Yanks Take Sox Out At The Knees, 9-5 Win Drops Magic # To 3

If you read my last entry then you know I didn't get to see any of tonight's Yankees/Sox game because it was on My9. And if you've read the blog long enough, you know that the Yankee games on My9 are not carried her in the Buffalo area if you have Direct TV or Verizon Fios. That didn't stop me from following along online. As you can expect it's not the same. It sucks. Thankfully this was the last My9 game of the season. So from here on out, I won't miss a game, unless of course life gets in the way, which it often does.

If you read my last entry then you know I thought the Red Sox were going to win tonight's game. I didn't trust Joba to show up and I thought Jon Lester was going to pitch pretty well. Thankfully, I was wrong on both counts. As John Sterling likes to say, "You just can't predict baseball." It looks like Joba had a pretty decent night. I'm watching the YES post-game show and the consensus is that it was a good outing for Joba. Bob Lorentz made a good point that I agree with 100%. Joba needs to back it up with a good outing in his final start. I don 't think Joba's problems are necessarily over. He needs to do a little more before I trust him. As David Cone mentioned on the post-game show, it was a step in the right direction.

I'm surprised how well the Yankees fared against Lester. It looks like they hit him pretty hard, tagging him for 5 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks in only 2.1 innings. Nice. Very nice. Everyone talks about how great the Red Sox bullpen is. Wasn't so great tonight now was it? Big nights at the plate for A-Rod and Teixeira. It looks like Alex had a monster night. 3 for 3! 4 RBI! 3 stolen bases! That's huge! I saw the highlight of the bomb he hit off Lester. That was pretty sweet. My favorite stat of the night is without a doubt the 7 stolen bases. Somebody read the scouting report on Jason Varitek's arm. Teams can run on the Sox. The Yankees wisely ran all over the place.

As I sit here and read the box score, I'm wondering how the Yankees only scored 9 runs? It looks like they could have scored a lot more. 14 hits + 9 walks + 7 stolen bases +1 GIDP should equal more than 9 runs, right? The team went 7 for 21 with RISP which is pretty good. 6 guys had multi-hit game, which is great. But how did they only manage 9 runs? Anybody?

The win drops the Yankees' magic # to clinch the AL East to 3. With 8 games to go, the Yankees are 6 up on the Sox in the loss column. It's pretty much over. It'll be official if the Yanks win these next two. I really want to see them clinch against Boston. What Yankee fan wouldn't want to see that? A win tomorrow would drop the magic # down to 1, which is really meaningless because if the Yankees finish tied with the Red Sox, they'll lose the division and end up as the wild card. No need in getting excited about clinching a tie. It would though pretty much end the Red Sox chances of winning the division if the Yankees win 1 of these next 2 games. There's no way the Yankees finish the season with 6 or 7 straight losses while the Sox finish with 7 or 8 straight wins. No chance. Clinching would pretty much be a formality. Some might say that now. Me? I'll wait for a 1 more win. CC goes tomorrow so hopefully I won't be waiting long. I'm not a patient guy.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie