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| The Boston Red Sox take the field Saturday night. @RedSox. |
Friday night at Yankee Stadium was “embarrassing” for the Boston Red Sox, a term used by both starting pitcher Walker Buehler and a WEEI announcer.
Buehler was awful, as he allowed seven runs (five earned) on seven hits and two walks, with two strikeouts.
The Yankees scored five in the first inning, and led 7-0 after two on their way to a 9-6 win.
Predictably, there were articles in Pravda, I mean from the Yankees beat writers, saying “this isn’t a rivalry anymore.”
That is complete an utter nonsense that ignores one incontrovertible fact.
Since 2004, the number of World Championships each team has is:
BOSTON RED SOX: 4
NEW YORK YANKEES: 1
Until the Yankees match them by winning the next three, or three before Boston’s next one, or match them in this time period some other war, it is still a “rivalry,” or frankly, not one the other way.
The next two days proved it is still a rivalry, in the sense losing to the Yankees might finally have given the Red Sox - who fell to a season low five games under .500 at 30-35 on Friday - the feeling of absolute rock bottom they needed.
On Saturday night, the Red Sox won 10-7, and then on Sunday night, racked up an 11-7 come-from-behind win against the vaunted Yankees starter Carlos Rodon.
That was 21 runs in two games, and Boston showed some bite, with their bats coming alive for the first time in a couple weeks.
The Sox scored five in the sixth inning on Sunday to make it 7-3, and they never relinquished the lead.
They opened up an 11-5 lead in the ninth before Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer, and they had to drag in closer Aroldis Chapman with two two outs and two on, and he struck out Anthony Volpe, whose torpedo bat flew out of his hands as he whiffed at strike three.
The Yankees, at this point, are long past the Derek Jeter “any season that doesn’t end with a World Series is a failure” mantra.
They are now a team that will overhype up a win in May, as if they were the Seattle Mariners, and completely overvalue their regular season output amidst October futility.
The example of the change in Yankee mentality is Judge, who is incredible in the regular season, leading to comparisons with Mickey Mantle, but here are his postseason numbers:
45 hits in 220 at-bats for a .205 batting average, 16 home runs, 34 RBI, 86 strikeouts, 36 walks.
A reminder too that Judge is in his ninth full year, still looking for a ring, and though, the Yankees did win the American League pennant last season, it was thanks to Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto, who hit the winner in Cleveland. (Dare to show it sometime, YES, it was a hell of a moment!)
The Yankees (39-25) are presently in first place, in the A.L. East, mainly due to the futility of the other teams.
That starts with Boston (32-35), now 8 1/2 games out, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a rivalry anymore.
There is still four months to go in this season, and we are at the point the Yankees have fallen apart the past few seasons with far better rosters, and as we know from the Mets last season, you can start a run to glory now.
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