Red Sox continue to obliterate Yankees, take possession of first place

David Ortiz continued to create a stir in the papers and with his bat, as Boston conitnued their winnings ways against New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Entering the season, the Boston Red Sox were picked by many to breeze through the long baseball season and take the World Series crown. So it wasn’t surprising that concern accompanied their 2-10 start. This apocalyptic mindset by fans and writers was a tad premature, however. What they failed to realize was that it was twelve games out of 162.

Since, Boston has shown that slow start was just an admiration. Heading into Wednesday’s matchup against the New York Yankees, the Red Sox had won 17 of their previous 23 games, notching a tie atop the American League East with their hated rival.

During this stretch, six of seven against their arch nemesis have resulted in victory. Such a lopsided series between the two teams is uncharacteristic, given how even they have been over the years, but this domination shows how superior the Red Sox are to the Yankees now, and how much better they can be over the long-haul.

In game one of the current three-game set, Boston scored three runs in the first inning, on their way to a 6-4 win in Yankees Stadium. A pivotal player in that victory was David Ortiz, who has been on a tear this season. And, feeling good about his performance, he caused quite a stir during his fifth inning at-bat. After being brushed inside by reliever Hector Noesi, he crushed a two-run homer to deep left, posing after making contact and flipping his bat towards the dugout. The message was sent.

He wasn’t done rattling New York’s birdcage, predicting there might be some more fireworks in store on Wednesday. And sure enough, there were, as Big Papi hit another homer–”a bomb” in his words–as Boston got off to yet another 3-0 first-inning advantage. It was his 15th blast of the season, and 13th on a fastball.

That three-run cushion was far from comfortable, and the Red Sox wasted little time adding on, tagging the used-to-being-crushed A.J. Burnett. It was soon 7-0. Yankees fans, as they have done often against Boston this season, let out a collective groan. Burnett was missing his location, but this outburst was more due to the Red Sox proving just how dangerous they can be.

Helped out by a huge double-play in the sixth inning, they went on to defeat New York 11-6, padding their lead in the latter innings on home-runs by Carl Crawford and J.D. Drew. All the sudden, they are in sole possession of first place.

“They’ve outplayed us,” Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter said following the latest defeat. “They have a good team. The bottom line is they can hit and they can pitch. They can do a little bit of everything.”

As it was too early to panic about Boston early in the season, it is far too early to get completely worked up about their current position. Yet, though three-plus months remain, it isn’t too far fetched to believe they can continue to outplay Jeter’s Yankees, and, for that matter, the rest of baseball throughout the Dog Days of Summer.

(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)