59 Days Later, Red Sox in 2nd

It was just shy of two months; fifty-nine days to be exact.  June 6th was the last time the Boston Red Sox found themselves looking up at the New York Yankees in the AL East standings rather than down at them.

Thanks to a 3-2 loss on Friday night at the hands of the dreaded Yankees, namely their bullpen, the Red Sox now find themselves one game back of New York in the loss column.

The game started out great for Boston, after Jacoby Ellsbury doubled off the wall in the bottom of the third to open the scoring.  One inning later Big Papi released some anger with his swing and belted a solo shot over the bullpen in right field for a 2-0 Sox lead.

But that would be all the scoring for Boston on this night.  The turning point of the game came in the bottom of the 5th with the bases loaded and current MVP frontronner Adrian Gonzalez stepped to the plate.  Surely he’d open this game up a little right?  Three pitches later by reliever Boone Logan and the Yankees were out of the jam and appeared to have momentum.

Top of the sixth and New York rode that momentum to the tune of 3 runs off of Red Sox starter Jon Lester for a 3-2 lead.  Lester had been sharp up to that point, but a couple of walks proved costly as the Yanks made him pay.

There has been a lot of talk about the Yankees bullpen and how great it is.  Well, it was on display tonight and hats off to Joe Girardi.  He knows when to make a move and who to turn the ball over to.

For example, in the bottom of the 5th, with two out, Girardi fearlessley brought in Logan.  It appeared that Logan was just starting to stretch, let alone warm up and the next thing you know he’s entering the game!

Then in the 7th, Girardi calls on Rafael Soriano who works a clean inning.  Dave Robertson in the 8th gets three up, three down and hands the ball over to the great Mariano Rivera in the 9th.  Nuff said, game over, Yankees win.  Great (just a tad of sarcasm).

So why does this loss hurt so much? Maybe it’s because Red Sox fans were getting used to being in first place and it appeared that no matter what New York did, they’d never catch Boston for the AL East lead.  Or maybe it’s because the Red Sox were 8-1 against the Yankees this season entering tonight’s action. Dare I say 2009 anyone?

The task doesn’t get much easier tomorrow for the Red Sox if they want to pull even with New York.  CC Sabathia takes the mound and he has been lights out as of late.  Oh, but wait.  Boston counters with (yawn) John Lackey.

I’ll eat crow when served warm, but I feel we will be on pins and needles come Sunday night with all hopes on Josh Beckett to salvage one game of this series.  Being one game down to New York will be a helluva lot better than down 3.

So, here we are in early August and two months later it’s no longer the “first place Boston Red Sox.” Damn those Yankees. When does A-Roid the gambler get back in the lineup?  They seem to play worse when he’s playing.

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