| Paul Merchan. 23rd August, 2006 - 6:08 am
 When the dust settled, only one team was left standing. The other team seemed like it had been incinerated into dust themselves. One-sided is an understatement.
The Yankees finished one of the most successful regular season series in their storied history as they swept a marathon five game series from the Boston Red Sox this past weekend. Once the last game was completed, the press in Boston all but buried their hometown team. Their New York counterparts have been lauding their Yankees. What was supposed to be a chess match turned into a beating that evoked memories of the original sports-oriented “Boston Massacre” in September of 1978.
The ’78 series was much more astounding because of the large hole the Yankees were digging themselves out of in the division standings. Behind by as many as 14 games in the summer, the Yanks snuck back into contention by September and went into Boston for a pivotal four-game series there. The result was a Yankee sweep where they outscored the Red Sox 42-9.
This time around, the Massacre Part 2 didn’t showcase dominant Yankee pitching like the ’78 series. The Yanks merely outscored the Red Sox 49-25 in five games. While pitching wasn’t being showcased in the series, the Yankee bullpen showed why they have an advantage over the Red Sox pen. When Joe Torre summoned a reliever, he could count on them to get the outs necessary. On the other hand, Terry Francona had to bring in Jonathan Papelbon in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and nobody out on Sunday evening because he just couldn’t count on any of his other relievers to do the job. The game ended in an 8-5 Yankee win.
The Red Sox have dug themselves a huge hole. Entering the series, the Yanks were up one and a half games on them. Now, that lead has bulged to 6½ games, which in this division seems more like a 20 game lead. In 1978, the Red Sox dominated the division throughout most of the year, only to give up the lead to the Yanks and lose a one-game playoff at the end of the season. This year, although Boston has not dominated, they’ve been in first for most of the year. Now, first place is far enough for them that they need to put together serious winning streaks to catch up. Any similarities to 1978, and pretty much every year except 2004, are purely coincidental.
In the five games, the Yankees won, 12-4, 14-10, 13-5, 8-5 and 2-1. This is an amazing series considering that just a couple of months ago, many were writing off the Yankees, saying that they could not compete with Boston and that this is the year that they would not make the playoffs. The Yanks are making their doubters eat their words now, and although there’s still a month to go in the season, the psychological demoralization after this weekend for the Red Sox has to be devastating. Now Boston has to go out there and make their doubters eat their words as well. |
