Series Wrap-up : Brooms In the Bronx
The long ball was everywhere this weekend and because of it, the Boston Red Sox swept the rival New York Yankees and got to the .500 mark on the season. What’s even more sweet about the sweep is that the Red Sox did it in the Bronx. In fact, in the past 25 seasons, prior to this year, this is a feat that has only happened twice. First, in 1999 and then again in 2004 and we all know what happened that year.
This past weekend saw the Red Sox play like a team possessed to reach that .500 mark. Previously this year, the Red Sox have had three opportunities to even their win, loss record and all three times they lost and again found themselves digging out of a hole.
Not this time. In order to reach .500 the Red Sox had to go into New York and sweep the hated Yankees. I honestly would have been happy with a series win, but a sweep is fantastic. Now the club is at .500 and with that weight off their shoulders, they can focus on what lies ahead and keep rolling.
All three starters for the Red Sox, Clay Buchholz, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester were good, with Beckett being the exception; he was great again. Lester struggled through the first three innings before settling down and painting the corners with his pitches. Buchholz appears to have found his old form as he picked up his third win of the year to level his mark at 3-3. And Josh was just being Josh. There were a few times he got into a bit of a jam with two runners on and only one out. A couple of strikeouts and a pop-up and voila, inning over with no runs scored. It’s nice that Beckett finally got a win out of the great start.
The big reason Beckett was able to get the win was thanks to the offense, mainly the long ball which dominated the weekend between the two rival clubs. In total, the Red Sox belted out 6 home runs over the three game set. And the promising sight was the home runs came at key times in the game. Take Kevin Youkilis’s 3-run bomb on Sunday, when the Sox were trailing 4-1. With one swing of the bat the game was tied and a few innings later, David Ortiz put the Sox ahead for good with a solos shot. On Saturday, Adrian Gonzalez roped a liner over the right field wall that added 3 insurance runs. It was great to see the long ball and even Jarrod Saltalamacchia got in on the fun, belting his first homer of the year on Sunday.
Series Monstah’
This time it’s a three headed Monstah’ made up of the number 3, 4 and 5 hitters for the Red Sox. Gonzalez, Youkilis and Ortiz. Combined over the weekend, they went 11-37 with 5 home runs, good for 11 of the teams 18 RBI. The big three bats were poppin’ and were a key factor to the Red Sox hitting .500 and sweeping the Yankees.
The Last Word:
When the series started I didn’t foresee Boston getting to .500 this weekend. I thought it would happen this week, but not because of a 3 game sweep in New York. I was pleasantly surprised and because of it I’ll eat crow. The big three really dominated this weekend. The big three bats as mentioned above and the big three pitchers all took control of the games in their own way. Throw in a rock solid performance from the bullpen and the Red Sox have a lot of momentum heading home. Well done boys, keep ‘er going.
On Deck:
Another AL East divisional foe is up next for the Red Sox. The Baltimore Orioles will come to Fenway Park for a mini 2 game series starting Monday night. For more on that series, look for my Series Snapshot post.
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