The story of the 2009 Red Sox is far from written. But last night sure felt like a pretty strong punctuation mark when it came to closing out at least one chapter – the race for first-place in the American League East.
By the time the series opener concluded, with the Fenway Park scoreboard screaming “New York 20, Red Sox 11,” it wasn’t difficult to decipher the reality of the moment. (Although the fact that these two teams had never scored as many runs against each other in their storied history suggested something was afoot.)
It started with the other portion of the scoreboard that hadn’t yet been updated. By the time the teams resume play on Saturday, the standings will list the Sox 7 ½ games behind their visitors.
Then came the post-game numbers:
All eye-opening, to be sure.
But when it came right down to it, there was no need for historical facts and figures. The words coming out of the Red Sox clubhouse were enough to paint the kind of picture the Sox were hoping was a thing of the past.
“Plain and simple, we got our asses kicked pretty good,” said Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. “Those are easier to forget than the ones you lose 2-1 because we didn’t have a chance today.”
When it comes to taking on the Yankees – whether it be Saturday, Sunday, or in the standings -- there has to be serious concern from the Red Sox’ side of things.
After losing the teams’ first eight meetings, the Yankees have now won their last five against the Red Sox, with the latest victory sending the kind of message reminding the Sox exactly what they’re dealing with.
The Yankees are now a season-high 32 games above .500, having gone 26-8 since the All-Star break. It’s their best-ever start to a second-half, surpassing the 1938 club.
“That was crazy, man,” Red Sox DH David Ortiz said. “It was a crazy. It was a little frustrating. I’m the kind of guy who just turns the page. Come the next day with energy and fight back. There’s nothing we can do about today.”
The Yankees are good, very good. Good enough that it would appear that with 41 games remaining – including two more against the Yanks this weekend, and three in September at Yankee Stadium – the Red Sox quest to catch their rival doesn’t seem like the priority.
Winning games, staying one step ahead of Texas and Tampa Bay, and improving enough to get back in the conversation with the Yankees is now the focus. But, as David Ortiz points out in another thing we learned Friday night, time is ticking…
‘THERE’S NOT MUCH TIME’
These are the words of Ortiz just before heading out of Friday and walking into Saturday.
“There’s not much time,” he said. “There’s only five weeks, that’s not much time. We’ll see.”
And that leads us to the importance of Saturday and Sunday, not so much to preserve hope of making
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