Goodbye Boston

People talk about a rivalry between Boston and New York, not this year. The Boston Red Sox had the New York Yankees number for the first 8 games and it looked like there would be little competition for the Sox for the division. It appeared as though there was no heated rivalry between these teams because it was so one sided. The teams play basically at .500 in their history and yet this year it was all Boston, until this weekend. The Yankees finally showed Boston that they were ready to play this year and that they are the team to beat in the AL east. With a 4 game sweep of the Sox, the Yankees jumped out to a 6.5 game lead on the division, with only 50 games to go. A lead that may or may not hold, but certainly looks promising for Yankee playoff hopes.

The Yankees welcome AJ Burnett, CC Sabathia, and most recently Teixeira and Swisher to the Yankees-Red Sox clash. AJ had been dominant against Boston in his career, but struggled early this season in his 2 starts. Friday he brought his A game and helped the Yankees win in 2-0 walk off fashion. Saturday Sabathia pitched and pitched great, the first time he had played so well against Boston. Today it was Teixeira who came up in the 8th in a 2-2 game. Damon had just tied the game on a solo hr and Teixeira followed with a bomb of his own, which put the Yankees ahead for good. Swisher came up later in the 8th with 2 on and 2 outs and drilled a single up the middle which provided very critical insurance runs. Both Swisher and Teixeira are new to the Yankees (as with Burnett and CC) and all played instrumental parts in this 4-game sweep, although have yet to be part of the rivalry because there still is no rivalry. We haven't seen the typical nail biting games with Boston. We haven't seen the Boston team that would always fight back and make you worry the whole game. Instead we saw 31 consecutive scoreless innings and a hurt and weak opponent not worthy of a rivalry.

The Yankees have looked like a totally different team than the team that struggled vs Boston early in the year and this team has the makings like the World Series teams in the late 90s. This is the best Yankee team I have seen since 1998. I think that they have all the right pieces and anything short of the WS is a failure. The Yankees have looked SO dominant since getting A-rod back and even more dominant since the All-star break. So good that when the Yankees gave up a 2-run HR to Victor Martinez to blow the lead in the 8th, I wasn't breaking a sweat. I told my father and my friend that the HR would happen (random accurate prediction), but then proceeded to suggest that the Yankees would get it right back in the 8th. The Yankees lead the league in come from behind wins and have a tremendous track record of scoring off opponents' bullpens late in games. It is because of this that I never worry that this team is out of the game and I always have hope. Hope is great thing and I have much of it, hopes that this team will bring a title to NY. They have the right pieces, they just need to focus and play like they did vs Boston this weekend. One thing I can say for certain, Boston no longer scares me this year, the only team that's gonna stand in this team's way is the Angels. So goodbye Boston and leave your dignity in the Bronx!!