BOSTON – The Yankees stopped playing more than a week ago and yet their season keeps getting worse.
If you think that is impossible, then just consider the following:
1. The two teams that outplayed them in the AL East both clinched Division Series yesterday. For the Red Sox, their 3-2 victory over the Angels meant a fourth trip to the ALCS in six seasons. But by first winning the division and now advancing at least one round in these playoffs, the Rays are adding October experience/confidence that can only buoy a young team moving forward.
The Yanks, from the sidelines, are essentially watching the AL East turn into the competitive jungle that is the NFC East. It used to be the Yanks could count on just figuring out how to beat the Red Sox to win the division. They don’t live in that zip code any longer.
2. The Yanks still might have to deal with this World Series: the Red Sox vs. the Joe Torre Dodgers. That will make the attack of midges that helped drive them from the playoffs last year seem like thousands of kisses. Who do they root for? The team they hate or the man they hate?
3. Seven of the eight starters expected to work in the ALCS will be 28 or younger. This at a time when the Yanks are trying – and mostly failing – to build a powerhouse young rotation. This means the Red Sox and Rays are not only fighting to reach the 2008 World Series, but already are ahead of the Yankees for 2009.
Just look at what Jon Lester did in this series for the Red Sox. Josh Beckett and his October mystique were limited to a pedestrian Game 3 start due to an oblique injury. No problem. Lester stepped in as the No. 1 starter and worked 14 innings over two outings without giving up an earned run, including seven shutout frames yesterday. He is now up to 22″ consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.
The Twins foolishly passed on a package in the offseason that would have included Lester for Johan Santana. Of course, Santana would have helped the Red Sox. But I believe Boston is now more comfortable moving forward with the 24-year-old, homegrown, playoff-tested Lester. He now lines up as a co-ace next to Beckett.
4. It must gall the Yanks that the Red Sox can handle the Angels, but they cannot. Remember that time in boxing in which Joe Frazier was capable of beating Muhummad Ali, and Ali could beat George Foreman, but Foreman just destroyed Frazier? It is like that in this relationship. The Yanks are capable of beating the Red Sox, and the Red Sox can beat the Angels, but the Yanks cannot beat the Angels.
The Angels eliminated the Yanks from the Division Series in 2002 and 2005, and the Red Sox have now gone 9-1 in eliminating the Angels in 2004, 2007 and 2008. The key play in last night’s loss was when Erick Aybar bunted through a suicide squeeze attempt with the potential go-ahead run on third in the ninth. Reggie Willits was tagged out and the last chance for the Angels in 2008 was done.
Against the Yanks, Aybar not only would have gotten down the bunt, but the Yanks then would have thrown the ball away, setting up the Angels for an insurance run, as well.
5. Jason Bay led off the ninth with a double. Bay, who homered in the first two games, is the better outfielder the Red Sox obtained from the Pirates after the Yanks had already acquired Xavier Nady from Pittsburgh. The winning run was driven in on a two-out single by Jed Lowrie, another young, homegrown product. So that is two more Red Sox who are getting absorbed into a Red Sox dynasty.
In the aftermath of the game, there was celebration in the Red Sox clubhouse filled with cigar smoke, champagne, beer and loud music. But it was not over the top. Boston is now what the Yankees recently were, a team that knows how to win at this time of year and has much bigger plans than a Division Series victory.
The Yanks sit at home. Their season done. Yet their season keeps getting worse and worse.