The Red Sox completed a sweep of the Yankees with a 7-6 win tonight at Fenway Park. The loss mercifully ended the first series of the new season between the old rivals. The clubs will renew the rivalry next weekend in the Bronx. The Yankees had to know that this would be a tough weekend. Boston had the edge in the pitching matchups. It might not have played out exactly according to the script, but the Sox ended up getting their desired result.
Chase Wright got the start for the Yankees. It was unclear what to expect from him. Asking him to rise to the occasion in front of the entire country in his second career start would have been too much to ask. The Yankees could only ask him for innings and to keep the team in the game. In the 1st and 2nd innings, he got himself into and out of trouble. He seemed to have hit his stride when he retired the first 2 hitters of the 3rd. Then Manny Ramirez crushed a homer to left. This unnerved him as he gave up a stunning 3 more consecutive solo homers to J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek. It was a case of a young guy completely in over his head and losing his composure at the first sign of adversity. It happened so quickly that by the time Joe Torre could even get somebody throwing in the bullpen, the inning was over. Wright showed that he is not ready for the Majors, not that anybody could hold it against him. In AA, hitters might not take advantage of mistakes. Crowds also do not try and get into pitchers’ heads down on the farm. They do in the Majors. Chase clearly needs more seasoning. With Chien-Ming Wang coming back, Chase Wright appears heading back to Trenton or to Scranton.
The Yankees did hit Daisuke Matsuzaka hard. New York jumped right on him for 2 in the 1st inning and another run in the 3rd. After Wright’s meltdown turned a 3-0 lead into a 4-3 hole, the Yanks struck for single runs in the 5th and the 6th to take the lead. Daisuke ended up with a win, but he gave up 6 runs in 7+ innings, hardly an impressive outing. Doug Mientkiewicz and Jason Giambi all 2 hits, and Derek Jeter blasted a homer off the righty. Matsuzaka had the edge in this game because the Yankees had not seen him. The element of surprise typically favors pitchers, but that was not the case tonight. The Yankees might not have won a game in this series, but the Red Sox’s vaunted rotation did not register a single good start.
Colter Bean relieved Chase Wright and held Boston down. Had the Yanks held onto a lead they picked up, Bean would have gotten the win. He pitched 2 shutout innings while giving up 1 hit and 3 walks. Colter is a junkballer. He does not throw fast. His funky delivery gives the hitter an odd vantage point. He probably is not going to be much of a pitcher with the Yanks. There is a reason the team has not given him a look at the Majors despite a productive minor league career. His stuff is very hittable. Boston hitters left a few mistakes he made on the table. Once teams get a scouting report and film on him to get familiar, he probably will get hit. However, it would be nice for the Yankees to at least give him a shot. He has worked his way through the system and was a good soldier after waiting years for a chance. He probably will not be very good, but he has earned a chance to prove he can pitch well on the Major League level.
Scott Proctor has to go down as the goat in this game. He started the bottom of the 7th. New York was nursing a 5-4 lead. He gave up a pair of hits to start the inning and a 3 run homer to Mike Lowell to give Boston a 7-4 lead. He faced 3 batters and let all 3 score with his team trying to avoid a Fenway sweep. That cannot happen to a frontline reliever on this team.
Jonathan Papelbon blew the door off the Yankees lineup in the 9th inning. Johnny Damon popped out. Derek Jeter struck out. Alex Rodriguez ended the game with a weak grounder to third after a Bobby Abreu walk. New York could not have asked for better hitters to send up with the game on the line. It just was not meant to be.
It is important to not get too wrapped up with the sweep. It was definitely frustrating. Losing to Boston stinks. However, there is still a long season to play. The teams meet again next weekend in the Bronx. If the Yankees take 2 of 3, this weekend will not have meant a whole lot. The Yanks sent a pair of very inexperienced starters to the mound this weekend and still could have won all of the games. A pair of reliable relievers blew leads. That will not happen often. New York did pound the best three starters that the Red Sox had to offer without Hideki Matsui for all 3 games, Jorge Posada for most of the 3, and Johnny Damon for another. Papelbon might be good, but Jeter and A-Rod are not going to be held down in the clutch often. The Red Sox got the wins, but let us not act like they did anything to prove that they are far and away the best team that the American League East has to offer. The Yankees were up against a stacked deck over this weekend. There is still plenty of time for things to turn around. In the grand scheme of things, this series was not very significant. The baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Boston can print its April Champions t-shirts, but it still has a long way to go to accomplish anything meaningful.
