Bring out the Broom

I, as a Yankee fan, am completely thrilled and shocked by this sweep. I know the Red Sox are depleted with some injuries and have been struggling mightily but a sweep this was completely unexpected. A 6 1/2 game lead only a month since they were down 3 1/2 games? How as a Yankee fan could you not be thrilled right now? After all that midseason talk about how the Yankees weren't going to make the playoffs how they weren't going to surpass the Red Sox in the division and how the wildly card was definately coming out of the central. Well guess what the Yankees, are only 4 back of having the best record in all of baseball and are currently tied with the cross-town Mets for the second best record in baseball. One thing that people need to learn is that no one should be said done at the all-star break. And even now I don't believe the Red Sox are done, but I am certainly enjoying holding up a broom.

Keys to The Yankee Sweep

3. Taking Walks - The Red Sox whole pitching staff was wild and this was made more evident by the patient Yankee hitters. This was essential in the comeback on saturday against Beckett where he walked 9 hitters and the bullpen walked followed by walking two Yankees with the bases loaded.

2. Johnny Damon - In this return to Boston Johnny was en fuego. He dominated Red Sox pitching all weekend.

1. Scott Proctor - He gave up one homer in the 5 game set and threw 6 innings. The difference between the Yankees in the Red Sox was a difference of bullpens and Proctor pitching in 4 games and and only giving up one run was essential.

The Main Red Sox Culprits

5) Covelli Crisp - Coco your job is to get on base for Ortiz and Manny to knock in, and he failed miserably, perhaps the move from Francona to lead him off and move Youkilis, who sucked in the 5-hole, was a very bad idea.

4) Bottom of the Order - Limited production from the bottom of the order especially those hitting behind Manny who failed to knock the On Base Machine in time after time.

3) Starter Pitching - Who would have thought that Boomer would have thrown by far the best outing. Schilling was good himself. But between Beckett, who sucks, the cut Jason Johnson, and Lester all they needed was one good outing and they could have taken home a win, nope they all got rocked, big time.

2) Theo - Theo's holding pat with the Youth in the pen and not bulking up the starting rotation has obviously turned into the death of the 2006 Red Sox. Delcarmen, Hanson even Lester are not going to get you the division title and the Wildcard looks really really grim.

1) Bullpen - This really is the downfall of the Red Sox in this series. They gave away leads in games 2,3 and 4 due to the piss poor bullpen. I don't even have to pinpoint the players in the pen that were bad, they all were. This bullpen isn't going to get any better this season.

You Can't Blame Manny

If there is one person that this series can not even be close to being blamed on its Manny. Manny has played the part of Zues against the Yankees this season. Prior to his early departure in the series finale, which was weak, Manny was 8 for 11 with 9 walks. So his On Base Percentage for the series was .850, its almost unthinkable for anyone to have a better percentage over 5 games. Here's what killed the Red Sox, despite being on base 17 times in 5 games, Manny only score 3 runs. Two of them being on his own home runs. So 1 for 15, the Red Sox hitters below him were only able to knock Manny in once in fifteen different occasions. That is absolutely positively pathetic.

Manny's line against the Yankees this Season thus far:

25 for 45 with 17 walks 7 HRs, 21 RBIs, 11 runs, 1.778 OPS.

Manny is a better hitter than Ortiz, I fully believe this, sure I'd rather face him in the 9th, but at any other point in time I'd rather face Ortiz.

Aftermath

Now each of these teams has to go on a west coast trip with no days off. Lets be honest both of these teams killed their bullpens during this series and if either or both struggle mightily on this road trip would not be surprising in the slightest. It's just that the Yankees can now afford a few game swoon while the Red Sox are on desperate times.