Summary of the Day: July 19, 2006

One down...eleven to go. The Tigers, behind the arm of Jeremy Bonderman and the bat of Craig Monroe, beat the White Sox 5-2 yesterday. I said in yesterday's summary that Detroit's goal should be a split of the remaining 12 games. This game will hopefully give them some momentum to take the rubber match this afternoon. Today Kenny Rogers takes on Jose Contreras. That should be a great game.

The Red Sox won their second 1-0 game in a row, with Josh Beckett nearly matching Jon Lester's performance from Tuesday. It was also announced that Beckett agreed to a three-year, $30 million extension. This is the prime example of why the Red Sox are favored over the Yankees for the rest of this season and maybe beyond. When the Yankees wanted to add an ace, they traded for an over-40 Randy Johnson, who, while coming off a great season, was a sizable risk. The Red Sox, looking for a future ace to take the reigns from Curt Schilling, went after the 25 (now 26) year old Beckett. Which one would those teams rather have now?

Steve Nash now has a buzz cut, having trimmed off his extremely long hair. Thank God, he no longer looks like a little girl.