BOSTON - After the Yankees won Game 2 to even the ALCS, Boston should get a boost today. Centerfielder and leadoff hitter Johnny Damon is expected to play after missing the first two games with a Grade 2 concussion.
Damon was injured when he collided with teammate Damian Jackson while chasing a fly ball in Game 5 of the division series against Oakland.
The injury was so nasty that Damon was completely out of it when he raised his hand to the fans while being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher.
"I thought I was standing up," Damon said. "I didn't know until later that I was on a stretcher."
Damon also didn't know the Red Sox had won until several hours after the game.
PEDRO WHO? The Yankees will start Enrique Wilson at third base today instead of Aaron Boone. Why? Wilson might be the only guy in baseball who knows how to hit Boston's Pedro Martinez.
He's 10-for-20 against him.
"The last outing was comical," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Everything Pedro threw up there ... it got to the point where Pedro was smiling and tipped his hat."
THROWING HEAT: Here's Roger Clemens' take on intimidation: "It goes with winning. You can't be intimidating if you're not a winner."
LONG TIME COMING: When Boston's Tim Wakefield won Game 1, it was his first postseason victory in 11 years. That's the longest gap between postseason victories since Clemens went from 1986 to 1999.
The longest gap is 14 years. Milt Wilcox won a playoff game for Cincinnati in 1970, then didn't win again in the playoffs until pitching for Detroit in 1984.
KID GLOVE: When a fan touched Todd Walker's home run ball at Yankee Stadium, memories of another fan-touched home run came calling. Remember when a 12-year-old named Jeffrey Maier reached over the rightfield wall to snag a Derek Jeter homer in the 1996 ALCS?
Well, the New York Daily News answered the question of, "Whatever happened to Jeffrey Maier?"
He's a 19-year-old sophomore and starting centerfielder at Division III Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.
MISCELLANY: The ALCS is tied after two games for the eighth time in the past 11 years. ... Tickets for today's Martinez-Clemens matchup were going for $1,600 on eBay. ... Jeter injured his right thumb diving for a ball in Game 2, but he should be fine for today.
