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Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: Sox-Yanks (the final chapter?) »
September 14, 2007
It's a single-story day . . .
HERE WE GO: This is the weekend that will set the path for the final two weeks of the season. When it's over, the Red Sox will either have all but clinched the A.L. East title, still be on this safe-but-not-secure perch atop the division, or in a race for first place. And while the old hands in the Boston clubhouse continue to play the one-game-at-a-time, it's-no-more-important-than-any-other-series card, Joe McDonald reports the youngsters among them are pretty excited to see the Yankees coming to town. (projo.com) The Boston Globe's Gordon Edes points out that the Red Sox have not ''blinked, despite forecasts of folding/spindling/mutilating after they were swept three straight in Yankee Stadium at the end of August'' and enter this series with the same lead -- five games in the loss column -- that they had when they left New York three weeks ago. While the New York Post's George King says the series would mean a lot more ''if the Devil Rays [hadn't flushed] two games in Boston this week,'' the Daily News' Mike Lupica thinks this weekend, and the Sox-Yankees rivalry, still has some juice thanks to the way both teams have stood up to their various challenges this year. And baseball analysts like Rick Sutcliffe and Tim McCarver anticipate a great weekend at Fenway. (New York Post)
THE GREAT WHITE NORTH: The lead is five and not four because the Blue Jays scored a run in the bottom of the ninth and beat the Yankees 2-1 last night, ending New York's winning streak at seven games. (New York Daily News) Thanks to their awful start, games like last night's -- which really fall into the you-can't-win-'em-all category -- have a negative impact on the Yanks' postseason chances. (New York Post) Even so, the Yankees still have the division title in their sights and the New York Post's Mike Vaccaro says they should.
CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION: Daisuke Matsuzaka is being viewed warily by the locals because of his six-week slump, but those who knew him in Japan say games like tonight's -- in which he'll be pitching against Andy Pettitte, with a chance to set the tone for the rest of the weekend (and, indeed, the rest of the regular season) -- are the ones that built his reputation in Japan. (Boston Herald) But at the bottom of a Touching All The Bases blog entry that deals mostly with Bill Belichick and the Patriots, Chad Finn has ''a feeling we'll be seeing more of Kyle Snyder or Julian Tavarez tonight than we will Dice-K.''
IT'S DIFFERENT NOW: All season long, it was thought the Red Sox had the edge in starting pitching over the Yankees. But the New York Post's Joel Sherman doesn't think that's true anymore.
OFF-DAY CHAT: Curt Schilling had all but abandoned his 38pitches.com blog, so it was a surprise -- and a delight -- to get a long posting yesterday. He talks briefly about the upcoming series, but also gives his personal postseason awards, tells us about his fantasy football battle with Jon Meterperil of WEEI, and explains why he's no longer breaking down his performances on the blog after every game: ''I am changing just about everything I do, mentally and physically, to prepare and perform. A lot of it is new to me and a lot of it is and will be things that I am not comfortable putting out there.''
'IT NEVER HAPPENED': Joba Chamberlain says he lives in the present, and therefore the beanball incident with Kevin Youkilis last month -- in which he was ejected and suspended for throwing two pitches at Youkilis' head in the ninth inning of the series finale -- ''didn't happen to me. It's over with.'' (New York Daily News) Call me crazy, but I have a feeling the Fenway faithful will stir his memory of it this weekend. (Boston Herald)
-- ART MARTONE
Posted by Art Martone 
at 7:18 AM | Permalink
