N.Y. Yankees ~ A Lansdowne Street Letdown

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY



new york YANKEES:  Another Lesson Learned on the Bronx Bombers.


GAME TWO FINAL:
Yankees ~ 5
Red Sox ~ 9
Series tied 1-1


Wednesday night, Jason Varitek did what two Yankee catchers have not gotten the grasp of yet this season. 


He doubled home a run and hit a two run homer giving Boston necessary insurance runs against the Yankees late in the game.  But more importantly, he showed how a player is to comport themselves (unlike others, to include David Ortiz) upon completing a trip around the bases.  Secondly, some time ago, he accepted and embraced his role as a back-up catcher for the betterment of the team.  If he's done so grudgingly, we don't know about it.  And yet, he remains a highly respected team Captain; the Red Sox Captain.  And Wednesday night, he was another lesson learned on the Yankees; or at least two Pinstripers anyway.  You know who they are.  One gets called out for Tuesday night's game.  The other gets called out for pouting over his reduced role and importance to the team.


Josh Beckett wasn't especially good Wednesday night.  But Phil Hughes was a little worse because his skipper suffered over-managing stress disorder again.  But, not to completely take him off the hook, on nights where Beckett struggles, you'd hope for better from the pitcher following C.C. Sabathia in the rotation.  That pitcher was Phil Hughes this time.  He didn't pitch that badly.  But that isn't the kind of adverb; or adjective; you want to be hearing about your rotation; or sum of its parts; heading into September.  Is it?  And especially when Big Papi punctuates the Yankees' problems with a booming home run to dead center; followed by a minor flick of the bat; then a slow trip around the bases; and paying respects to his creator upon touching home; kissing the sky; and finally clapping his fists together to finish the whole demonstration off. 


Yes, he did all that.  But then again, he has a cool nick-name and makes ESPN commercials; something lost on Senor Cervelli.


All the Red Sox did was tie this series at one game apiece.  That's what you want to believe; right Yankee fans?  So why does it feel like you're doing so much more worse?

THURSDAY

GAME THREE
new york YANKEES

SP - A.J. Burnett

vs.

BOSTON RED SOX

SP - Jon Lester

From

Lansdowne Street Grounds

Mike.BTB

4x4 Yanks-Red Sox

The Starting Front Four of the Red Sox vs. the Yankees:
(eh..hem - allow me SoxNation)


Evil Empire

vs.

RedSoxNation

C.C. Sabathia
Josh Beckett

A.J. Burnett
John Lackey

Javier Vasquez
Jon Lester

Andy Pettitte
Dice-K Matsuzaka


The ACE - Both are aces. I give the edge to Beckett. Two rings to one. Both won rings with their present team. Beckett closed out the Yankees in 2003 with the Marlins. C.C. wasn't enough to get the Brewers to a W.S. Make your own call when he was in Cleveland. Fugeddabou'th stats. I think it's fair.

Two Spot - Burnett, when he's on, he's really on. When he's off, he's befuddling to watch. He's been a headcase with respect to his catchers, but NYC seems agreeable enough with him. Lackey is a bulldog and more consistent on a game to game basis. I watched A.J. throw his arms in the air after surrendering a HR and yelling aloud "Why did I throw that pitch?!", somewhat showing up his catcher Posada. We all watched Lackey yelling at his manager, "This is my game skip!" in the ALCS. What say you?
EDGE? It's close, almost a wash. It's Lackey by a nose.

Three Spot - Let's not waist too much time with this. Vasquez didn't do too well here, literally, since he went to the All-Star game for the Bombers in his first stint. Foolishly, they wanted Randy Johnson instead. He has improved somewhat since then. He has nice strikeout numbers since those days. But currently he's a really good aquisition for the Bombers, giving up Melkey and a bag of balls.
....(say this fast, for effect)> LesterIsBetterNuff'Ced!!!
Edge - Jon Lester.

Four Spot - Dice-K? Hmmmm. Tough call. Versus all Andy Pettitte has done, key word here being "has", it's Andy. C'mon SoxNation it's true, today. But what does Andy really have left. At least we think there is still a promising future for Dice-K. Don't we? Last year was a nice Swan Song for Andy. Is there anything left? Perhaps. Now-Now Yankee fans, if I pit Andy against Jon Lester instead of Vasquez, Andy looses to Lester. There's way too much ahead of Lester and Andy's career is in the rear view mirror. So, does it matter?

The Verdict - three rounds to one.....TheNATION has a better starting rotation than theEMPIRE. The Brooklyn Trolley Blogger has spoken.


P.S. What comes after the four spot is another matter. The Sox have Buchholz, while the Highlanders continue to mismanage Joba and Hughes, and seem about ready to delete Wang. Is Wakefield still able to flutter a knuckler or is he retired for good?

The Hot Stove is a-burnin' folks.