Belated Red Sox Playoff Wrap-Up

I didn't spot these columns 'til late in the week, so I'll mention them briefly.

Shank's first column celebrates the grand tradition of the Red Sox / Yankees playoff baseball. He loved Garrett Crochet's pitching in Game 1 of the series, and then things came crashing down in Game 2 when the Yankees tied the series up. In the end, the Yankees were the better team, who now go on to play the Toronto Blue Jays in the next round.

I'm left wondering one thing - would the series have turned out better for the Red Sox if we could've played just one freaking game at Fenway Park?

Back On The Bandwagon?

With the Boston Red Sox now in the playoffs, their opponet is their traditional rival, the New York Yankees. After shitting on the Red Sox and their ownership team for a majority of the past four years this season, Shank's now back at the front of the bandwagon:

Red Sox-Yankees in the playoffs. Does it get any better than this?

It’s just too good.

The Red Sox are in the playoffs Tuesday for the first time in four years, only the second time since they won the World Series in 2018 . . . and they are playing a best-of-three against the New York Yankees.

Red Sox-Yankees. Again.

Do we need to educate the young’uns and remind everyone what this means?

Red Sox-Yankees is an all-timer. It’s Harvard vs. Yale, Kennedy vs. Nixon, Athens vs. Sparta.

It’s Ohio State-Michigan, Army-Navy, Trump-Comey.

It is the ultimate American sports rivalry and we are getting it in the first round of baseball’s ever-expanding playoffs.

Strap yourselves in for two (possibly three) nights of hard-ball history and histrionics. This could be great. Enjoy the ride.

It's a good column by Shank, but I wonder - if Aaron Judge finally snaps out of his postseason slumps (and it's not pretty), do they win this series?

On The Ropes Already?

The Los Angeles Dodgers jumped out to a 2 - 0 lead in the 2024 World series last night, and Shank's wondering if it may be over already:

Despite Shohei Ohtani injury, Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers have the Bronx in a panic

LOS ANGELES — Dodgers two. Yankees zero.

The Bronx is down. And the Los Angeles battery is up.

Japanese rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto stuffed the high-powered Yankees on one hit over 6⅓ innings and the Dodgers won their second straight Saturday, beating the Yanks, 4-2, to take a 2-0 lead over New York in a 2024 World Series that’s already supplied a ton of memorable moments.

The only drawback for LA was the sight of latter-day Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, writhing on the dirt around second base after he was caught stealing in the seventh. The Franchise sustained a partial dislocation of his left shoulder while sliding feet-first into the bag and no one knows much about his availability for the rest of this Series.

“I hope he’s OK,” Dodger hero Freddie Freeman — two homers in two games — told the MLB Network. “I haven’t heard anything. But when you’re in pain, holding your arm, it’s probably not a good thing.”

DHL Dan CCXXVII - The World Series Column

For Shank, the Yankees / Dodgers World Series is steeped in history:

Dodgers-Yankees is a World Series guaranteed to take us back, and other thoughts

LOS ANGELES — Picked-up pieces while worrying that Jerod Mayo is our new Butch Hobson …

▪ Dodgers-Yankees. Star Wars. Big Bucks. The Blue Ribbon World Series. Swimming pools. Movie stars. Life in the fast lane meets the city that doesn’t sleep. It’s the dream matchup for Fox.

We all know the World Series isn’t what it used to be when time stood still in early October and kids raced home from school to watch day baseball on black-and-white televisions.

But Dodgers-Yankees is as good as it’s going to get in a 21st century that’s seen MLB fall far behind almighty football.

The Dodgers won a thriller Game 1 Friday, 6-3, when Freddie Freeman hit the first walkoff grand slam in World Series history in the bottom of the 10th inning.

“One of the best baseball games I’ve ever been part of,” said Dodgers star Mookie Betts.

Whoopsie!

The Red Sox beat the Yankees yesterday, 7-1. The part I missed was the most pivotal part:

The Yankees began overthinking, and that’s when the trouble started

NEW YORK — In the epic baseball film “Bull Durham,” grizzled vet Crash Davis tells hot-shot hurler Nuke LaLoosh, “Don’t think. It can only hurt the ball club.”

This is what we saw Saturday afternoon in the fourth inning of the Red Sox’ 7-1 victory over Gerrit Cole and the Yankees.

The Yankees led, 1-0. Cole, the American League’s reigning Cy Young winner, had yielded no hits and faced the minimum 10 batters. The Sox were mired in a major slump and it looked like the first-place Bronx Bombers were on their way to another win.

And then the Yankees overthought things. Bigly.

As Rafael Devers (lifetime .333 with eight homers off Cole) stepped to the plate, Cole looked to his catcher, held up four fingers of his right hand, and swooshed his pitching arm across his body toward first base with a Fiedler-esque flourish.

Paying no heed to a century and a half of Major League Baseball, Cole intentionally walked Devers with a 1-0 lead and nobody on base.

Left unmentioned, at least explicitly, is precisely why this move backfires. This Outkick column alludes to the move not backfiring, citing "Barry Bonds, Mike Trout or Judge himself getting intentionally walked in unusual situations" as the examples. My best guess without looking it up is - it does backfire most of the time, as it did this time.

Pick A Team

Another in the occasional series of Shank comparing two teams, and the Sox / Yankees type seems to be an annual favorite:

Which franchise would you rather be right now, the Yankees or Red Sox? Let’s break it down.

NEW YORK — Put aside your emotions and decades of deep-rooted hatred. Erase those Ruths, Dents, Boones, and ARods. Pretend all things are equal. You are neutral. You are Baseball Switzerland.

Which franchise would you rather follow and support at this hour: the Red Sox or the Yankees?

It’s clear the first-place Yankees are the better team in 2024. They emerged from Friday night’s 5-4 win over the Sox with a record of 86-62, 12 games ahead of third-place Boston. They are going to the playoffs and could get back to the World Series.

But this is about more than that. It’s about sheer totality. And the future.

So which is the better franchise to follow?

Today’s Sox fans like to mock the Yankees and say, “It’s all about championships. We’ve won four in this century and you’ve only one one — none in the last 15 years.’’

That's always a winning argument with Yankees fans, isn't it?

The Old Rivlary

Shank covers a spring training game between the Red Sox and Yankees:

The names have changed, but Red Sox and Yankees always carries weight

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Yankees-Red Sox.

Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. Mantle. Jeter. Judge. Williams. Yastrzemski. Rice. Pedro. Manny. Mookie.

What tradition. What folklore. What a galaxy of stars and stories. Fisk vs. Munson. Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. The greatest rivalry in sports.

And we had none of that at JetBlue Park on a postcard-perfect Sunday afternoon.

We had Allen. Koss. Bauers. Chaparro. Gomez. Costanza. (OK, I made that last one up.)

Quick quiz: Tell me which of those names above are Yankees and which play for the Red Sox?

Nobody knows. But that’s OK. This is spring training. The Sox have 10 players at the World Baseball Classic and sent a whole team to Sarasota for a split squad game Sunday against the Orioles. When you combine that with the cost-cutting exodus of homegrown talent — where have you gone, Xander Bogaerts? Sox Nation turns its lonely eyes to you — you’re not going to have a lot of star power for a mid-March exhibition against a Yankees team that didn’t want to put Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, and Gerrit Cole on a 130-minute bus ride from Tampa.

So much for all that weight, with half of both squads missing from the game...

What Is Your Quest?

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge has a shot to break Roger Maris' Yankee home run record. Shank helpfully points out this could happen at the expense of the Boston Red Sox:

Aaron Judge’s record quest reminds us of what the home run chase used to mean

Your Boston Red Sox always seem to be in the middle of the American League single-season home run record.

Red Sox outfielder/pitcher Babe Ruth set the first “unreachable” mark when he blasted 29 homers in a 154-game season in 1919. Before you could say “Mookie Betts,” the Sox traded the home run champ to the Yankees for cash.

Ruth hit 54, then 59 homers in his first two seasons with the Yankees. Then he hit 60 in 1927. It was a record that stood for 34 years.

In 1961, when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris dueled throughout the “new” 162-game season, aiming for Ruth’s magical 60, Maris hit his record-breaking 61st home run off Red Sox righthander Tracy Stallard in Yankee Stadium.

Italian Or Swedish Meatballs?

Here's Shank on the 14-1 beatdown on the Red Sox by the New York Yankees on Saturday night:

Meatballs are served in the Bronx, indigestion felt in Boston

NEW YORK — While New England slept, the roller coaster Red Sox fell into fourth place Saturday in a brutal, 14-1 Bronx beatdown. The Sox come into Sunday’s final game before the All-Star break a mere 1½ games ahead of the surging last-place Orioles.

So while they may still be playoff bound — the illusion of contention is always there when six of 15 teams make it to the postseason — the 2022 Red Sox are also a candidate to finish in last place for the fifth time in 11 seasons. The Red Sox are 15½ games behind the first-place Yankees.

Saturday’s drubbing was over in the first inning when Matt Carpenter (seven RBIs) crushed a three-run homer off Sox righty Nick Pivetta. Boston’s workhorse in the first half, Pivetta is worn down, and like the rest of his teammates, fares poorly against the American League East. Pivetta is 1-5 with a 7.57 ERA against division opponents.

No Fear

Here's Shank on the Friday night Red Sox win over the New York Yankees:

The Red Sox aren’t afraid of the Yankees. We saw it again on Friday night.

NEW YORK — Take a deep breath and allow me to go Full Rochie on the Red Sox’ chances against the 62-28, first-place New York Yankees this year.

For some reason, the Sox are not afraid of the Yanks. Remember how they beat them in the one-game playoff last October? Remember how they beat them, three games to one in the 2018 ALDS, winning Game 3, 16-1?

Remember how they came from behind to beat the Yankees twice last weekend — winning the Fenway finale, 11-6?

They did it again Friday night at Yankee Stadium, beating the Yankees, 5-4, in 11 innings and scoring the winning run when team leader Xander Bogaerts (why not keep him, Chaim?) made a great read and scored from third on a wild pitch that bounced in front of Yankee catcher Jose Trevino.

DHL Dan CXXIX - July 4th Happenings

Leave it to Shank to write a column about local sporting events that happened on July 4th and lead off with the year 1983, when David Righetti of the Yankees no-hit the Red Sox:

Historically, July 4 hasn’t been a big day for fireworks in local sports, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while burning the midnight oil in the research lab with Jarren Duran …

▪ Happy Fourth of July weekend. The Fourth is an American favorite and hopefully you are reading this while sprawled on the sand at Craigville Beach in Centerville.

This holiday is not filled with tons of great local sports memories. Maybe that’s no surprise when you remember that George Steinbrenner was born on the Fourth of July.

Dave Righetti no-hit the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on a brutally hot July 4 in the summer of 1983. Hall of Famer Wade Boggs struck out, swinging, for the final out of Righetti’s masterpiece. It was the first Yankee no-hitter since Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Billy Martin was at both games, playing second base behind Larsen in ‘56 and managing the Yankees for Steinbrenner in ‘83.

We Are The (Wild Card) Champions

Behold - a rare Shank column following a win by the Boston Red Sox:

Red Sox had perfect execution in sending Yankees packing in AL Wild Card Game

It was Throwback Tuesday at ancient Fenway, featuring the Red Sox and Yankees jousting in a one game wild-card duel for the right to play in the 2021 American League Division Series. Winner moves on. Loser goes home. History, honor and hardball heartache were all in play. It was just like the old days of 2004, 2003, 1978 and 1949. The ghost of Babe Ruth hovered over Fenway.

“No need for rah-rah speeches,’’ said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It’s Red Sox-Yankees with a chance to advance.’’

“I think this game is going to be very good for baseball,’’ said Sox center fielder Kiké Hernández. “We’ve dealt with adversity all year long. We’re going to find a way to win this game.’’

It was very good for baseball and even better for the oft-maligned Red Sox, who thrashed the hated Yankees, 6-2, and advanced to a best-of-five American League Division Series against the 100-win Tampa Bay Rays starting Thursday in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Sox will be underdogs, which seems to be just the way these guys like it.

Do I really need to point out a certain sports columnist whose numerous columns over the past seven months would lead to this notion of 'oft-maligned', or who spent the past two days all but openly rooting for a Red Sox loss?

Keep On Trollin'

He's not even being subtle about it anymore:

Shank just needs 2 more years at the Globe to get his max SSA benefit. I wouldn’t troll the bosses like that if you are looking to coast to happy retirement… https://t.co/cub2O6prLa

— Boston Radio Watch, Part 2 (@bostonradio2) October 5, 2021

And as always with anything printed by the Boston Globe - trust, but verify.

The Obligatory Bucky Dent Column

With the Red Sox in the wild-card round of the 2021 playoffs, leave it to Shank to preemptively pour salt into the wounds of Red Sox Nation:

The Red Sox and Yankees will play in a winner-take-all. What does Bucky Dent think about that?

His name is Russell Earl “Bucky” Dent. He was re-named Bucky (Bleeping) Dent in these parts after his pop-fly home run vaulted the Yankees over the Red Sox in the 1978 one-game playoff at Fenway Park exactly 43 years ago this week.

So when the 2021 Red Sox and Yankees finished play Sunday evening, assuring there would be another winner-take-all, one-game joust at Fenway for the right to advance in the American League playoffs, I had to call and text.

It's a pretty good column, which happens when Shank wants to kick a team in the balls.

DHL Dan CLIII - So Good, So Good!

With a slight play on the song that annoys Shank so much, here's his latest on the weekend series between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees:

It’s not the glory days of Sox-Yankees 2003-04, but it’s still good, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting one more week for the return of Tom Brady …

▪ I find myself wondering if Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez will be back at Fenway for Red Sox-Yankees this weekend.

Eighteen years ago, with “Gigli” bombing at the box office, Ben and Jen had the best seats in the house at the height of the Sox-Yankees rivalry. It was Oct. 11, 2003, Game 3 of the ALCS, when the Sox and Yankees drew SRO crowds, delivered great TV ratings, and featured true star power (Jeter, Clemens, Mussina, Rivera, Pedro, Papi, Nomar, Manny — where do we stop?).

With Neil Diamond, perhaps?

On the day Bennifer watched from Henrytown seats next to the Sox dugout, Pedro Martinez and the Rocket had dustups with Karim Garcia and Manny Ramirez, and 72-year-old Don Zimmer was shucked to the Fenway lawn after bullrushing Pedro.

A lot has happened since those days. After losing that ‘03 series in tragic fashion (Aaron Boone’s walkoff vs. Tim Wakefield), the Sox roared back in October of 2004 and shattered the Curse of the Bambino with the greatest comeback in the history of baseball — at the expense of the Yankees.

It must've shattered certain book sales as well, which is the kind of collateral damage we can all enjoy.

If you're up for digs at the Patriots (both former and current) and Covid (AKA the Wuhan Virus), read on.

Right On Cue

We didn't even have to wait for tonight's game:

The Red Sox led the Yankees by ten games when they took the field in Oakland July 23. It is August 17 and the Sox have fallen into third place, percentage points behind the Yankees. A meteoric fall. Joe Morgan used to call this, ''dead-ass baseball.''

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) August 18, 2021

The Reverse Tomato Cans

Longtime readers of Dan Shaughnessy Watch are familiar with Shank's use of the phrase 'tomato can', which is the notion that one of our teams (usually the Patriots) are so good they should just roll their opponents. This notion is now being turned on its ear:

Yes, the Yankees have looked pretty bad at times this year. But still ...

Red Sox fans have enjoyed the pain and pratfalls of the Yankees this season.

The upstart Bostons pantsed the Yankees twice in June, sweeping a three-game set in the Bronx and another at Fenway June 25-27. When the Red Sox took the field in Oakland on the night of July 3, they led the Yankees by a whopping 10 games.

The Sox improved to 7-0 against New York with a shutout win at Yankee Stadium July 16. The Yanks finally snapped the string the next day, but as recently as July 25, the then-first place Red Sox had a nine-game lead over New York. The Sox own a 10-3 season advantage and have outscored their rivals, 61-43.

When the Yankees went out and got Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo at the trade deadline while the Sox did little, Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy laughed and said, “They had to be active because I think they are 3-10 against us.” The American League East looks very different now as the Red Sox prepare for three games in two days at Yankee Stadium beginning Tuesday at 1:05 p.m.

Thus the table is set - the Yankees suck, and if they win two games or the whole three game series, Shank gets another chance to take a monster dump on the Red Sox. Just in case you're not convinced of that:

Personally, I can’t wait. I can’t wait for these three games in two days, and the delicious, very real possibility of a one-game playoff at Fenway between the Red Sox and Yankees in the first game of October.

Just like in 1978.

Sale Not Made

Shank's not at all psyched about this weekend's local baseball festivities:

Still not sold on this iteration of Red Sox-Yankees

Red Sox-Yankees. Still special? Are you not entertained?

Folks in these parts were laughing at the Yanks when the Sox swept three from the Bronx Bombers New York in the first weekend in June. The big payroll, preseason-favorite Yankees were on their way to falling nine games out of first place and there was smug satisfaction seeing them eat the dust of Alex Cora’s upstart nine.

A lot of that momentum had shifted by the time the Yankees got to Fenway on Friday. New York was a mere 3½ games behind the Red Sox, three in the loss column. The Yankees came to Boston winners of seven of nine, victorious in each of their previous three series.

So by all accounts it just might be an interesting series, right? Read on for the reasons behind Shank's pessimism.

DHL Dan CXXXIV - Column Template Time

Three weeks ago, Shank trashed the Red Sox for an opening day loss, then ragged on them a few more times until they ran off a bunch of wins. Now it's the New York Yankees turn:

Picked-up pieces while counting the minutes to when Bill Belichick trades down for better value …

▪ Are you taking joy in the Yankees’ horrible start? Picked to win the AL East by almost everyone, the Bronx Bombers lost 11 of their first 18, their worst start since the Stump Merrill days of the early 1990s.

The Yankees went into the weekend in last place in the AL East, ranked 13th in batting (.211) and 12th in fielding percentage. They also had the worst slugging percentage in the majors.

New York’s awful April featured shortstop Gleyber Torres jogging out ground balls, plus epic slumps by Torres, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Clint Frazier, and Aaron Hicks. They also have the assorted injuries that annually make a mockery of their $210 million payroll. George Steinbrenner would have fired the entire training staff by now.

We know one person enjoying that horrible start, don't we?

Swept Up

It seems the only time Shank bothers to write about a Red Sox / Yankees series is when he's complaining about it. A few days ago he bitched about the slow pace of the games, and naturally his next column came after a loss by the Red Sox.

Was a sweep too much to ask?

Red Sox fans are a greedy lot. That’s what happens when you win four championships over 15 seasons.

And Shank's done his level best to minimize and downplay every one of them.

And so sweep talk dominated the Boston baseball landscape in the hours leading up to Sunday night’s ESPN hardball festival.

The 2019 Sox — sluggish for so much of this season — pantsed the first-place Yankees over the first three games of this series. Boston won all three games, outscoring New York by a whopping 38-13. The Sox struck a ridiculous 33 extra-base hits over three days, winning games by hideous scores of 19-3, 10-5, and 9-5. Brutal beatings, every one.

And when the Red Sox failed to sweep the Yankees, Shank's all over it like a fly on shit. For those of you who dare to read the rest of the column, note the exquisite detail in which Shank goes to document the manner in which the Sox lost the game. You can just picture the perma-smirk he had while banging this column out.