Yankees Exposed, Red Sox Romp!

All World All Sports

-Digger's Daily-

Boston and New York were both riding winning streaks heading into this weekend's three game series. Red Sox had won 7 straight. Yanks, showing signs of life, had won 3 in a row. They were tied with 9-6 records. Joe Girardi's Yankees needed a good showing in Fenway. Instead, they received an old fashoned schooling by Terry Francona's Red Sox.

Boston did nearly everything great teams are supposed to do. They hit with runners in scoring position. Battled back when trailing. Pitched effectively. Bullpen saved games. Aggressive baserunning. Good fielding. Power. Managerial moves. Baseball 101 on full display. Sox swept Yanks 5-4, 16-11, 4-1.
My thoughts heading into this early season key matchup was to be more or less of a weather gauge. Yanks entered on a roller coaster type of season. They've looked good and horrific. The test was on vs arch rival Boston and Yanks embarrassed themselves.

Friday: Joba (should be setup for Rivera) pitched 5+ gutsy innings. Yanks were up 4-2... until... Rivera blew his 12th career regular season game vs Boston. Yanks had been 84-0 when leading after 8 since '08. The Sox have Mariano's number. They keep getting big hit after big hit against flat pitches by Rivera. Sox wait for his cutter and destroy high fastballs. Posada/Molina need to change up pitching locations. How many failures does it take for these battery mates to get it right? Big losses to ARod's replacement Ransom and SP Wang (15 day DL). Bruney was nearly lights out most nights setting up Rivera has a bad elbow.

Saturday: All seemed great. Yanks storm out to 6-0 early lead. AJ Burnett had 3 shutout innings behind him. All seemed right... until... Boston stormed back scoring 5 in the 4th, 3 in 5th, 1 in 6th, 3 in 7th and 4 in 8th. Burnett got bombed for 8. No reliever pitched 3 outs as they gave up 8 too! 16-11 Yanks bashed. Saturday's game was Day 1 of my Joe Girardi watch. I think the Steinbrenner watch began Sunday.... Tick Tock.

Sunday: Andy Pettitte has been Yanks only solid SP thus far entering at 2-0 in 3 quality starts. Yanks missed their chances and scored only 1. Yanks caught sleeping in the 5th. Bases loaded vs Pettitte (pitching from a full wind up)... and Ellsbury stole home with ease. It was at this moment I predict Steinbrenner's "official" stop watch was turned on against Girardi. Sloppy baseball. Yanks not on their toes. Not even their veteran southpaw. Tick Tock.

New billion dollar Stadium, new multi-million dollar deals to CC, AJ & Teixeira. Empty prime seating empty. Something's gotta give. Yanks were playoff bound every year for Torre. Girardi, while well liked by his players, can't seem to motivate these guys to produce. Some say "well ARod's been injured" yada yada. It's very early in the year and no need for fans to hit any panic buttons (leave it to owners). If the Yanks finish April with a losing record, Girardi is gone. Tick Tock.

The pitching staff is getting rocked. CC has started slowly. AJ was solid until Boston, same for Pettitte. However, Chien-Ming Wang... Wowie! I've never seen anything like it. So bad, no words sum it up. He's been tossing batting practice meatballs. 3 starts, 6 innings (total), 23 hits, 23 runs, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts (must be a typo), 2 home runs. ERA 34.50!!! Yanks shut him down (15 day DL) and called up a red hot Phil Hughes who was a complete bust in '08. Let's hope his AAA success has given Phil some confidence in preparation for Tuesday's game in Detroit.
As for the hitters, the stats look nice but they're not coming thru in clutch situations. Always seem to be swinging for homers instead of making contact for singles with runners in scoring positions. Yanks aren't doing the little things well consistently. Leaving runners on base game after game. Making bad outs. Tick Tock.

I like Girardi. He was a great manager for Florida before having a public fued with owners. He'll be a great manager for another team. Joe's just not the right guy for this one. Steinbrenner's have been unusually silent. Something has to wake up this team. If Joe can't do it... Yanks will find someone who can.

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