All square

The Yankees got yet another great pitching performance from Andy Pettitte last night and beat the Red Sox 6-2 to tie the ALCS at 1-1. There's never as much fanfare surrounding Pettitte as there is surrounding the other Yankee pitchers (Mussina, Clemens, Wells), but he once again proved why he's the guy Joe Torre wants on the mound in those key postseason games - last night's win was Pettitte's 12th in the postseason, which moves him into second place on the all-time list, one game behind John Smoltz.

The Yankees clearly didn't panic after losing Game 1 in New York, and at the same time, the Red Sox clearly didn't collapse in Game 2, so this series is now nicely balanced heading into Game 3 - I guess that the Red Sox, prior to the series, would have signed up for a 1-1 split heading back to Boston...

This thing is now effectively a 5-game series, so it's going to be an interesting weekend of baseball in Boston (and New York, if it goes beyond Game 5). Tomorrow's game is a mouth-watering clash between Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez - a former Red Sox hero going up against a current Red Sox hero. One or two figures, just to put the clash in perspective - on the mound there will be a combined 476 career wins, 6525 career strikeouts and 9 Cy Young awards. The game - one of those 'miss it at your peril' ballgames - may end up a 15-13 slugfest, but I think it's unlikely...