Scott Cordischi On Sports: Yankee Mastery Continues!
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
As all of New England exhaled between games 3 & 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, we switched our attention to the Bronx where the Red Sox and Yankees renewed acquaintances last night.
So far this season, the Sox have dominated New York and that dominance continued last night as Boston grabbed the series opener 6-4. That’s 6 wins in 7 games against the Pinstripes in case you’re counting.
Sox’ starter Jon Lester wasn’t at his best (6 IP, 8 hits, 3 runs, 1 BB, 5 K’s) but he didn’t have to be. Boston’s bats jumped on Yankee starter Freddy Garcia early and often.
Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a solo homerun to right off of Garcia (his 7th) to put the Sox up 1-0. An RBI triple by Adrian Gonzalez scored Dustin Pedroia and a Kevin Youkilis sac fly plated Gonzalez to put Boston on top 3-0 after just a half an inning.
In the 5th, David Ortiz belted his 14th homerun of the season off of Yankee reliever Hector Neosi.
Boston’s bullpen did a nice job of shutting down the Yankees in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings tossing 3 innings of 1-run baseball. The only concern was when reliever Bobby Jenks had to leave the game in the top of the 7th with what appeared to be a back injury. Jenks recently returned to the team after spending time on the 15-day DL.
While all eyes will be focused on the Bruins-Canucks game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Sox and Yanks will do battle again in the Bronx. Tim Wakefield gets the start for Boston against the Yankees’ AJ Burnett.
-Suspending Aaron Rome for the remainder of the playoffs was a no-brainer for the NHL. The problem is that the Bruins are the losers in all of this because one of their top forwards in Nathan Horton will also miss the rest of the playoffs with a serious concussion. Rome is Vancouver’s 5th or 6th best defenseman.
-If the NHL had acted swiftly and dropped the hammer on Alex Burrows for biting Patrice Bergeron in game 1, none of this other nonsense would have followed. This is all on the league!
-If Tiger is going to try to close the gap on Jack Nicklaus and his 18 major championships, it won’t start at this month’s US Open. Tiger has withdrawn from the event due to injuries to his knee and Achilles tendon.
-Are these informal workouts by NFL teams really useful for the players or are they simply glorified PR opportunities for the NFLPA?
-With Jim Tressel gone and things unraveling by the moment for Ohio State football, QB Terrelle Pryor has decided to forego his final year in Columbus and enter the NFL’s supplemental draft. That is, if the NFL ever has a supplemental draft this year.
-Will Pete Carroll still be remembered as a great college football coach now that USC has had to forfeit its 2004 National Championship?
-If you’re wondering why there are more concussions and serious injuries in professional sports these days, it’s very simple – it’s a matter of physics! Today’s pro athletes are bigger, stonger and faster than ever before making for more violent collisions.
-There’s also a sense of fearlessness of injury amongst the players due to advances in protective equipment over the years which is why they are more aggressive in all sports.
-This month’s Northeast Amateur Golf Tournament at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford will be the 50th year of that great event. Some of the world’s most accomplished pro golfers played in and won this event over the years. It’s a place where golf fans can see tomorrow’s stars today and admission is free.
-Congratulations to my neighbor Kevin Murray who is the boys’ lacrosse coach at Bishop Hendricken. His outstanding coaching and his players’ outstanding execution of his game plan allowed the Hawks to pull off a huge upset over LaSalle in the Division 1 boys lacrosse championship game.
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