Doing Some Damage

That weekend pretty much couldn’t have gone any better for Red Sox fans. Could it?

I do want to address the “Damage” comment from Brian Cashman that has gone so viral that even the official MLB twitter account was mocking him for it. I honestly have no idea what he was trying to say. I haven’t seen his whole quote, or even the context of it. But to wonder how the Sox would be doing this season if they didn’t face the Yankees? Because they’re the only team that has done damage against them? First, it’s pretty easy to know how the Sox would be doing without facing the Yankees. Simply subtract a few wins, and a few losses from their season totals. Is that what he meant? If he did that, he’d notice that Yankees games account for a very small percentage of Red Sox losses this season. So, they are far from the only team that has done damage against the Sox. So, I really don’t know where he was trying to go.

Wherever it was…it was a pretty damn stupid thing to say.

Because, you look like a fool when said team then goes out and sweeps you…and makes you look pretty silly doing it.

Because the Red Sox beat the Yankees in just about every way possible. They fell behind early on Thursday, but stormed back with a vengeance, and ended up crushing the Yankees. It was an offensive bludgeoning. Then, they followed that up with two pitching victories. Rick Porcello shut down the Yankees as the Sox cruised on Friday. Then on Saturday the new acquisition made the Yankees hitters look foolish. Sunday, even David price got in on the action before the bullpen blew the lead. Of course, the Sox bats came back to take that victory in crushing fashion.

So, they won a game with their bats. They won two games with their arms. They overcame their Achilles heel when the bullpen faltered. They made the vaunted Yankees bullpen choke away a lead. If you’re the Yankees, what positive can you take away from that series?

That your catcher who is barely hitting wasn’t playing? Because your right fielder who really only hits in garbage time wasn’t there? Sure, you can play that game. Of course, you’d then have to admit that the Sox just beat you in a four game series when their ace missed his start due to injury, their starting second baseman was on the DL, and the back-up went on the DL during the series. Their starting shortstop didn’t start the first two games. Their starting third baseman missed the whole series due to injury. So, even if you want to compare injuries…the Red Sox take the cake.

Yikes.

After all that, the Sox have a commanding 9.5 game lead in the division. (That two-game swing last night was HUGE!) The Yankees are actually twice as close to being out of the playoffs as they are to the division lead. The Red Sox magic number for the division dropped all the way to 42, and the numbers really start to fall in their favor.

With 49 games left, even going just 500 the Sox can take care of half of the magic number on their own. That would require the Yankees to go 35-17 over the last two months. That would be a pretty substantial undertaking.

Yes. I know. 1978. And, even 2011. But, I’m guessing Alex Cora won’t be playing a third baseman with bone chips in his elbow that needed to be rearranged after every throw. I’m guessing he won’t be benching his ace out of spite. Dave Dombrowski has already shown that he’s not so protective of his farm system that he won’t make a “just in case” move. So, while anything can certainly happen, I’d much rather be 9.5 games up than 9.5 games down.

Because this is a lot of fun.