The Red Sox announcers are right. The strike zone was ridiculous all night, and the pitch to Lowell was way inside.

The last pitch to Drew, however, was brilliant.

Wow, the Sox lose to the Yanks and the Sox's announcer think there was bad officiating? Really? Wow, that's hard to believe.

Take it from this Yankee fan: Lowell was (and the Sox announcers were) right. The pitch wasn't close.
The umpire was just terrible, but not one-sided, just terrible. An embarrassing performance.

i was at the game. Youk wasn't diving into anything, it was at his head. The fourth time you aim at the same guy's head one strains to find ways to call it coincidence. The umpiring was awful.

In fairness to Joba Youk's head is so big that balls get sucked in by the gravity of it.

Oh, so you were at the game rob c? I guess you obstructed one tim eview from the bleachers makes you an expert relative to the rest of us who saw 100 close-up replays on TV. Typical RSN tool "but I wuz there!!! with my pink sox hat rockin'!!"

9 innings + 0 runs usually equals a loss. Not the umpires fault.

That was a disgraceful performance by the umpires. Lowell had every right to argue that pitch. From Papi's first at bat to the last call of the game, that was about as inconsistent as I have seen a game umpired.

Was it a close game, absolutely; was Joba very good, definitely; was that the widest strike zone I have seen for half an inning at a time, without question. Why should such an important game with potential playoff implications be left in the hands of such an incompetent official?

And can we get a valid excuse as to why Joba feels the need to thrown high and tight against Youkilis? Maybe it is a convenient lapse in command, or maybe the guy is just an a**hole. Nothing like a meaningless warning to settle the score. Thanks Marty Foster!!!

Dave, I'm sorry. I've been reading this site for a while and I enjoy it considerably. However, I have to take issue with this whole Youkilis/Chamberlain thing. Youk does have a tendency to lean towards the plate a bit; having grown up watching Mo Vaughn, I feel I've learned a bit as to when someone leans in as opposed to when someone takes an inside position. That being said, Youk doesn't crowd the plate, not nearly as much as Ortiz or Jeter anyway.

Even assuming that Chamberlain was only protecting the plate, the problematic thing for me is that he throws at Youk's head. This is the 4th time that it has happened. The end result this time is that Chamberlain gets a strike, both benches get a warning, and Beckett is done for the game because Francona isn't going to put him back out there to, at the very most, get 2 outs then drill someone in the ribs.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a Sox fan, if that hadn't been made evident already. I have watched Pedro deliberately throw at people, sometimes in the head. However, a pitcher like Chamberlain, with such incredible talent and control, doesn't have the ball just "slip": four times, against the very same guy, near his head, in the last three out of three games that he has faced him. This is no longer a coincidence.

Chamberlain has hit three batters and thrown four wild pitches (only one of which was attributable to Youkilis) in his major league career, out of 1687 total pitches thrown (.4%). From what I have seen personally, he has thrown at Youkilis four times out of a total of forty pitches (10%). Chamberlain is an incredible pitcher, but at the end of the day he's coming dangerously close to ending someone's career for little (and I'm being generous with that) or no reason. Chamberlain's a great pitcher, but call it like it is. I hate to be a puppet, but Francona put it best: ''He has great command until Youk gets in there."

Kevin,

Well, hmm, Jerry Remy doesn't agree with you. "No way that was intentional, no way." Also,

'... and Beckett is done for the game because Francona isn't going to put him back out there... .'

But Beckett himself says Francona had already pulled him.

I agree that pitch was not merely an inside pitch. There was something else going on. It was a lot further from the strike zone than any other pitch Joba threw that night, and his control was too good for that to have been just a bizarre coincidence. But I don't think he wanted to hit Youkalis. As Remy said, it just doesn't make sense.

I seriously doubt Joba was trying to head hunt Youk. In a 1-0 game you don't want to put people on. Was he trying to pitch inside, Yes. Was he trying to plunk Youklis in the head, No.

The strike out call was bad, but then again Jeter had tagged out one base runner the second base ump called safe. It evens out, though that's no excuse for bad umpiring all around.

I guess none of you guys ever saw Gibson, Drysdale,or Radatz pitch, huh?

For better or for worse, the game has changed, DD.

One sure way to cure chamberlain from throwing at the batters is for the batter to let the bat slip out of his hands and make sure it goes towards the pitchers head. Do that a few times and I can guarantee those close pitches will stop.

How is it that players are made to obey the rules of baseball and the umpires can blow call after call and never be reprimanded? They can make an obvious bad call and if the player objects even mildly he is ejected from the game. I liked the old fashion baseball where when an umpire screwed up he heard it loud and clear from the player involved. Its SAD that the worse offenders on the field are not held accountable for the bad calls they make. I would vote to make them more liable by making them pay fines for calls proven by instant replay to be totally wrong . Give the manager (as in football ) the right to protest certain calls and if the call is wrong the error is corrected and if its right it cost the protesting side one out. Think about it .

Well Al, that's one way to get back at the pitcher, but I prefer a more personal approach...........bunt the ball hard between the first and second basemen and when the pitcher covers first, lower the boom....definitely more satisfying.