Seventh Heaven by Jared Carrabis
Sox improve to 7-0 against NY in '09, look to complete sweep


Death, taxes and the Red Sox beating the Yankees in 2009.

The word "inevitable" is often overused these days, but in this day in age, it's never been busted out of Bostonians' vocabularies than in 2009. They've beaten them in blowouts, they've beaten them in close games and they've beaten them in nail-biting, one-run games.

Now before we go stamping the Yankees as an automatic win, let's not lead ourselves in the wrong direction. New York is one of the best teams in Major League Baseball and are not to be underestimated. The Red Sox are simply playing better, harder and smarter baseball than the Bronx Bombers night in and night out. What we're seeing here is two of the top teams in baseball sizing each other up for what may lie in each team's future come October. While the Red Sox clearly have the upper hand in '09's Yankee/Red Sox match up, make no mistake about it, these two teams are on a collision course when the leaves begin to turn.

With Tim Wakefield looking to better his unbeaten 4-0 record at home this season, the Yankees sent their shell of a two-time 19-game winner to the mound. Chien Ming Wang was on a short leash and that leash was yanked hard by Bombers manager Joe Girardi with two outs in the third, when Wang made his exit after allowing four earned runs on six hits to Boston.

The Sox jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Jason Bay in the first and added a pair of runs in the following frame. Boston waved two runs home in the second when Nick Green led off the inning with a base hit, followed by an RBI double by George Kottaras to bring Green home. The very next at bat, Dustin Pedroia plopped a ground rule double down the right field line that brought Kottaras around to score; 3-1 Sox.

Boston would add another run in the bottom of the third when Mike Lowell connected for his tenth home run of the season into the Monster seats. With two outs in the inning Wang was sent to the showers, as Phil Hughes emerged from the bullpen. For all you Yankee fans creeping on SoxSpace, Hughes is likely going to be taking the rotation slot that Wang will shamefully leave vacant after yet another abysmal outing.

The Yankees got a run back in the top of the fourth to climb back within two runs, but Boston's offensive attack on Hughes in the bottom half would drop them right back down to chasing a three or more run deficit. With one out, JD Drew ripped his second triple of the season out to center field for Kevin Youkilis. With a 2-0 count, Youkilis was sitting dead red on a fastball and the Red Sox first baseman drove a 94 MPH fastball on the outside corner into the Red Sox bullpen for a two-run shot. Youk's tenth home run of the season boosted his RBI total up to 37 so far in '09.

The men in pinstripes got a run back in the top of the fifth, but Wakefield managed to put a zero on the scoreboard in the sixth to complete his outing (6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K). What we saw next is something that we're not accustomed to seeing, and something that we should not get used to. In relief of Tim Wakefield, Ramon Ramirez allowed back-to-back shots off the bats of former Red Sox World Series hero, Johnny Damon, and Mark Teixeira.

Ramirez remained in the game and retired Alex Rodriguez and K'd Robinson Cano, but made his exit after allowing a single to Jorge Posada, who homered earlier in the game. With two gone in a one-run game in the seventh, Terry Francona elected to go with the lefty, Hideki Okajima. With a man at first, Okajima battled his fellow countryman and former teammate, Hideki Matsui, before striking the Yankee designated hitter out on an 82 MPH 2-seam fastball. (That's some serious heat; watch out Daniel Bard) Okajima went on to hurl a scoreless eighth inning, picking up four strikeouts in all in 1.3 shutout innings of work.

Onto the ninth, Jonathan Papelbon was called upon to seal the deal, food poisoning and all. He did allow a walk to A-Rod, but the Yankee third baseman would stay put at first base, as Papelbon picked up his fifteenth save of the season to move past Mariano Rivera and into sole possession of second place among the American League saves leaders. Papelbon was suffering from severe symptoms of food poisoning just 24 hours before his first appearance in this series, but you wouldn't know just by looking at him.

With the win, the Sox improve to 7-0 against the Yankees in 2009, as they look to break out the brooms yet again on Thursday night against CC Sabathia. Oh, let's not forget the Sox are now alone atop the American League East by a full game after defeating the Yankees yet again.

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

The Red Sox have won seven straight to open up their head-to-head combat with the Yankees in 2009, their best start since 1912, but if you go all the way back to September 28, 2008, Boston has claimed eight straight victories against Girardi's Bombers.

In Tim Wakefield's last five decisions, he has picked up a victory in four of them.

Here's what you'll really need to know to impress your friends and to excite yourselves. On Thursday, John Smoltz will be making his final rehab start with the Pawtucket Red Sox. The Hall of Famer to be could join Boston's rotation as early as Tuesday against the Florida Marlins (a game in which I'll be introduced on the field before the game, if you have tickets, get there early!). With the Sox adding another starter to their arsenal, Smoltz will likely start on Tuesday, but may be inserted into Boston's already lethal bullpen. If the Sox are unable to deal one of their six starters (cough, Brad Penny, cough), Smoltz will have to do his thing out of the Sox bullpen until space is cleared up for him to join the rotation full time.

Oh, and one last thing: A-Rod is 0-for-the series so far.

Thursday's pitching match up:

The last time CC Sabathia took the mound at Fenway, he was getting shelled in the 2007 American League Championship Series. In two starts against Boston, the hefty lefty was 0-2 with a 10.45 ERA. He logged 10.1 innings and gave up 12 earned runs on 17 hits and walked seven. Sabathia is known to get a little too "over-excited" when the pressure is on, and it will certainly be "on" when the left-hander returns to the mound at Fenway. After all, the Yankees didn't dish out $161 million for Sabathia to earn wins against the Royals, Orioles, Indians and Blue Jays, they wrote that fat check to this fat mess to pick up wins in games where the Bombers can hop back into first place and avoid a sweep. Time will only tell if their depletion of the Yankee bank account was worth it.

Brad Penny will be given the task of match Sabathia inning for inning on Thursday night. Penny hasn't faced the Yankees since he hoisted the World Series trophy in the Bronx back in 2003 with Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, but in that World Series, the right-hander went 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA over 12.1 innings of work.

-Jared Carrabis

Final Score: Yankees 5, Red Sox 6

Published on June 11, 2009

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