Talk about turning the tables. How many times can we remember the
Red Sox rolling into Yankee Stadium on a hot streak, only to lose two
of three (or be swept) by the Yankees and have to limp out of Gotham
with their heads hanging low?
Now, it’s the Yankees’ express route to first place that has slammed
into a Fenway roadblock.
As we all know, New York is a perfect (from
Boston’s perspective) 0-7 against the Red Sox this season, having been
outscored by the Sox 60-28 in those games.
This was a New York pitching staff that came to town feeling good
about itself. Real good. The Yankees came to Boston with a rotation
that was rolling. New York’s starters were 11-2 with a 3.83 ERA in the
24 games leading into this series. The New Yorkers had won 21 of 31
games before these three games at Fenway, all but two of those games
(both losses) played since the return of Alex Rodriguez to the active roster.
Obviously, A-Rod gives the Yankees one of the game’s most potent bats in the heart of the order. His mere presence has helped Mark Teixeira’s bat come to life.
Yet, offense hasn’t been the key to New York’s turnaround. It’s been the pitching, particularly the starting pitching.
All that has changed over the last two nights.
On Tuesday night, A.J. Burnett could record only
eight outs against the Sox, giving up five runs on five hits while
walking five batters. He was trailing 5-0 by the time he left the game,
and the Yankees could never recover, falling to 0-6 vs. the Sox, the
worst slide against their arch-rivals to start a season since 1912.
A night later, it was Chien-Ming Wang’s turn to try
to stop the Red Sox’ streak. He didn’t fare any better. Once again, the
New York bullpen was called into duty during the third inning, after
Wang gave up six hits and four runs while walking three over 2 2/3
innings.
That’s an ERA of 11.81 from Yankee starters over the first two games
of the series. And, suddenly, the thoughts of New York having a
rock-solid five-man rotation are being overshadowed by two bad
performances. Let the calls for Phil Hughes to the rotation begin again.
Tonight, it’s up to the big-money ace, CC Sabathia,
to step up and give the Yankees the kind of start they didn’t get from
Burnett or Wang. The last time Sabathia faced the Red Sox, he was
losing two games while posting a 10.71 ERA in the 2007 ALCS as a member
of the Cleveland Indians. He has been hot, unbeaten in his last six
starts while posting an ERA of 2.49.
Of course, the Yankees were hot, too. Before they arrived at Fenway Park.
