The greatest rivalry in sports – Boston versus New York. Red Sox versus the Yankees. The BoSox versus the Bronx Bombers. Whatever you want to call it, that time of the year has began.
That’s right, The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees squared off in Round One this past weekend and Round Two will pit the two teams together again, this time in Yankee Stadium on April 27th.
Welcome back to the Sports Insider, folks. This week, we’ll take our last look at the Boston Red Sox and analyze their performance against the Yankees. Luckily, our beloved Red Sox managed to pull off a sweep of their arch nemesis, but it didn’t come without its drama or controversy.
The Sox had their three best pitchers going in this series: Schilling, Beckett and Matsuzaka, and with that line-up, you’d think it’d be an easy one, two, three series right? Wrong! Snyder, Beckett and Matsuzaka all managed to walk away with wins, but they didn’t come easy. The Sox had to work from behind in each game, and despite them not pitching their absolute best, they got the W’s. In fact, the Red Sox only outscored the Yankees 21-17 in this series.
In Game One, the Sox were running up behind the Yankees the entire game. Curt Schilling’s ERA (Earned Run Average) jumped from a 2.84 to a 3.81 after allowing five runs on eight hits in seven innings. From there, the bullpen pitched lights out baseball. Luckily, the Sox managed a five-run eighth inning that finally propelled themselves into the lead and a Game One victory from those “damn” Yankees. To add more excitement to Game One, Alex Rodrigeuz, who leads the majors in home runs (14), runs batted in (34) and is tied for first in batting average (.400), smashed two home runs against the Sox in Game One. Fortunately, the Sox were able to thwart A-Rod’s magical game and pull off the win.
Game Two was no easier. The Yankees were able to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning, but the Sox tied it at two after their shot at the plate in the inning. But the Yankees gained back the lead, making it a 4-2 game. With the game tied 4-4 in the top of the third, the Sox pitching finally went to work. Josh Beckett’s ERA took an unfortunate jump, going from a 1.50 to a still respective 2.55. Becket also got the win. He allowed four runs on nine hits in 6.2 innings while striking out seven.
Like Game One, the bullpen pitched shutout baseball while superstar closer Jonathan Papelbon earned his fifth save of the season, even striking out Derek Jeter.
Game Three saw absolutely amazing events from the Red Sox batting line-up. The story, finally, was not just Matsuzaka, but the entire Red Sox staff made history. Since the LA Dodgers did it last season, no team in Major League Baseball history has hit four consecutive home runs. While the Yankees held the 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the third, Ramirez, Drew, Lowell and Varitek all crushed absolute bombs, three of which that went in or over the Green Monster. Matsuzaka earned the win, but allowed six runs while striking out seven in seven innings.
Successfully, pitching and batting worked together last week to pull together an awesome sweep of the New York Yankees, in and exciting kick-off to the 2007 version of “The Rivalry.” This weekend the two foes will go at it again, but this time it’ll be in hostile grounds.