Bottom of the 9th for the 2009 Red Sox

So after being swept in NYC over 3 weeks ago, the Red Sox take on the Yankees again this weekend, this time in the friendly confines of Fenway Park. The Sox currently sit 6.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East, and even though there are 39 games left in the regular season after this weekend, a similar outcome as the NYC series would surely the Red Sox too much to do to catch the Yankees. There's still the Wild Card (or best runner-up to us here in Europe) to play for of course (the Red Sox lead the Texas Rangers by 1 game and Tampa Bay by 4), but anything less than 2 wins this weekend will not auger well for the stretch run and beyond, nor will it do much to sate a less than happy fan base.

The last Yankees series was pretty horrible for Boston. John Smoltz was battered in the opener (the Red Sox actually led on several occasion and Joba Chamberlain looked less than convincing) and was subsequently released, they lost in the 15th inning on Friday (when Junichi Tazawa made his first MLB appearance and gave up the game winning home run to Alex Rodriguez), and, despite his best start of the season at the time, Clay Buchholz ran into CC Sabathia in Ace form on Saturday. Worst of all, the Red Sox scored exactly 8 runs all weekend, 6 of them on the Thursday. It has largely been anaemic offence that has seen the Sox lose touch in the AL and find themselves in a dogfight for the Wild Card. Starting pitching, Brad Penny aside, has generally been good, and the bullpen, while not as stellar as it was earlier in the season, has not been costing them games. Even Penny gives them a chance to win, as good as most 5th starters, but the run support has frequently not been what it needs to be to compensate for his 5.22 Earned Run Average, which has not been helped by his 0-3 record and 7.54 ERA in his past 4 starts.

In short, the difference between the teams is this-the Yankees spent big over the winter and those signings (Sabathia, Teixeira, Burnett) are now proving their worth, while the Red Sox went cheap and low-risk (Smoltz, Baldelli, Green), and rarely has the adage 'you get what you pay for' been so apt. Add to this the fact that Yankees veterans are having good/great seasons (e.g. Johnny Damon and Derk Jeter), while Sox sluggers Ortiz, Drew and Lowell have been infective and/or injured for too many stretches this year.

The positives? Victor Martinez (hopefully he becomes the full-time catcher, but the Sox still seem to want Varitek doing the catching most nights), Clay Buchholz (he pitched well enough to win against NY and Detroit recently but came up against Sabathia and Verlander in great form plus he got no run support, however he got a win over Roy Halladay last night), signs of life from Ortiz in the Blue Jays series, and, the fact that there are still 42 games to go.

In the end, this series will not determine sucess or failure for either team this year-anything less than a trip to the play offs, and possibly a World Series, will be deemed less than satisfactory. Still, I'll be watching, and hoping for a Sox win!