANOTHER right shoulder injury and then for good measure, knocked backup Jay Fiedler out of the game as well which necessitated Pennington coming back in, injured wing and all, to go 3 for 8 for 15 yards to close out the game.

Some offence this Heimerdinger lad's got us running.

Oh yeah, the Jets lost, 26-20 in overtime.

Bengals Believers


Chad Johnson, scoring one of two of his TDs on the day

Cincinnati, which entered the game with a league-leading 10 takeaways, picked off Bears quarterback Kyle Orton five times and the Bengals became the first NFL team in 34 years to intercept five passes in consecutive games. Let us not forget they are coached by Marvin Lewis, architect of the Ravens World Championship defence a few years ago.

The Bengals, now 3-0, defeated the Chicago Bears by a comfortable 24-7 margin

QB Carson Palmer was 16-of-23 for 169 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Chad Johnson, and did not throw an interception against a Bears defense that picked off Detroit's Joey Harrington five times the previous week.

The Bengals offense, which averaged 462 yards over the first two weeks, finished with 244.

Pack Is Sacked Again


Shelton Quarles gets a blow

If you're looking for a team more pathetic than the Jets, try the Green Bay Packers who not only lost at home to drop to 0-3 on the season, but had their 13-game home victory streak against the Bucs snapped. This is the worst start for the Pack since 1988, when Miracle Boy Brett Favre was still a sophomore back at Southern Miss.

The Buccaneers, 3-0 for the first time since 2000, got two touchdown receptions from Joey Galloway and two interceptions from safety Will Allen in winning at Lambeau Field for the first time since Sept 10, 1989.

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, the first NFL rookie to start his career with three straight 100-yard games, rushed for 158 yards on a sprained foot and has 434 yards rushing so far, besting Ameche's mark of 410 set in 1955 for the Baltimore Colts.

Pats Top Steelers, Again



They didn't humiliate them with the same flair as they did last time these two teams met but the New England Patriots got the job done anyway with a last-second Vinatieri field goal to win 23-20.

The Patriots, badly depleted by injuries, withstood the longest scoring pass play against them in 15 years and two turnovers inside the Pittsburgh 10 to rally in the fourth quarter behind Brady, beating the Steelers 23-20 Sunday on Vinatieri's 43-yard field goal with one second remaining.

The Patriots won in the same stadium where their own record 18-game regular season streak ended last season with a 34-20 loss on Oct. 31. They came back 2½ months later and manhandled the Steelers 41-27 in the AFC championship game, the second time in four seasons their road to a Super Bowl title ran through Heinz Field.

Just as in that game, the Patriots (2-1) all but took away Pittsburgh's running game -- Willie Parker, coming off consecutive 100-yard games, was held to 55 yards - and forced Roethlisberger to try and beat them.

Roethlisberger, who hasn't lost to any other team in 18 NFL starts, counting the postseason, wasn't much better than he was in that AFC title game loss, when he threw three interceptions. Under a heavy rush, he went 12 of 28 for 216 yards in his first loss in 16 regular-season starts, despite going against a badly depleted Patriots defense.

So that makes two QBs, Roethlisberger and Indy's Peyton Manning, who only lose to the Patriots.

Colts Still Unbeaten, then again They Haven't Faced The Pats


Robert Mathis celebrates a sack of Cleveland's Trent Dilfer. The Colts defense led Indianapolis to a 13-6 win.

Peyton Manning was 19-of-23 for 228 yards with one interception against his old nemesis, Crennel, who had won six straight against Manning since 2001 as Patriots defensive coordinator.

Still, Manning did enough to become the second-fastest quarterback to top 30,000 yards passing in his 115th game. Miami's Dan Marino did it in 114 games.

A tough defence and a feeble offence. Looks like Tony Dungy has finally succeeded in turning the league's most potent offensive juggernaut into a version of the auld Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Fish Shock Again


Delhomme gets roughed up in the Florida Marlins infield

Maybe it wasn't so shocking. After all, the Carolina Panthers were a week removed from shocking the NFL with it's relatively simple defeat of the New England Patriots and were probably still in the clouds by the time they had to play the Dolphins.

Dolphins Safety Lance Schulters intercepted Panther QB Jake Delhomme with 2 minutes left to set up Olindo Mare 's game-winning field goal, and Miami won 27-24.

Rookie Ronnie Brown rushed for 132 yards for Miami, while Carolina lost despite Smith's 11 catches for 170 yards and three scores, including a 53-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter to tie the game at 24.

Sunny, 85-degree weather likely helped the Dolphins, who are accustomed to the sweltering subtropical climate. They improved to 43-8 at home in August and September since the NFL merger in 1970.

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Other significant news: The Chargers won their first game of the season and the Giants lost their first, all in the same game, the Eli Manning Bowl.