Red Sox Win! Thaaaaa Red Sox Win!
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Let’s play the rubber game.
After a 5-2 win by the Yankees at Fenway Tuesday night, the Red Sox evened the score with a 9-5 victory Wednesday. The best-of-three series is now even at one game a piece.
There were many questions heading into this series, such as who was it more important to? Most believe that it was more important to New York than it was to Boston. I happen to agree.
Having dominated the Yankees this season to the tune of 10-2 coming in (now 11-3), the Red Sox seemingly had very little to prove against their rivals from the south. Not only had they won an overwhelming majority of the games between the two teams, they also had dominated Yankee ace CC Sabathia who, while 17-3 against the rest of Major League baseball, was 0-4 against Boston this season.
New York needed this series to prove that they can not only beat Boston this season, but that they can beat Boston with their ace Sabathia on the mound. The Yankees did that in game one of this series.
While Sabathia’s numbers weren’t fantastic (6 IP 10 hits 2 runs 2 walks 10 strikeouts), they were good enough for his first win against the Red Sox this season. While 128 pitches and 10 hits through 6 innings seems like a lot, Sabathia was able to frustrate Boston by getting the key outs when he needed them. So while it may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing performance, it achieved the desired result for Sabathia and the Yankees possibly giving him and his team the confidence they might need should they meet the Red Sox in this year’s American League Championship Series.
-New York also was hoping to beat Josh Beckett for the first time this season having gone 0-4 against him this year. While that didn’t happen Wednesday night, the Yankees did get to Beckett for the first time thanks to a 4-run 6th inning. Beckett did pick up the win to improve to 4-0 with one no-decision against New York this season but he did give up 5 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks against New York. Fortunately for him, however, he received some rare run support from his teammates to pick up the win.
-The Yankees’ Francisco Cervelli should take note of how Boston catcher Jason Varitek goes about his business. In the bottom of the 8th inning Wednesday, the classy Varitek belted a 2-run homer to right-center field where he quickly dropped the bat and jogged quickly around the bases with little display of emotion. It was a far cry from Cervelli’s home plate celebration the night before which showed up Boston pitcher John Lackey and earned him a bean ball later in the game.
-Boston’s bullpen slammed the door shut on New York with Daniel Bard dominating Yankee hitters with a 1-2-3 8th and Jonathan Papelbon doing the same with a 1-2-3 9th.
-In addition to Varitek’s homerun (10), David Ortiz (28) and Jacoby Ellsbury (24) also went deep giving Beckett all the run support he would need.
-Down on the farm, Kevin Youkilis went 1-4 for the Pawsox with his one hit being a solo homerun. Teammate JD Drew was a scratch from the Pawsox line-up due to a sprained middle finger.
-The Red Sox signed Joey Gathright who was playing for the Yuma Scorpions in the Independent League. Gathright had a brief stint with Boston in 2009 hitting .313 (5-16) in 17 games for the Sox.
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