Houston We Have A Slugfest

At the start of last night's game there was only one baseball sailing through space-the one thrown by astronaut Dr. Garrett Reisman in a ceremonial first pitch aboard the International Space Station. A few minutes later 2 more joined it in orbit, courtesy of back-to-back home runs by Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez.

Those 2 home runs launched an offense that was all systems go Wednesday night in the Bronx as the Yankees pounded out 16 hits and scored 15 runs-both season highs-en route to a 15-9 drubbing of the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees relinquished the lead twice during the slugfest before finally regaining it for good with a 4 run 5th and later cementing the victory with 4 more runs in the 8th.

The first of two against the Sox goes to the Yanks!

Additional Notes:

Each Yankee in the starting lineup had at least 1 hit. Jeter, Rodriguez, Matsui, Posada and Giambi each had 2 hits, and backup catcher Chad Moeller had 3.

Wang was knocked out in the 5th after allowing 5 straight hits-hopefully his performance tonight was just an aberration...LaTroy Hawkins pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief-hopefully that's not an aberration! Bruney got a rare save.

Tomorrow night, Round II with Moose on the hill.

GO YANKS!