BOSTON — The Yankees need to stop talking about “the big picture” as a way to change the subject from how they have been dominated by the Red Sox.
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Hey guys, I am here to tell you this: The Red Sox are the big picture. They have been for most of the last century and certainly for most of the last decade. CC Sabathia said, “You don’t like to get swept by a team in your division.”
This is not just a team in the division. This is Boston. This is your main rival and now your measuring stick, and on this measuring stick the Yankees could not be any tinier.
The Red Sox are embarrassing the Yankees. Ever since they became the first team ever to rally from 0-3 down to win a playoff series in the 2004 ALCS, Boston has seemingly been searching for new ways to humiliate the Yanks. And the Sox have come up with a doozy for this season. They are trying to go 18-0 against the Yanks.
The count is 8-0 after the Red Sox rallied for three eighth-inning runs yesterday to beat the Yankees 4-3.
The big picture the Yanks want everyone to see is that with all the losing to Boston they are still just two games out of first place, and that there are still 102 games left. That might be comforting in some ways. But here is another big picture: If the Yanks were even 3-5 against Boston, they would have a four-game lead in the division. Here is some more big picture: The AL East now undoubtedly goes through Boston and it is going to be kind of tricky to win the division without ever beating the Red Sox.
“It is frustrating,” Alex Rodriguez said.
It also is revealing. Because on paper — roster vs. roster — it is hard to give a significant advantage one way or the other between these two teams. Yet one team is 8-0 against the other. At some point that stops being coincidence. It is obvious now that Boston knows it will beat the Yankees, and the Yankees hope they can beat the Red Sox. And those hopes are not being answered.
Why? Well, it also has become clear that the Red Sox rise and the Yanks fall when they see each other. David Ortiz, who had two homers all season, hit two more in this series. Nick Swisher and Johnny Damon both dropped flyballs. Swisher made baserunning gaffes in each of the final two games. A.J. Burnett and Chien- Ming Wang both lasted just 2 2/3 innings. A powerful Yankees lineup managed just five hits in 42 at-bats with men on base in this series.
One of those hits was a two-out, two-run double by A-Rod in the seventh that gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead last night. Sabathia had a four-hitter going to the eighth. But never got another out. The big at- bat was a grind-it-out 10-pitch walk by Dustin Pedroia — the kind of at-bat once familiar to the Yankees dynasty, but now more common to the tough Red Sox.
Unwilling to push Mariano Rivera for a six-out save, Joe Girardi turned to Alfredo Aceves and the Yanks were behind 4-3 by the time he was lifted. The outcome was obvious then.
“Our day is going to come,” Johnny Damon said.
That day is not until Aug. 6, Red Sox in The Bronx. That means the Yanks have a lot of time to carry around this 0-8. A lot of time to delve into that big picture they want to talk about, a big picture that does not involve head-to-head humiliation against the Red Sox.
The Yankees did well enough in that big picture to actually carry a one-game division lead into this series after losing the first five games against Boston in 2009.
But — like it or not — they saw the real big picture again these past three days: The team they are judged against, the team they must beat to regain AL East superiority and maybe more. Nothing has changed for a long time. The Yankees’ big picture is the Red Sox.