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Boston again sticks it to New York, Yankees consider filing sexual assault charges against Red Sox

Logan on 06 10, 2009

Another chapter of the most heated rivalry in sports in the books, another lopsided Red Sox victory. Boston is now 6-0 against the Yankees on the year, including a streak of seven straight wins dating back to last season. Remember when these roles were reversed and Boston was the one being beaten like a red-headed step child on a regular basis? Well those days seem to be long gone.

New York hasn’t even sniffed a World Series Championship since Boston’s epic 2004 ALCS comeback, which ultimately signified the end of an era in New York, an era that saw the Yankees establish themselves as one of the most impressive dynasties in the history of Major League Baseball. Sure it’s only been five years since that ALCS appearance, and it’s been less than a decade since their last World Series title (2000), but with the spending habits and marquee players annually featured on that roster, these are significant points nonetheless. Boston on the other hand has been crowned World Series Champs in both 2004 and 2007, and have been to four ALCS’ dating back to 2003. There’s no denying who has been the real dominating franchise in the last 5-6 years.

Not even one of New York’s prized pitching acquisitions could stop the bleeding Tuesday night as pitcher A.J. Burnett was battered for five runs to go along with five walks in less than three innings of work. He even served up a mammoth home run to…David Ortiz? Wow. Burnett came into this year boasting a 5-0 record against Boston in his time with the Blue Jays. Since dawning those Yankee pinstripes however, it has been an entirely different story.

In Burnett’s two starts again Boston this season he has allowed 11 earned runs in only 7 2/3 innings to accompany his eight walks and thirteen hits allowed. On the other side of things, Josh Beckett continued his recent string of dominating performances. In six innings of work, Beckett allowed a mere one hit, an infield single, while striking out 8 to improve to 7-2 while dropping his ERA to a now respectable 3.77 after what was a rough start to 2009.

Boston has now outscored New York 45-23 in their six meetings, an average score of 7.5 to 3.8. If New York can’t beat Boston now, they most certainly never will in 2009. The Yankees come into this series the hottest they’ve been all season, while Boston is still working on overcoming David Ortiz’s struggles, Jacoby Ellsbury’s banged up shoulder, a platoon of defensively challenged shortstops, and John Smoltz’s rehabbing. Eventually David Ortiz will either begin to produce or be replaced with another power bat. Ellsbury will be back in the lineup shortly. Jed Lowrie will return soon and provide some much needed defense to the left side of the infield. John Smoltz, who says he feels as confident, strong, and driven now as he ever did, is only weeks away from his debut in a Boston uniform. Not to mention Clay Buchholz waiting in the wings for his chance to showcase his newfound confidence in his fastball (Buchholz has been tremendous in AAA thus far, even recently taking a perfect game into the 9th inning). Taking all these things into consideration, it’s hard to imagine the Yankees overcoming this current funk against the Red Sox that they find themselves in, something that will surely effect the final results of the AL East standings.

In a game that will be featured on ESPN, Chien-Ming Wang gets the call Wednesday night against Boston. A chance for New York to get embarrassed on national television! Wang has been terrible to put it mildly this season, a trend that should continue at Fenway where he has a career ERA over 5.00. There’s no reason not to expect the Red Sox to improve to 7-0 on the year against the Yankees following Wednesday night’s meeting. If that’s the case, it would require New York to win nine out of their next eleven games against Boston just to ensure a season series split with their most hated rivals.

With Boston continuously getting healthier and possessing an invaluable trading chip in Brad Penny, the Yankees surely haven’t seen the last of their Boston beat downs in 2009. With the way the Red Sox are constantly bending New York over like Ron Jeremy to some coked out porn star, I almost feel like these games should be broadcast on the Spice Channel rather than the Disney owned ESPN network…think of the kids.

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