One night after an offensive outburst so drastic that it resulted in two Red Sox pitchers being dismissed from the team, Friday's contest between the Yankees and the Red Sox lived up to the considerable hype, billing it as the best pitching matchup in a series loaded with quality on both sides of the chalk.
A heavyweight bout between former Marlins young-gun hurlers Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett, both pitchers stifled the opposition's lineup during their part of the 15-inning marathon that ensued due in no small part to their contributions of dominance. It was a game that was the polar opposite of the Yankees' Thursday blowout of the Red Sox that featured affluent offensive and very little quality pitching. The result of the antithetical proceedings of Friday's contest produced arguably the best game played yet this year in all of baseball.
The headline story of the first half of this epic matchup was the flawless starting pitching by both men apposing each other on the mound. Josh Beckett immediately silenced a Yankee offense that posted 13 runs only the night before, allowing zero runs over seven innings, striking out seven and walking only two. Beckett — pulled apparently because of his pitch count — was masterful as he mowed through the talented Yankee lineup with power, command and efficiency.
His former Marlins' teammate, and opposition for the day, was even better. Over 7 1/3 innings AJ Burnett allowed only one hit (to Jacoby Ellsbury, the first batter in the first inning) and struck out six while walking six. Burnett erased the memory of his last brutal start against Boston in Fenway back in June in which he lasted only 2 2/3 innings, plowing through the Red Sox lineup featuring great velocity if not outstanding command. He was effectively wild and threw strikes when it counted, completely shutting down the Boston lineup after the first batter of the game.
When both starters exited the game, the score stood at a 0-0 gridlock, and it would stay that way for the next seven innings that followed. Both team's showed off the depth and skill of their respective bullpens (although neither may have enough arms left to finish the series), with Boston using eight pitchers (including Beckett) while the Yankees sent six men to the mound themselves.
Article comments
1 - Minderbinder
All Yankee wins last weekend were tainted because multiple high-profile known ped users were keys to the victories.
2 - Tony
Poor little Boston fan. Didn't like that sweep did you?
3 - Tony
After the Manny thing, the Ortiz thing and now this its been a tough road for the "nation" this season.
4 - Tony
How about this, when Ortiz hits even 40 home runs not on steroids, I'll stop saying he's a fraud.
5 - Minderbinder
The Yankees dominated and embarrassed the Sox. It was like it was the 20th century again.
6 - Tony
Actually I'm pretty sure Aaron Boone's home run occured in the 21st century. But hey, being a Red Sox fan it is almost cruel to negate you the 5 or 6 years of happiness you've had over a lifetime of disappointment.
7 - Tony
It is funny that you would have the reference an entire century of domination though.
8 - Minderbinder
When A-rod hits 40 home runs when he's not on peds, I'll stop saying he's a fraud.
9 - Minderbinder
Aaron Boone was on steroids too, that was a tainted home run if I ever saw one.
10 - Tony
I've written extensively on my dislike for A-Rod so you're not scoring any points there. If you feel like you're proving the point that all teams had users so the Red Sox series wins aren't tainted then that's fine, keep repeating it to yourself over and over and maybe you'll convince yourself that you feel better about it. But any way you slice it, finding out that Manny and Ortiz are cheating drug users hurts if you're a Red Sox fan in the same way finding out that say Jeter, Bernie, Posada, Tino, or Paulie had used would bother a Yankee fan. Thankfully that's not a shred of evidence that any of them did, unlike these Red Sox "heroes."
It's more funny than anything. How do you break the curse of the babe? With a needle of course.
11 - Tony
Also, since A-Rod has no where near the stat drop off Ortiz has. Big Pappi is a big joke. His 50 homers are about as legit as Brady Anderson's.
12 - Minderbinder
A-Rod hasn't had the stat drop off because he hasn't stopped using. Think about it, if a player was using in the off-season to avoid testing he would start out hot every year then by the time October rolls around he would be useless.
Bernie's numbers fell precipitously starting in 2003. Jorge had been on one all-star team since 2003. Tino had 44 HR and a .577 slugging percentage in 1997, sounds like a stat spike to me. Paul O'Neil had the good sense to retire before anyone in baseball was tested for steroids. Their is "evidence" of anything if you want to see it.
I'll give you Jeter though. I wonder how many positional first-ballot hall of famers have led their league in an offensive category twice in their career. Being judged in the context of the steroids era propels him from being just a solid hall of fame choice to being an automatic first ballot top the line choice. It is this context that bumped Jim Rice into the just good enough to get in category.
13 - Matthew T. Sussman
We're so lucky to have a baseball insider on Blogcritics.
14 - Tony
- If you really think that cycling steroids and HGH in the offseason would "wear off" by the end of a baseball season you obviously know nothing about how those drugs work.
- Posada
95-2002: .268/105/425 .369/.465/.835
03-09: .287/113/436 .392/.494/.886
so that blows that theory
- You didn't have a statistical argument for O'neil because there isn't one to find. His career was completely consistent with the Yankees. His .359 ba in '94 was high but he hit 21 home runs that season, the same number he hit in his final season.
- Bernie was already getting only in 03 but his 04 was actually a better than his 03.
03: .263/15/64
04: .262/22/70
His last season he hit .281 with 12 hr 61 RBIs but didnt want to accept a part time role so retried to be a critically acclaimed jazz musician.
Also, none of these guys have tested positive so that's kind of a big thing. Keep trying though.
15 - El Bicho
hysterical to see baseball fans fight over which team cheated less.
16 - Minderbinder
I'm not saying anyone cheated more or less than anyone else. Until baseball adopts an Olympic quality drug testing program including blood tests for hgh I assume that most of baseball is cheating in some way or another. Tony is just jealous that his team of cheaters has had limited success against my team of cheaters lately (besides last weekend.
BTW, Bill Simmons put out a pretty good article today about Papi's press conference.