Em and I went to the ABC outlet in the South Bronx today to get a carpet.  Em has been wanting to get a new rug for more than a minute.  So off we went.  Should have been a twenty-minute ride but it turned into an hour plus Bruckner Avenue, Robert Moses-Thanks-For-Nothing Organized Konfusion nightmare–bumber to bumber traffic jams, wrong turns, lunatic drivers, getting cockamamie directions on the cell phone, and a rash left turn that almost lead to an accident, followed by shock, anguish, tears.  One thing was for sure.  We weren’t leaving ABC without a carpet.

And we got one.  Really ties the room together (you know I’ve been beating that to death all day too, right?).  The ride home was trauma free even if the Red Sox scored two first inning runs against Andy Pettitte and we had to listen to John Sterling tell us about it.  We had made it through the rain, we got a smashing rug and the wife was laughing again.  As we sailed up the Major Deegan, Robinson Cano, molten hot, tied the game with a solo dinger in the fourth.

In the sixth, the Yanks turned a 3-2 lead into a 7-2 margin thanks in part to run scoring hits by Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez.  Later, in the eighth, Curtis Hanson walked Bobby Abreu with two out and Jose Molina on third.  By now the rug was in our apartment and the wife was floating around the place, beyond thrilled.  She was getting herself a club soda in the kitchen as Rodriguez came to bat. 

I told her that Rodriguez was likely to get hit.  "It’s terrible that that needs to happen," she says.  I reminded her aboiut Joba throwing at Youkilis’ head.  "You’re right," she says, "you’re right.  I still think it’s stupid."  Sure enough, Rodriguez got plunked, right under his right tricep.  It was a stinger but he didn’t riff and there was no further incident.  Then Giambi got the best kind of revenge with a five-pitch walk, bringing up Cano.  

I’m not one to feel overly confident in my team during a game, at least not often, but I just knew Cano was going to hit something hard, and most probably do something good.  Sure enough he did–lining a double, his third hit of the day, that clanked off the Green Monster.  The romp was on, the final: 10-3.  Andy Pettitte wasn’t great, he struggled early, but he was decent long enough to get the win.  The bullpen threw four scoreless inning.  Xaiver Nady and Damasco Marte, the new Yankees, both played; Nady walked and scored a run in four times at bat, and Marte struck out David Ortiz with two men on and one out in the seventh inning in his one-and-done debut.

In all, this has to be one of the most satisfying Yankee wins of the year.  It’s their eighth straight, gives them another series win, a beautiful thing with House Money Ponson going tomorrow night.  Tim McCarver had a comment during the game today about how you can’t exactly measure confidence but it sure makes a difference when a team has it.  Sounds obvious, of course, but the Yankees are playing with confidence right now. 

That is nuthin but fun city for us.  Yipee.