Yankees Turn Familiar Confines, Address of Yankee Stadium into “Home”

What a difference a week makes.

Last Monday, the Yankees and Red Sox took in a rare day off in August—separated by a mere half-game in the AL East standings.

Since then, New York has caught fire while Boston’s offense has shriveled up like a slug dropped into a salt shaker.

A six-game losing streak by manager Terry Francona’s crew leaves them 6.5 games back in the standings on Aug. 10, and the sand in the hourglass is beginning to get shallow.

What took place in the rivalry’s most recent confrontation cannot be deemed a “Boston Massacre” like those occurring during the 1978 and 2006 seasons.

The Red Sox pitched beautifully over the series’ final three games and would have earned a split if they could have borrowed some of the “luck of the Irish” from a proud population of shamrocked hearts in the city of Boston.

The Yankees simply caught the Red Sox at the ideal time and were able to benefit from the absence (whether mentally or physically) of their rival’s best offensive weapons.

It is important to understand that the Red Sox are not the team that was just mercilessly swept out of the stadium—just as the Yankees were clearly not the team that lost eight straight games to the Red Sox to begin 2009.

The most important aside of the extended weekend was not necessarily the results of the games themselves, but the atmosphere in which they were played.

Water cooler discussions and talk radio segments have spent time and energy highlighting the stark differences in intensity and electricity at the new ballpark—as opposed to its immortal ancestor across the street.

Many of these findings were warranted, though most were vastly exaggerated.

Early season matchups against Baltimore and Cleveland seemed to doom the stadium’s perception from the get-go, with writers and analysts looking for a way to bring seat pricing issues to the forefront.

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