Preview

Headhunter Vincente Padilla picked up his forst postseason win with seven scoreless innings for the NL West champions.  Padilla was added to the Torre's roster on Aug. 20, a few weeks after he was released from Texas.

Honestly, I went looking for the Saturday Night, Live skit simply because of the tie in to the theme of the article (I'll get to that).  Then I watched it and realized the implications are treacherous as well as infinite.  I'll leave it to the reader to make the leaps because I'm as tired of typing the phrases as you are of reading them.

Besides, the performances make no subtle statements.

Tonight, Jonathon Niese gets the chance that he has been longing for ever since he was sent down to Triple A in the spring. He will get the chance to show the Mets what he’s got when he faces the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citifield tonight, and he could make Oliver Perez’s trip to the disabled list last a bit longer.

The lineup for today's game has been posted and here it is:

Jeter(ss)
Damon(lf)
Teixeira(1b)
Posada(c)
Cano(2b)
Swisher(rf)
Matsui(dh)
Ransom(3b)
Gardner(cf)

Some notes courtesy of Peter Abraham:

The Yankees are batting .125 with runners in scoring position at home so far this year.

Brian Bruney has retired 20 straight batters; his last seven outings are 6.2 perfect innings striking out twelve.

The Philadelphia Phillies are currently the World Series champions and deserve the title. But in only a short time, the Phillies will have to defend their title against 29 other teams. It seems like it was only yesterday that they won the World Series, but sadly, it wasn't.

During 12 magical seasons as Yankee teammates, Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams reached six World Series and captured four titles.

In a combined 30 seasons in pinstripes, they have become as much a symbol of Yankee success as the immortal superstars that preceded them.

Jeter and Williams' friendship and fame even landed them a guest appearance on Seinfeld: