This past weekend, the greatest rivalry in sports rolled into Boston as the Yanks and Red Sox were to play 5 games in four days, starting with a day night double-header on Friday. What transpired this weekend was pretty much the greatest beatdown I’ve ever seen since I first became a Yankee fan in ’74. Ok, true, it wasn’t nearly as demoralizing to the Sox as the great ’78 season when the Yankees came back from being down 14 games in the standings as late as July and ultimately won the pennant in a one-game playoff thanks to Bucky Dent’s historically improbable home run. However, it was certainly the most lopsidedly enjoyable onslought of offense I’ve ever seen the Yankees put up against the Sox. It was also the worst display of pitching I’ve ever seen in a series between any two teams. The pitch counts were through the roof and the Sox bullpen stank it up like little leaguers with the exception of Jonathan Papelbon who even as a Yankee fan, I have to give mad props to; more on him in a bit. The number of walks the Red Sox gave up was insane and several of them even came with the bases loaded. The fact that this all happened in Fenway and that much of the Yankees offense did not even come off of or over the green monster was particularly impressive. How many terrific things happened? Geez, where to begin? How about just the scores of the first three games alone (12-4, 14-11, and 13-5)? How about Johnny Damon getting booed by the Fenway fans and then promptly batting .500 with 6 extra-base hits? How about the Yanks latest big-ticket signing, Bobby Abreau running up something like a .750 on base percentage? How about all the Yankees taking every at-bat deep into the count? Man it was such an awesome display of patience and offense. Adding to the weekend was the fact that the night game on Friday turned out to be the longest 9-inning game in major league history. Yes, the longest game coming as the second game of a Yanks-Sox double header. It only seems right that such a record be a part of the long rich history of this rivalry.

The capper to the weekend was last night’s game. Not a slugfest like the previous 3 games, Curt Schilling pitched 7 strong innings and the Sox took a 5-3 lead into the 8th, when they not surprisingly their bullpen pretty much walked the bases loaded with nobody out, forcing Terry Francona to have to go to their stud closer earlier than he wanted. I’ll admit it, Jonathan Papelbon is a true lights-out reliever. Somehow he came out and managed to get the Sox out of the inning only surrendering a single run. Simply incredible against a team as patient and confident as the Yankees were this weekend. Every time I looked up, the Yankee batters were in the hole in a 1-2 count. Ah, but Papelbon’s impressiveness is also the reason why last night’s game was so much sweeter. In the 9th, Melky Cabrera put on a good swing a led off with a double and then advanced to 3rd on a wile pitch. Then after two quick outs by Bernie and Damon, it was up to Mr. Clutch, Derek Jeter to save the Yankees with their final out. And wouldn’t ya know it, Jeter gets jammed but still bloops a single into right to score Melky from third. Yes, the Yanks got Papelbon to blow a save. Even better, they forced him to pitch a full 42 pitches which means he may not be fully available or effective if the Sox need him in this afternoon’s game.

You know what was even more perfect about last night? Deadwood comes on Sundays at 9pm. The Yankees game started at 8p, so I knew I was only going to watch the first hour of the ballgame before tuning into Deadwood. No way I was going to miss this episode since it had gotten so good and this was going to be the second to last episode of the season, setting the table for the big finale. No big deal I thought, I’ll only have to miss an hour of the game. Hahaha, silly me… Guess what happened at 8:50? You got it, a 55 minute rain delay! So I got to see Deadwood in its entirety without missing a single pitch and the Yankees went on to win in extra innings. Not a bad way to finish the weekend, eh? 🙂

[ Edit: The Yanks just swept the series, winning the final game 2-1! ]