Projo Sox Blog

It takes the ninth-inning of a 7-0 game to produce lines like this, and that's what we got last night.

Dennis Eckersley uses terms like "easy cheese" or "sneaky cheese" to describe Daniel Bard's blazing fastball, delivered with what appears to be minimal effort. Last night Bard was at it again in the final frame of the Red Sox-Yankees game, getting three straight outs and hitting 100 miles an hour a couple of times on the official radar. After a Bard fastball induced Alex Rodriguez to ground weakly to Dustin Pedroia for the second out of the inning, Don Orsillo said the following: "There's some sneaky cheese with hair on it ... " And a new (not to mention pretty gross) sports phrase had been coined.

Orsillo's description seemed to surprise even Eckersley. "It just rolled off the tongue," the Sox' play-by-play man said.

-As everyone knows by now, the Sox are 6-0 on the season against the Yankees. The last time they were 6-0 to start a season against the Yankees (thanks again to NESN's live broadcast for this nugget): 1912, when the Yankees weren't even the Yankees, but the Highlanders. That season, the winning didn't stop at six: The Red Sox actually beat New York 14 consecutive times, and finished with a 19-2 record against a horrible Highlanders team that finished in last place with a 50-102 record. Boston's first victory of that 14-game run also happened to be the first game ever played in Fenway Park.

That 1912 team lays claim to being the best in Red Sox history -- at least by winning percentage. It finished the regular season 105-47 (with two ties), for a .691 winning percentage, then went on to defeat John McGraw's New York Giants in the World Series. Leading the way was Hall of Famer Tris Speaker, who hit .383 that year with a .464 on-base percentage -- he was kind of the Kevin Youkilis of the team. The current Red Sox, however, don't have a pitcher capable of doing what Smoky Joe Wood did in 1912: register a 34-5 record with a 1.91 E.R.A. Wood, just 22 at the time, would not ever again win half that many games in a single season.

The 1912 Highlanders, by the way, were by winning percentage the worst team in the history of the New York franchise. So it was a perfect storm of sorts.

-The Red Sox tonight will try to win seven straight against the Yankees for the first time in a single season since May 8 to July 29, 1974.

-Some Red Sox offensive players are having truly terrific seasons against the Yankees so far. Here are some of the numbers:

Jason Bay, 11 for 21 with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs -- .524 batting average, .655 on-base percentage, and 1.143 slugging percentage.

Kevin Youkilis, 7 for 17 with a double and a game-winning home run -- .412 batting average, .565 on-base and .647 slugging.

Dustin Pedroia, 8 for 23 with 2 doubles -- .348 batting average, .500 on-base and .435 slugging.

Mike Lowell, 9 for 26 with 2 doubles and 2 home runs -- .346 batting average, .414 on-base and .654 slugging.

David Ortiz, 7 for 23 with 4 doubles and a home run -- .304 batting average, .379 on-base and .609 slugging.

 Tags  Daniel Bard Don Orsillo New York Yankees

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