Will the real Boston Red Sox please stand up?

I'll make this short: the Sox are scuffling. They've lost 8 of 13 in June while the Yankees have won their last nine in a row. The 14.5 game lead has been trimmed to 7.5 games on June 15. Time to panic? Not really. The Yankees are currently playing above their heads and given time (and tougher competition) they'll come back to earth once their bullpen is counted on in a series of close games. Conversely, the Sox are doing everything badly; terrible hitting, inconsistent pitching and shaky defense. This is not the real Red Sox, version 2007.
The Red Sox lost their last two games, 12-2 and 7-1 to the Colorado Rockies at Fenway. Schilling and Beckett both got shelled which was surprising. The Rockies can hit but there's no reason why the Sox should be held to 5 runs against them in a three game series. This weekend, Barry Bonds and his accompanying circus come to town with the San Francisco Giants. I'd like to see the Sox take two out of three and get back on track so to speak. The Yankees host the Mets (who've lost nine of their last 10). Clemens is going tonight. In a perfect world, he'd get shelled while Freddie Krueger (Julian Tavarez) outduels Barry Zito-probably the most overrated pitcher of the last 10 years.
Nothing is ever easy in baseball and I guess as Red Sox fans we should know better than to count on a division title in May. The Yankees still own most of the free world so they can never be counted out. Plus, it makes it more interesting if they're in it for most of the season. I'm not losing confidence, every team goes through bad spells but the fact that we have three automatic outs in our everyday lineup-Lugo, Drew and Crisp-is pretty scary. Regardless, I'd take Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield, Dice-K and Tavarez/Lester over Petitte, Clemens, Mussina, Wang and Clippard any day of the week. And Papelbon vs. Rivera is not even close anymore.

Back to your regularly scheduled program

The Sox are now 1/3rd of the way through the regular season: 37-18 with a 12.5 lead over the Yankees. I preface my post with this since I think its important to remember that and not just have a knee-jerk reaction over the Yankees taking two of three from the Sox (for the second time in less than two weeks). As I said a few weeks back, I thought it was time for the Sox to bury the Yankees. That might have been a little overly optimistic on my part but I'll stand by my original idea: the Yankees are not winning the AL East. Not a chance. It still stung when A-Rod hit that home run off Papelbon in the ninth last night and when Rivera recorded a shaky save against the heart of the Sox order (Ortiz, Manny, Youk). After 12 of 18 games, the Sox are 7-5 over the Yankees, cooling off from their 5-1 start. More importantly, the Sox won't see them again until Aug. 28-30 at the Stadium. So for now, forget about the Yankees. It's hard to do for a paranoid fan-base like the Red Sox particularly when we're in the unfamiliar position of being heavy favorites.

Sox-Yankees is the best rivalry in baseball and maybe the best rivalry in sports (with apologies to Army-Navy, Duke-UNC, Texas-Texas A-M, UCLA-USC and Colts-Pats among others). We are spoiled as Yankees or Sox fans; the last few seasons MLB has chosen to load the early season up with a bunch of these games. This is all well and good and I still find myself watching the games like they're Game 7 of the ALCS. Regardless, we have to reprogram ourselves to stop looking over our shoulders. This season, the Yankees are continually shooting themselves in the foot (A-Rod's stripper escapades, Giambi's home run celebratory injuries and the revolving door of minor league pitchers) and did I mention that Clemens still hasn't made his big return, because of his fatigued right groin (insert joke here)? For whatever reason, they've stepped up against us lately and yet against everyone else, they look like the Devil Rays.

The Sox flew out to Oakland last night and begin a three-game set with the A's tonight, followed by five interleague series' in a row (at Diamondbacks, vs. Rockies, vs. Giants, at Braves and at Padres). Before everything fell apart last season, the Sox posted an MLB best 16-2 record in interleague play. Expecting a repeat of that is unrealistic given how hot the D-Backs and Rockies have been and how good the Padres pitching staff is but the summer is just beginning.
The Sox have everything going for them. There is almost nothing to complain about. The only thing lacking is Julio Lugo-who can't hit his way out of a paper bag at the moment-and the predictable struggle and subsequent quasi-injury to J.D. Drew. Coco Crisp? He's dead to me. The money spent on Lugo and Drew looks pretty bad right now but nobody is perfect. Dice-K looks like a very nice investment, Okajima is incredible (which no one expected) while Pedroia is hitting .333 out of the number 2 slot and has already proven me wrong. The bullpen is still questionable in spots (Piniero and Romero are complete garbage) but every team is like that. With the five starting pitchers healthy and Lester very close to being back not to mention Okajima and Papelbon at the back end of the bullpen, the Sox are built for the long run. Lowell, Youk and to a lesser degree Varitek are adding more offensively than to be expected. Manny has heated up after a terrible April and Ortiz is killing the ball, just not getting the home runs you become accustomed to seeing. This isn't the Red Sox team that will lead the AL in home runs or runs but 1-9 they'll give almost every starting pitcher a tough outing since they almost all consistently have good at bats.

10.5 games and counting

When I wake up tomorrow morning and check out the standings in the Boston Globe, my beloved Boston Red Sox will be 10.5 games up on Baltimore, 10.5 up on the Yankees, 11 games ahead of Toronto and 12 games in front of Tampa Bay. It will be May 21 and tomorrow night's game at Yankee Stadium (the start of a three game set) will be the 44th of the Sox' season. It's way too early to start popping the champagne and thinking about playoff matchups but I for one can't help but feel a little strange about how things are going.
The Sox took 2 of 3 from the Braves this weekend-the first interleague action of the year-while the Mets (thanks Bee Rock) won 2 of 3 against the Yanks. Baltimore and Tampa Bay as usual look like also-rans rather than contenders while the Blue Jays and Yankees are enduring an almost comical string of injuries to assorted players. A three game set with the Yankees in the end of May usually doesn't mean all too much but in this case I think it's time to kick 'em while they're down. We all know the Yankees aren't as good right now as they most likely will be in the coming weeks and months. Sweeping this series would put the Yankees 13.5 games back. That's fun to write, let alone dream about. 2 out of 3 would make them 12.5 back before Memorial Day. A little history lesson: the '78 Sox were up 14 games on the Yankees and somehow managed to choke (Bucky Dent) and lose the division to the Yanks (pre-Wild Card). Fast forward to 2007 and you'll find two different teams: the Sox are the front-runners this time as well but they're not the overachievers. This Sox team is stacked. Great starting pitching, very solid lineup and good bullpen. The 2007 Yankees are looking older by the day, unless you're focusing on their revolving door set of local little league pitchers that get to dress up as big leaguers and get knocked around for a few starts.
I know what you're going to say. Yes, Clemens is coming back. But as discussed before (scroll down), he probably won't make that much of a difference to this old and flawed team. And yes, the Sox will undoubtedly endure some injuries because this is baseball. Josh Beckett just went on the DL earlier this week with another tear on his right middle finger (the 7th time in his career that he's been on the DL for hand ailments). The Sox started two AAA pitchers on Saturday and Sunday and split the games. Hopefully Beckett will be back soon and everything will be hunky dorey but for once we have some pitching depth. This isn't the Sox of my middle school and high school days where it was Pedro, Wakefield and a cast of assorted clowns. Schilling is still pretty reliable, Wakefield has been great (which you can't expect all season), Tavarez has been very good for him and Dice-K is quickly becoming a stud MLB-style.
The Yankees have never been down 10+ games in the Torre era (1996-present). Get used to hearing that stat consistently as these two teams seem to be headed in opposite directions. It's time to step on the Yankees throats (like they did to us in last August's brutal five game sweep at Fenway).

the Rocket lands in the Bronx

Big news yesterday coming out of Yankee Stadium. Never one to shy away from obnoxious amounts of media attention, Roger Clemens announced during the seventh inning stretch that he's coming back to the Yankees. Immediately, there was a jolt of excitement added to what is already regarded as the best rivalry in sports-Sox vs. Yankees. This season, the Sox have won five of the first six against the Bombers and for once, it looks like they have the upper-hand on a Yankees team short of capable pitchers. Word is Roger will come back in the beginning of June and would you believe the Yanks come to Boston, June 1-3? You can bank on that. Roger at Fenway. I wonder what clever design the guys that sell anti-Yankees t-shirts outside of Fenway will come up with this time around? I'm giddy with anticipation for those alone.
When you sit down and think about it, was there ever any doubt Clemens would go to New York again? Pettitte came back to the Yankees in the off-season and the Astros have continued to go downhill. Why not cash in on one last big pay-day ($28 million pro-rated over the season)? The Rocket is many things, a poor man is not one of them. I guess that dream of pitching to his son Kody (the Astros minor league catcher) will have to wait.
The big question is how effective can Clemens be in the 2007 American League? The AL lineups are far tougher without the NL's wasteland of 7-8-9 hitters. Also, he'll be 45 in August and steroids or no steroids, the man has to break down at some point. He's a power pitcher. He's defying all common sense by having such a long career. He last pitched for the Sox in 1996 which seems like about 50 years ago. I guess there is no measuring stick, we'll have to wait and see what'll happen. He's pitched very well in Houston the last three seasons (ERA's of 2.98, 1.87 and 2.30 respectively) and famously gotten terrible run-support. The Yanks will certainly back him up from an offensive standpoint but I think the biggest problem will be that he'll only last 5-7 innings in most starts which'll leave the game in the hands of the Yankees crew of hapless relievers. Even-dare I say it-Mariano Rivera is no longer invincible. Clemens can only pitch every fifth day. Then again, I'm a Sox fan and their former G.M. Dan Duquette said in 1996 that Clemens was heading into the "twilight of his career." If you stop and look at that bum under the bridge next time you're in Boston, you might recognize him-it's Dan Duquette. What a fucking idiot.

The last time this happened, I was in 1st Grade

As the title refers to, the Sox did something they haven't done since 1990 (sweep three from the Yankees at Fenway). Let's not get ahead of ourselves, it is April 23. Last time I checked the playoffs start in October. With that out of the way, I've got to admit that it felt pretty sweet to beat this injury-depleted version of the Yankees.Each game featured a Sox comeback. Friday was most impressive, coming back down 6-2 in the eighth and knocking around Mariano Rivera en-route to the 7-6 win. A-Rod hit two homers and a double for four RBIs but the Sox still pulled it out. Reliever Hideki Okajima (the much less heralded new Japanese import) got the save since Papelbon had worked two games in a row. Saturday (a game that I was lucky enough to attend) looked like a big mismatch: Josh Beckett vs. Jeff Karstens (a rookie scrub the Yankees sacrificed since Pavano, Mussina and Wang are all on the DL). Beckett gave up four runs in the first two innings and ultimately battled until the seventh, only giving up one more run. Ortiz put the Sox up three with a big two-run blast and Papelbon closed it out (7-5). Finally, last night's game featured another mismatch: Dice-K against Chase Wright (another stiff the Yankees rushed up from Columbus). The Yankees got to Dice-K early with two in the first. The Sox woke up and hit an MLB record-tying four home runs in a row: Manny, Drew, Lowell and Varitek. Lowell later added a three run bomb and Papelbon once again closed it out in the ninth (7-6).

I could go on and on about these three games but the previous paragraph is enough. The bigger question is what does this series mean for the season? The Yanks and Sox meet 15 more times over the course of the season so it's a little early to start printing AL East champion t-shirts and talking about playoff rotations. The Sox capitalized on a very vulnerable Yankees team, much like the Yankees absolutely stomped the Sox in a demoralizing five game sweep at Fenway last August. Those Red Sox were complete frauds as their team was falling apart with injuries. The same could be said for the Yankees at this time. Despite what George, Cashman and the assorted stooges think, it's pitching and timely hitting that carries teams through seasons and deep into the playoffs. My dog could have dissected what the problem was for the Yankees in last season's playoffs: no pitching. When at full power, their lineup is one of the best in history but that doesn't matter when you start facing the Detroits (or Boston now) that have more than 1 or 2 quality starting pitchers. Yankee fans will say, they have Phillip Hughes waiting in the wings. Mussina and Wang will get healthy. And Pavano....... I don't think even the biggest Yanks fan could say much good about that clown. For once, they have a lot of question marks.

The Sox are in a unique position. They look like the team to beat in the AL East and possibly baseball. For most of my rooting days, we're always chasing much more talented and free-spending Yankees teams. Not the case this season. A-Rod is unstoppable. Jeter, Damon, Abreu and Giambi to a lesser extent can still do a ton of damage but they can't always be counted on to put together double digits runs (which is what this pathetic staff needs).The Orioles are currently hot (11-7, four wins in a row), Yankees are 8-9, Toronto is 8-10 and Tampa Bay is 7-11. You just know the Yankees will be hanging around at the end of the season. They have too many great hitters and money to let this season slip away. The Orioles are not going anywhere, a .500 season would be good for them. Toronto could be a threat but without B.J. Ryan, they're much less fearsome. The Devil Rays are only useful for fantasy baseball.

It's April 23 and 80 degrees outside. The Sox just swept the Yankees, it's a good day to be alive.