Last week was terrible. I was too pissed about it to even write. The Sox went into Yankee Stadium, up eight games on the Yankees. With two wins or a sweep of three, the Sox could effectively bury the Yankees. Surprise, surprise, the Yanks swept them and the lead was back to five. The games were particularly painful as the Yankees outpitched us with Pettite, Clemens and Wang. And Rivera closed out the first two games. The fireworks came in the ninth during the final game, Yanks rookie phenom Joba Chamberlin threw two pitches over Youkilis' head in a blowout game. Joba was thrown out and everyone freaked out. He was later suspended for two games but that is pretty lame since he would have rested for that amount of time anyways.
What does it all mean? Well as I've said all along, the Sox are going to win the AL East (finally). It's looking more and more likely however that the Yankees will take the Wild Card. The Mariners have lost eight in a row and the Tigers can't get their act together. The Yankees come to Fenway for three last games in a few weeks. The Sox having a small lead means that the series can be extra hyped which makes the media happy. I still maintain that the Yankees don't have the consistent pitching and bullpen to make a real playoff run. The offense is such a juggernaut and they've been getting good outings lately which has shielded the fact that they're no different than last season when they laid an egg vs. the Tigers. The Yankees have been playing catch up for so long that it has to catch up to them at some point: either in September or the playoffs.
Right after the Sox came home from New York, they experienced one of their worst losses of the season on Friday vs. the Orioles. Down 9-3 to an Orioles team that came in riding a nine-game losing streak, the Sox made a valiant comeback. It was 9-8 in the ninth as the Sox had runners on first and third with one out. Varitek promptly grounded into a game-ending double play.
Luckily, the Sox had something very special happen on Saturday which might give them some positive momentum over the last month. Rookie pitching stud Clay Buchholz pitched a no-hitter in just his second MLB start. No-hitters are one of the things that make baseball so great. You never know when something so improbable like that will happen. That's why you watch such a long, mostly boring season. Buchholz is only 23. He's been on the Sox radar for a few years as everyone knew he had star written all over him. They didn't trade him and they're already reaping the rewards. He'll be a staple of the pitching rotation for years. The Sox are up five games with 26 left. No need to get ahead of ourselves but they're in a good position to make some noise in October.
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