Now that Alex Rodriguez has his 600th home run, it’s time he and the Yankees take on another big job:
Bagging the Red Sox.
The last time the Yankees knocked the Red Sox out of the postseason, Aaron Boone was the third baseman with the home-run heroics and A-Rod was still in Texas. That was 2003.
The next season A-Rod joined the Yankees, after nearly going to the Red Sox, and essentially the curse was reversed.
Rodriguez’s Yankees choked away a 3-0 ALCS lead that October as the Red Sox went on to win their first World Series since 1918. They won another in 2007 while the Yankees finally got
No. 27 last season as the Red Sox were swept away in the first round by the Angels.
The Yankees and Red Sox have not met in the postseason since 2004, but the Yankees have an opportunity this weekend. They can push the Red Sox out of the race. If they let them get back in it, anything is possible.
For that reason alone, the Yankees would be wise to knock the Red Sox out of contention. The Red Sox are six games out in the loss column in the wild card after last night’s win, and Tampa Bay losing earlier because of the Mickey Mouse ballpark that is Tropicana Field.
A lost weekend for the struggling Sawx would put them in a precarious position heading into the final eight weeks of the season. The Yankees better take care of business in this four-game set, considering the way A.J. Burnett has pitched — he will go Sunday night against Josh Beckett. The last thing the Yankees need come October is to run into their old pals from Boston.
This weekend also will say a lot about the Yankees’ mental approach to the game. Coming
off the celebration of A-Rod’s
600th home run, they need to get back to work.
This is a much different Red Sox team than the last time these teams met back in May. It appears that GM Theo Epstein over-tinkered with his club, making moves that have not paid off like he thought they would this season.
The Red Sox have been slammed by injuries, too, the latest, a freak thumb injury to Kevin Youkilis that has knocked him out for the rest of the season.
It doesn’t help that Jon Lester,
who will pitch Monday against
Dustin Moseley, has four straight losses. The pitching matchups seem to favor the Red Sox, with Javier Vazquez taking on Clay Buchholz tonight.
Yankee manager Joe Girardi knows what his team is up against the next four days.
“Their rotation has continued to pitch well and they’ve continued to stay in it with all these injuries,” Girardi said of the Red Sox.
This is a much different Yankee team, too, than the last time these teams met. The outfield had its own injury problems then with Curtis Granderson out due to a groin injury and Nick Swisher nursing a biceps injury.
Mark Teixeira was in a funk but as Girardi noted, “You look at his numbers now and he’s leading the league in runs scored. Tex had a huge month in July; he’s up there in RBIs. Swish has been extremely consistent for us.”
Through the years, no one has been more consistent than Derek Jeter, who is coming off a four-hit game. It’s fitting that with the Red Sox in town, Jeter, who is the Yankees’ all-time hit leader, is only one hit shy of equaling Babe Ruth’s career hit mark of 2,873.
During his early career with the Red Sox, Ruth collected 342 hits and 49 home runs.
When it’s Yankees and Red
Sox, it’s always about past,
present and future.
With that in mind, the Yankees need to put more distance between themselves and the Red Sox. Boston, no matter what, is just too dangerous a team to mess with come October.