Tag: Aaron Boone

Quarantine Classic Game Re-Watch: Aaron F. Boone Game (2003 ALCS Game 7)

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Quarantining for weeks on end to help slow the spread of a global pandemic does not offer too many unique benefits. Especially in a time without the normalcy of the sports world and the much-needed escape it always provides. HOWEVER (Stephen A. Smith voice) you can’t help but discover classic sports games being shown all over your TV right now, ranging from every sport over the past 30 years or so. And re-watching some of these games obviously is not equivalent to enjoying the 2020 Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight of March Madness or Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, but alas it’s something! Last weekend, for example, I found myself glued to watching the entire classic 1992 regional final game between Kentucky and Duke for the first time. And then Friday afternoon on MLB Network I stumbled across Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS between my beloved New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Being that it was one of my favorite games in 30 years of being a Yankees fan and nearly 17 years since I’d seen all 13 innings in full, needless to say I was locked in on my couch for the next three and a half hours. And for all my fellow Yankees fans who read The 300’s… so can you!

To quickly bring us all back to October 2003, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry was at a fever pitch (no pun intended) and the ALCS had already included one of the more surreal moments I’ll ever remember as a sports fan (please don’t click the below clip if you have difficulty watching senior citizens being assaulted).

I still remember 13-year-old me being FUMING mad at Pedro Martinez as he pointed to his head while Jorge Posada was screaming at him from the steps of the dugout. Pedro had just drilled Karim Garcia in the back and following a Manny Ramirez over-reaction to a Clemens high pitch the next thing you knew the benches were cleared and a 72 year old Don Zimmer was charging at and taking a swing at none other than Pedro himself. Pedro proceeded to casually toss him to the ground. Just an insane scene all around. God, I miss hating a team as much as I hated that Boston Red Sox team. What a rivalry man. As good as both teams were from 2017-2018, Tyler Austin charging the mound against Joe Kelly just wasn’t quite the same as those ’03-’05 days.

So that brings us to October 16, 2003 and Game 7 of the ALCS. The Red Sox had just won Game 6 in the Bronx to force a decisive Game 7 and to try and continue their run to win their first World Series in 85 years. The starting pitching match up? Some guys named Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez; not too shabby. The setting? The old Yankee Stadium (RIP). Now obviously 17 years later that game is mainly remembered for its last pitch and how Aaron F. Boone earned his middle name in Boston. But the beauty of re-watching some of these old games is all of the great stuff and critical plays in between that even some of the more die-hard Yankees and Sox fans would be hard pressed to remember. All of that was a long way of saying this game was deemed the sixth greatest game in the history of baseball by MLB Network for a reason…

First observation in re-watching is that unmistakable big-game feeling back in the old Yankee Stadium which was second to none and you could feel it through the screen big time as the game started. The early years of the new Yankee Stadium felt like a morgue in comparison. There was something about the old place on 161st Street and River avenue.

The palpable buzz in the Stadium didn’t last too long as Trot Nixon, a long-time notorious Yankee killer in those days, crushed a two-run homer off Clemens into the right field bleachers in the top of the second inning. A Kevin Millar blast to lead off the fourth gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead and left a silent Stadium and a bleak outlook for the Yanks World Series chances. That Pedro guy was pretty good and he was absolutely dealing to that point.

I had completely forgotten that Roger Clemens had said that 2003 was going to be his last season pitching. Until it wasn’t and he ended up being Brett Favre before Brett Favre when it came to his retirement. Anyways, in what was thought at the time to very possibly be his last professional start, Clemens was pulled by Joe Torre in the top of the fourth inning with base runners on first and third and nobody out. Enter Mike Mussina. Making his very first relief appearance of his 13-year career. Mussina was already 0-2 in that ALCS and was being asked to keep the deficit right there at 4-0. And that’s exactly what he did, and then some.  

The Class of 2019 Hall of Famer kept his team alive and in the game at a time when they needed it the most. But coming back from four runs down against the greatest starting pitcher of his generation remained a pretty daunting task. A couple of solo homeruns by Mike Francesa’s favorite Yankee Jason Giambi brought the Yankees to within two entering the 8th inning. That was until David Ortiz stepped to the plate against David Wells and sent a hanging curveball to the moon. An absolute back-breaking homerun that extended the Red Sox lead to 5-2. Little did Yankees fan know at the time but 2003 was just a preview of the endless seasons that David Ortiz would torture our lives by hitting clutch home run after clutch home run. That season, his first in Boston, Ortiz hit eight home runs against the Yankees (regular season and post) and he didn’t stop doing just that until the day he retired in 2016.

But that brings us to the bottom of the eighth (also known as my favorite half inning in all my years of being a Yankees fan) and thanks to Grady Little, Pedro was still on the mound.

The Fox broadcast showed a sign in the crowd at the beginning of the inning that said “Mystique Don’t Fail me Now’. It’s hard to describe (or remember for younger Yankees fans) but at this point in 2003, coming off the dynasty of winning four championships in five years from ’96-‘00 and even winning all three home games in the epic 2001 World Series, Yankee Stadium mystique was very much a thing and it was the ONLY thing giving me hope down three runs and five outs away from losing to our biggest rival.

To be fair to Grady Little, high pitch counts were not as much of a death sentence for a starter back in 2003 and Pedro’s was right around 100 entering the inning. Especially in a do or die Game 7 in which you’re attempting to break an 85-year drought. Also, from a Yankees fan perspective, I remember wanting Little to take the ball from the future first ballot Hall of Famer and hand it to the likes of Alan Embree or Mike Timlin. But no matter where you stood on whether or not Pedro should’ve started the inning, there’s absolutely no defending leaving him in after he consecutively gave up a one-out double to Jeter and line drive single to Bernie Williams, cutting the lead to 5-3. Thankfully he did just that and Hideki Matsui proceeded to rip a double down the line to set up second and third before Jorge Posada hit a bloop double to tie the game at five and send Yankee Stadium into an absolute euphoric frenzy.

We all know how the game ends but this would be the worst 2003 ALCS Game 7 blog of all time if I didn’t mention or include the first pitch of the top of the 13th inning…

It really couldn’t have been a more unlikely player to hit one of the biggest and most memorable home runs in Yankee history. The Yankees acquired Boone at the trade deadline and he hit a pedestrian .254 for the Yanks in the regular season before going 2-16 in the ALCS prior to that at-bat. Believe it or not he didn’t even start the game! The starting third basemen that night was of course the immortal (and proclaimed ‘Pedro killer’) Enrique Wilson. And then who could forget following the ’03 season Boone famously broke his leg in a pickup basketball game and would never again put on the Yankee pinstripes (as a player anyways).

The epilogue to this classic of a championship series game was the Yankees losing to the Marlins in six games. I’d love to delve further into breaking down that World Series but this blog is solely a Game 7 ALCS recap. Sorry folks!

Final Re-watch thoughts: Looking back 17 years later it was nice to watch a game during a time when the Yankees still dominated the rivalry with the Red Sox. If you were lucky enough to live under a rock during the next 17 years of the rivalry, let’s just say things have changed a bit in who has had the upper hand and let’s leave it at that. But there were definitely worse ways to spend three plus hours in the midst of a Coronavirus quarantine world than to re-watch the last game when the Yankees were on top of the rivalry and “1918” chants were still a thing.   

Joe Torre is Looking to Take Some Fun Out of Major League Baseball

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NY Post – There never has been more information available when it comes to arguments with umpires, players and managers — and Joe Torre isn’t thrilled with that fact in his role as MLB disciplinarian.

“That’s a little concerning,’’ said Torre, the former Yankees manager and now the league’s chief baseball officer, a job which includes overseeing on-field discipline and umpiring. “You take what you can get, but it wasn’t supposed to be that clear. It shouldn’t happen.”

The preponderance of that information has become more common lately, as microphones have picked up what’s said on the field, leaving little to the imagination. Torre will take the information, but he’d rather it wasn’t available to anyone with a Twitter account.

“That’s not the way I want to hear it, for everybody else to hear it,’’ Torre said Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “I wish I could hear it, only. It makes it easy to make my decision.”

Typical, typical baseball. God forbid we let the managers and players have any type of personality. Between the Aaron Boone “savages” rant this year and the epic confrontation between Terry Collins and umpire Tom Hallion that resurfaced last year, we’ve got two viral clips that had everyone on social media actually talking about baseball in a positive way.

What’s the harm in letting these clips go public? The umpires’ reputation? Do a better job and you won’t get berated. They already are shielded enough, as only a select pool reporter from the media can even talk to an umpire after the game.

I’d even argue that in the Hallion/Collins confrontation, I gained a better respect for why Hallion and the umpires did what they did (we also of course got the famous “ass in the jackpot line.) Hallion seemed composed and calmly explained that they were directed 

So while ratings are down and games routinely go past the four-hour mark, perhaps Joe Torre and the rest of Major League Baseball should lighten up and just embrace little moments like these. 

P.S. I’m sure Joe is glad the mics weren’t hot for this confrontation.

Tom Brady Apparently Almost Broke His Shoulder Skiing

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As a completely objective observer this is a funny video. Tom Brady has always had a pretty dry sense of humor that has helped him crush his hosting gig on SNL way back when as well as any commercial he’s ever done. But I am not an objective observer, I am a die hard Patriots fan and a Tom Brady stan. Tom says himself that this video is from two years ago, but it still makes me nauseous. Is this what parents feel like? Just always nervous your kid’s going to kill himself doing something stupid? Brady legit goes ass over end HITTING A SKI JUMP!

Dudes get hurt and wreck their careers doing way less all the time. Christ the Curse of the Bambino and the Red Sox Yankees rivalry changed forever because Aaron Boone tore his knee playing pickup basketball, which led to the A-Rod trade.

So would I prefer Tom didn’t try out for the X-Games in the offseason? Sure. But it’s that crazy competitive spirit that makes him great so I guess I’ll just sit up all night worrying about Tom until he gets home in one piece.

“Way bigger hill. Way more speed” is an A+ line though.

Red Sox Roll the Yankees in Game 3, Now One Win Away from the ALCS

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I was a little torn on the decision to start Nathan Eovaldi in Game 3 last night. The guy throws absolute gas (Avg fastball velocity was 3rd in MLB) and has been very good against the Yankees the last two months of the season (1 ER in 16 IP), but he’s also a trade deadline pickup starting over your former Cy Young winner. Well Eovaldi put all that anxiety to bed real quick.

“Nathan Eovaldi gave the Boston Red Sox their best postseason start since Jon Lester in Game 5 of the 2013 World Series, allowing just one run in seven innings Monday with an efficient 97 pitches.”

Bravo, Alex Cora. Bravo.

So while Eovaldi was mowing down the Yankees’ uber powerful lineup, the Sox offense was abusing Luis Severino and finished the night with a 16-1 victory. I’m currently in New York so I’m watching all the NY morning sports shows and Aaron Boone is already getting ripped for his managerial decisions in Game 3.

Leaving Luis Severino in to start the 4th inning after he clearly didn’t have it and couldn’t locate his fastball all night. Boone let him start the 4th and he promptly loaded the bases without recording an out. Boone then brought in Lance Lynn who put on a clinic of how not to pitch after figuratively and literally falling down on the mound. Lynn cleared the bases and left the game with a fresh set of guys on 1st and 3rd after only getting 1 out. The Sox were up 7-0 at that point and as they say, that was that.

When asked why he didn’t go to any of his go to guys in the 4th inning, Boone gave an absolutely moronic response:

“Knowing we’re going to want them all potentially up to a couple of innings tomorrow.”

He didn’t use his key bullpen guys because he wanted to save them for the next game, rather than worrying about a game they were only down 3-0 at the time?

“It was completely idiotic from Aaron Boone,” as one talking head put it on SNY this morning.

Meanwhile, Alex Cora is going to his Game 3 STARTER in relief in Game 1.

How do you think David Price felt watching Eovaldi absolutely dominate the same Yankees lineup he couldn’t get out of the 2nd inning against? I mean its not like he makes FIFTEEN times (15x) what Eovaldi makes…

How about the Brock Star, Brock Holt, hitting the first cycle in MLB postseason history? Not to mention the absolute web gem he had at second base?

Have a day kid.

It was also the Yankees’ worst loss in postseason history, which is a great way to pay them back for that embarrassing 19-8 beatdown back in 2004 at Fenway. We all know how that series ended though so lets not take our foot off the gas pedal.

Angel Hernandez continues to do Angel Hernandez things as THREE of his calls were overturned by replay. Get this guy off the field before he actually blows a game for a team.

Tonight the Red Sox have the previously mentioned Rick Porcello who, despite his up and down season, has a 2.31 ERA against the Yankees this year. The Yanks will counter with CC Sabathia who has an ERA of over 4 against the Sox this season. Thanks to Eovaldi’s 7 IP last night the Red Sox disaster of a bullpen is well rested at least so it should be all hands on deck because I do not want to play a Game 5 against this team.

Get it done boys.

The 300s Red Sox Yankees ALDS Preview

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It’s been FOURTEEN YEARS since these teams faced off in the postseason when the Red Sox broke a curse and kicked off an entire generation of young massholes coming up in the world (not to mention completing the greatest comeback in the history of sports). It seems like these two teams used to go at it in the playoffs all the time back in the day, but in reality they’ve only ever faced off four times. That just goes to show you how sports will never be more important to your every day life than when you’re 15.

I wrote the other day about how despite winning a franchise record 108 games, most Red Sox fans don’t seem exactly brimming with confidence. The Yankees, also having won 100 games, have come to town though so it’s time to play for keeps. Lets break down some key things to watch for before making our pick.

  • Game 1
    • Friday, Oct. 5th – 7:32 pm (Fenway)
      • Chris Sale vs J.A. Happ
  • Game 2
    • Saturday, Oct. 6th – 8:15 pm (Fenway)
      • David Price vs Masahiro Tanaka
  • Game 3
    • Monday, Oct. 8th – TBD (Yankee Stadium)
      • ??? vs Rick Porcello
  • Game 4
    • Tuesday, Oct. 9th – TBD (Yankee Stadium) *if necessary
  • Game 5
    • Thursday, Oct. 11th – TBD (Fenway) *if necessary

/////

  • He’s not even on the team, but Trot Nixon is throwing out the first pitch for Game 1 so I’m listing that as a strength. Don’t even argue with me on that one.
  • Red Sox Offense – Boston led all of baseball with 876 runs this year (NY was second with 851) and have 2 guys in JD Martinez and Mookie Betts who are a coin flip to win AL MVP. Aside from those two they have a pretty, pretty, pretty good lineup:
    • Andrew Benintendi .290/16/87
    • Xander Bogaerts .288/23/103
    • Rafael Devers .240/21/66
    • Eduardo Nunez .265/10/44
    • Brock Holt .277/7/46
    • Mitch Moreland .245/15/68
  • Not to mention we have newly crowned Yankee killer Steve Pearce waiting to pounce. He hits J.A. Happ extremely well (.344 average, 1.419 OPS, six homers and 16 RBIs in 32 career at-bats) so don’t be surprised to see him in the starting lineup tonight.
  • Chris Sale (if healthy)
    • It’s impossible to know what to expect from Chris Sale tonight. I went into my concerns about Sale the other day and I still don’t feel great about it.
      I’ll be honest though, the No. 1 reason I’m less than confident heading into Friday night is 100% Chris Sale’s health. The guy is just not right. According to Felger and Mazz yesterday, his average fastball velocity went down every single start over his last four starts. That is BAD. He was throwing off of flat ground earlier this week, just days before he’s supposed to take the ball in Game 1. Thats something a rehabbing pitcher does, not a guy who is ready to open the ALDS. Maybe he comes out and he’s totally fine, but I’m not counting on it. Even if he does, I’d be concerned about how he bounces back. Remember when he came off the DL and struck out 12 Orioles and was hitting 99 on the gun? Yea well that was on August 12th and he’s thrown a grand total of 12 innings since then.
  • Craig Kimbrel had a down year when compared to his stellar standard, but this guy coming out of the pen throwing absolute gas is about as good of a weapon you can have. Now if the Sox can somehow bridge the gap to him…
  • Red Sox Bullpen: It’s terrible. Despite the advanced analytics saying the Sox bullpen actually has a great WAR, if you’ve watched even one game this season you know it’s anxiety inducing. Hell, it’s been this way all the way since Game 1.
  • So help me god if Alex Cora throws Steven Wright out there in a late situation only to give up a bomb on a knuckleball while Boone sits in the dugout and smirks.
  • Red Sox Starters 2-5: Consistency is the problem here. Rick Porcello won the Cy Young in 2016 for christ’s sake, but I’m not super confident in him. He did throw a complete game shutout against the Yankees in about 90 minutes earlier this season though.
  • Even Tim Kurkjian doesn’t know what to think. I feeeel like they’ll be good, but they’ve also ALL been bad in the playoffs their entire careers….

“The gut feeling here is, despite lots of evidence to the contrary, he is going to be great this October. He will have to be if the Red Sox are to win this series. [Chris Sale] David Price and Rick Porcello also need to be good. Together, those three are 0-11 with a 6.18 ERA in 14 postseason starts.”

  • David Price’s Psyche: He’s gotta break through in the playoffs at some point right? Right??
  • Yankees Home Run Power: These guys can hit the shit out of the ball and half their lineup can hit it to the moon. The Yankees set the single season home run record this year with 267 home runs, which I feel like is somehow getting overlooked here. Stanton led the Yanks with 38 dingers, but Miguel Andujar, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, and Aaron Judge each hit 27. Oh and Gleyber Torres chipped in with 24 of his own. Yikes.
  • I think more than anything I just want to beat Aaron Boone’s brains in. It’s bad enough what he did to me and my family back in 2003, but for him to saunter out of the ESPN broadcast booth down into the dugout and think he’s just going to manage the Yankees past the Red Sox? Straight up disrespectful.

  • I would rather listen to Michael McDonald for 8 hours a day then hear that obnoxious, awful, victory chant from John Sterling one more time. THAaAaAaAaAaAa YANKEES WIN is the most obnoxious shit in all of sports and is literally the exact opposite of what they teach you in journalism school. So yea, listen to your teachers and stay in school kids.

Official Prediction

Red Sox in 5

I think the best home field advantage in baseball comes into play as the Red Sox are dominant at home (57-24 at Fenway this year) and the Yankees are 1-6 in their last 7 playoff road games. The Sox bullpen will struggle to keep these games in check, but I think some combo of Sale/Kimbrel/Eovaldi/E-Rod get it done with some help from Price. We know this team can hit, it’s just going to be a matter of keeping the Yanks in check and I think the Sox do it by the skin of their teeth as New York pushes them to the brink.

For a Team That Just Won 108 Games, Red Sox Fans Don’t Seem Super Confident

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For a team that set a franchise record for wins with 108, it doesn’t seem like many of us are exactly brimming with confidence heading into the playoffs. Is it just negative overload with all the toxic sports radio, the shaky bullpen, the feeling they peaked too early, or are fans worried that the Red Sox merely beat up on weak competition all year long?

Granted the Orioles were the worst team in baseball this season with 115 losses (getting that hardass Buck Showalter fired in the process), the AL East seemed to regain its stature as one of the best divisions in baseball. The AL East was the only division in all of baseball that had three 90 win teams, let alone two 100 win teams.  The Yankees won 100 games and still finished 8 games back in the division. Tampa Bay Rays won 90 games and finished EIGHTEEN games back and had one of the best pitchers in the game in Blake Snell who may win the Cy Young.

So is it the shaky bullpen? We’ve all been here before and seen this team get its doors blown off in the playoffs the past two years. Chris Sale is obviously less than 100% and David Price’s next quality start in the postseason will be his first. Add all that together with an anxiety inducing bullpen and some Sox fans may just be safeguarding themselves against getting their hopes up. Matt Barnes? Ryan “Brazzers” Brasier? Maybe Steven Wright the goddamn knuckleballer as our setup man? Oh boy. At least Joe Kelly can whoop a guy’s ass if the situation calls for it.

The Sox essentially held open tryouts in September for key bullpen guys as they trotted out Wright, Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brian Johnson and a whole cast of characters, which for a team that won 108 games is massively concerning. It would not be a surprise at all to see this team get booted in the postseason after a couple of bad nights from the pen because thats all it takes.

Obviously the offense was excellent this year with Mookie Betts and JD Martinez vying for the MVP, but can a team really mash its way to a World Series title? I doubt it, mainly because they’ll be going up against the best starting pitching and the most micro-managed bullpens so it would be foolish to bank on 7-10 runs a night from the Sox.

I’ll be honest though, the No. 1 reason I’m less than confident heading into Friday night is 100% Chris Sale’s health. The guy is just not right. According to Felger and Mazz yesterday, his average fastball velocity went down every single start over his last four starts. That is BAD. He was throwing off of flat ground earlier this week, just days before he’s supposed to take the ball in Game 1. Thats something a rehabbing pitcher does, not a guy who is ready to open the ALDS. Maybe he comes out and he’s totally fine, but I’m not counting on it. Even if he does, I’d be concerned about how he bounces back. Remember when he came off the DL and struck out 12 Orioles and was hitting 99 on the gun? Yea well that was on August 12th and he’s thrown a grand total of 12 innings since then.

So if Sale isn’t 100% and gets bounced out of the game early? Welp lets hand it over to that disaster of a bullpen we’ve all been railing on all year long.

Then if the Sox lose Game 1 they have the absolute headcase in David Price taking the mound for Game 2 with TONS of pressure. He literally might puke on the mound. Get your YUCK shirts ready.

Listen, this team won 108 games for a reason, despite some games against “weak” competition. Maybe they can just mash their way to the World Series, but for a team that set a franchise record for wins I don’t feel nearly as confident as I would like.

The Yankees and all their degenerate fans thats refuse to button their goddamn jerseys come to town for Game 1 of the ALDS on Friday night.

The Sox will have Chris Sale on the mound and the Yanks will turn to a starter to be named later after smoking the A’s in the Wild Card game. I would expect Tanaka after Luis Severino went last night, but the Yankees have yet to officially name a starter. First pitch is at 7:32 pm.

Drink up boys, we’re in for a wild weekend.

Red Sox vs Yankees IV: Pomeranz Battles a Broken Fingernail but Giancarlo Goes Yard Twice in a Yanks Win

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Giancarlo smoked two solo dingers to lead the Yankees to a 3-2 win over the Red Sox and Drew Pomeranz avoided a nail filing disaster to finish with a solid stat line: 6 IP, 2 Runs, 6 Strikeouts. As predicted, Luis Severino was not going to implode against the Sox twice in a row though as he went 6 IP while surrendering 2 Runs and striking out 11.

I gotta give props to Pomeranz though, I was legitimately typing the tweet getting ready to blast him for bailing on a start in the 2nd inning 2 hours after David Price got scratched. But after calling over the trainers and doing a little nail filing maintenance he was able to get back out there and pitch well. Trying to throw junk with a broken fingernail cannot be fun.

Down 2-1 the new best player on the planet Mookie Betts dragged the Sox back into a tie with a triple in the 7th to knock in a run, but that lead wasn’t meant to be.

Despite the two mistakes served up by Pomeranz to Giancarlo:

This game was more on the bullpen than anything else as Alex Cora figured the first guy out of the pen after an off day should be Heath Hembree! He got the first guy out but then gave up a double and then walked Gleyber Torres. After a mound visit Hembree immediately is called for a balk so now theres runners on 2nd and 3rd. He then proceeds to walk Brett Gardner before getting yanked for Joe Kelly, who gave up a single to put the Yanks on top for good.

Wednesday night’s projected starter *was* David Price but he was sent back to Boston yesterday because the numbness in his fingers returned so I’m in full blown panic mode.

We’ll have more on that later this morning.

So instead tonight we get Frederick Alfred Porcello (5-0) 2.14 vs  Masahiro Tanaka (4-2) 4.39 and Porcello has been on a roll to start the year so I’m picking the Sox to right the ship and regain their lead in the AL East.

Red Sox Looking to Temper Red Hot Yankees in the Bronx Tonight

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Starting tonight the Red Sox head into the Bronx to take on the Yankees while currently holding a 1 game lead in the AL East. After taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees in the first series of the year the Yanks have gone on an absolute heater winning 15 of 16…. all while leaning on rookies. So the Yankees lineup that was absolutely stacked with power hitters now has a rookie in Gleyber Torres who is hitting a cool .327/.357/.857 ?? Cool. I look forward to hating you soon enough Mr. Torres.

Thankfully the Sox have been taking care of business on their end as well with Mookie Betts merely becoming the best player in baseball. No big deal. And before you try and shut me down hear me out. Mookie is leading the MLB in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, OPS, Runs Scored, Home Runs, Total Bases, and Extra Base Hits.

These two teams are FINALLY both great at the same time. We’ve said it ad nauseam but over the past decade these two teams kept missing each other, which is why they haven’t faced off in the playoffs in years. Now both are a legitimate threat to win 100 games this year. The last time I could find two teams in the same division that won 100 games was the 2001 AL West when the Mariners won 116 games and the Athletics won 102 so this division race has the potential to be historic.

JD Martinez has actually been playing great as well hitting .349/.396/1.015 with 8 Home Runs and 27 RBIs on the year. The surprise in my voice in response to how well JD is playing is a sad reflection of how badly the Sox have botched big money free agent signings in recent years. David Price (too soon?), Pablo Sandoval, Rusney Castillo, Carl Crawford etc.  So Just Dingers Martinez actually living up to the hype thus far has been a pleasant surprise on Yawkey Way Jersey Street.

There’s 16 more rounds of this left and after a benches clearing brawl in the 2nd game of the year between them this is the earliest I’ve been jacked up for a Sox Yanks game. The rivalry is back, the two teams legitimately don’t like each other, and most importantly we are each other’s biggest threat and direct competition on the path to a World Series. Hey, ESPN might even finally benefit from having them on national TV every other week.

Tonight we have Drew Pomeranz (1-1) 6.14 ERA vs Luis Severino (5-1) 2.11 ERA so that is mismatch city. The Sox beat the hell out of Severino for 5 runs in 5 innings last time around, but since then he’s sporting a 1.24 ERA with 32 Ks and 5 walks in 29 IP. This will be Pomeranz’s 4th start back from the DL so I’m not super confident, but he does have a 3-2 record and a 3.12 ERA in his career at Yankee Stadium. All things considered I’ve gotta go with Severino tonight as the guy is on a roll and is unlikely to lay an egg against the Sox twice in a row. With that being said if you gamble on individual baseball games you are a sick degenerate and I cannot help you.

I Think the Red Sox Yankees Rivalry May Finally Be Back

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Its been a tough decade for the so called blood feud between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Neither team has really been very good at the same time recently. After the epic postseason clashes of 2003 and 2004 the two sides haven’t played each other in the playoffs even once. Before last year, both teams hadn’t even made the playoffs in the same season since 2009. In 2007 when the Sox won it all, the Yankees got smoked in the divisional round. In 2009 when the Yankees won it all, the Sox got swept in the divisional round. And in 2013 when the Red Sox went the distance again, the Yanks straight up sucked and missed the playoffs winning only 85 games.

The guys much smarter than me over at fivethirtyeight.com actually put together a graph last year, based on each team’s World Series odds, to measure how meaningful games between the Sox and Yankees actually have been over the years.

“From 2007 to 2016, the typical Yanks-Sox contest was only about as important as any old opening-day game. In other words, it was fun but no big deal.”

So we’re on the up ladies and gentlemen. Last year Boston won its second straight AL East crown and the Yankees came within a game of advancing to the World Series on the back of young, homegrown talent. All of that was BEFORE New York added the best power hitter in the game in Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees, who featured a guy in Aaron Judge who hit 52 home runs AS A ROOKIE, just added a guy who hit 59 home runs. Ridiculous.

Well, thank god the Sox finally responded by signing one Julio Daniel Martinez.

It took a lot longer than most expected, but it sure is nice to take a team that won 93 games and then add this guy: .303 BA/.376 OBP/ .690 SLG with 45 Home Runs and 104 RBIs.

And for all the Yankees fans in my timeline talking shit already (its not even St. Patty’s Day yet) I’m just going to quote my man Jared Carrabis:

“After finishing last in the league in homers last year, the Red Sox added the player who is second in the MLB in slugging percentage (.574) since the start of the 2014 season behind Mike Trout (.579) with a minimum of 300 games played.”

A consolation prize he is not.

My point being though is this could be the first time we see Boston and New York square off in the playoffs in more than a decade. Both teams are stacked, young, and trending upwards. Sure the Patriots have taken the No. 1 spot in town and the Sox have won 3 titles since 2004, but I honestly don’t think thats why the venom between the Red Sox and the Yankees has dissipated. No, its because both teams haven’t been trying to kill each other for that next ring. If the Yankees and their loudmouth fans in the Bronx are standing between Chris Sale and a World Series appearance, you better fucking believe fans are gonna be fired up.

All we need is the opportunity, and thats what we have here tonight.