Yankees Looked Vibrant but Boston Looked Like It Needed Viagra
August 11, 2009 · Joseph DelGrippo · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
The four game weekend series with the Boston Red Sox is over (finally!) and now most of us Yankee fans can get back to normal baseball. You know—a couple games against Toronto (the first one a tough 5-4 loss), and a long 10 game trip which includes four with the Mariners, three with the Oakland A’s and three more back east at Boston.
What? Boston didn’t get enough this past weekend? They want more?
And once again, that Saturday game (8/22) is on Fox (I wonder if Yaz will be there as he turns 70 that day?) and the Sunday game is on ESPN at 8 PM. You know that game will go past midnight! On weekends, I like watching the Yankees during the day (especially on Sunday) and getting a chance to see other teams at night.
And Saturday games are ridiculous while listening to Joe Buck sound off ad nauseum about everybody’s use of steroids and other off the field topics—It’s like Buck is applying for a job at TMZ!
That next road trip is the first of TWO upcoming West Coast trips for the Yankees. Last years trip near the end virtually killed their chance at the playoffs. So after the recent four game sweep over Boston, Yankees fans can’t puff out their chest that much just yet.
There is still a lot of work to do for this team, and baseball can change in an instant—One bad week and it could be sweatin’ time again.
However, in watching the four games, it appears both teams switched uniforms from the first series of the season when Boston swept New York up in Fenway. One game was a run producers dream while the other two were nail biters, including an extra inning affair which saw a Boston comeback in the 9th inning, and win it on a walk off by their clean up hitter.
At that point in the season, pundits nationwide (at least from here to Boston) were saying the Yankees were looking old and slow while Boston had the energy of a much younger lineup. They had clutch hitters Jason Bay, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell with Bay providing dramatics with a two-run, 9th inning homer off Mariano Rivera.
At that time one of the Yankees main power threats, Alex Rodriguez, was out of the lineup with an injury. This past series Alex was back in the lineup hitting big home runs, but Bay was out of the lineup.
This past series saw the same type of games, A-Rod hitting the walk off homer, and it is the Red Sox (with 34 year old-plus JD Drew, Lowell, Varitek and Ortiz) looking old.
Meanwhile, youngsters Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano had a great series, both in the field and at the plate. Also, all three off-season free agent signings (CC and Tex still are under 30) earned their money, and even the elders Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon made significant impacts all weekend.
See how the tables have completely turned?
There were positives for the Sox, however. They didn’t play as bad as the 0-4 record suggests. They received great starts from Lester and Beckett. (It’s funny when I have to write “great starts” when the guy only goes 7 innings). Clay Buchholz wasn’t that bad either, although he walked more than his norm. But Buchholz made good pitches when he needed to and the free passes did not hurt him that much.
And if the Sox realized that Smoltz was a shell of himself one start earlier, anybody else would have pitched better on Thursday night, and the Red Sox could have won that game.
I remember a few seasons ago when Alex mentioned his off-season early morning workout routine did not “include taking kids to school” and that Varitek and other Red Sox guys ridiculed Alex for bragging about his workouts.
Eveybody works hard in the off season was the Red Sox sentiment.
Coming back for his hip injury, A-Rod (and the other Yankees) looked much more spry than their Bosox counterparts.
Looks like the Red Sox players could use A-Rod’s workout routine now.
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