Friday night's game was horrible. New Over The Monster rule: never talk about Friday night's game ever again. Sound good to everyone? Great.
To counter the "game we must not speak of," the Red Sox slapped around Chien-Ming Wang and a good portion of the Yankees' bullpen. With a parade of 12 hits and eight walks, the Sox were able to take the second game, 10-1, and push the AL East lead back up to 5.5 games.
I was worried after the "game we must not speak of" that the Yankees would ride the huge wave of momentum and sweep the series. They obviously didn't do that today. With today's win, we don't have to even think about Friday's game because I feel like it's been wiped off the slate.
Man, oh man: Josh Beckett is an ace. He's there now. Critics have said in the past that Beckett never has been an ace before and that he may never be one because he can't stay healthy. Way to shut them up, Josh.
With the win, Beckett is 19-6 on the season. He is one win shy of breaking the 20 game mark. The last Sox pitcher to win at least 20 games was Curt Schilling in 2004 with 21. Beckett could, potentially, get three more starts the rest of the season. I will be ecstatic if he can hit 22 wins because it may be enough for him to earn the Cy Young.
Today's match-up was a nice preview of current ace's of the Red Sox and Yankees. Tomorrows is a 180 degrees different: the old timer's game. That isn't a knock at all, though. I'm more anticipating the Schilling, Roger Clemens match-up than today's Beckett, Wang game. It's going to be heated out on the field tomorrow and it'll be a doozy to watch.
OK, Red Sox. Let's ride the momentum and make our magic number zero sooner rather than later.