Wow.
That's pretty much all I (or anyone else with a fully-functional oral cavity) can muster. Maybe I can borrow a word from New York's "other team" and simply say "Amazin".
As arrogant as the legions of Yanks and Sox fans may appear when one team's momentum eats away at the other, you'd have to be a bit too full of Bomber Swagger not to appreciate the humbling effect created by the Yankees historic display of power. 23 more runs than the Sox. 12 more hits than the Sox. A batting average .51 points higher. A record for consecutive games (3) scoring 12 or more runs at Fenway Park. Wow.
Right after the last win, a 2-1 squeaker that was a quiet finish for a series that started at high volume, I had to rub it in. Just a little. So i sent out a text message to some of my SoxFanFriends:
"Did your team just completely forget how to play baseball?"
The first response came from my boy Jim—he called 12 seconds after my phone beeped "Message Sent." He explained that Jason Varitek's absence was a big factor in the lopsided outcome, since he works so well with pitchers and has a presence on the field everyone feeds off of. (Never mind that he's only batting .243, which is also probably due to that knee he just had scoped.) i agreed, i think. (Things were a bit hazy yesterday afternoon.) But i probably mentioned that the sweep could have been broken up by Tim "I taught a baseball how to dance" Wakefield, a proven Yankee Beater.
After that, I received a text response from Tom: "I hate you and all that you stand for." I think that sums up Red Sox Nation's feelings right now.
The devastation is invisible, living in ink and graphite on beer-soaked scorecards and in the memories of those who saw it live, on television, on the Web, or checked their cell phone obsessively every 6 minutes from over 400 miles away. (That would be me). But it's also visible, in the downtrodden and awestruck collection of faces across the region. We were hoping to take 3 out of 5. We didn't expect to outhit, outpitch and outeverything the team that led the American League East for most of the season. All in the first 5-game sweep suffered by the Red Sox in over 50 years.
The season is far from over. But at least the Yankees are sitting comfortably in the driver's seat for the finale stretch.
Do the Red Sox have a winning streak in them to make this a close race?
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