Tie
| Game 58: June 9, 2009 | |||
| Yankees | 0 | L: A.J. Burnett (4-3) | 34-24, 1 game losing streak |
 Red Sox | 7 | W: Josh Beckett (7-2) | 34-24, 1 game winning streak |
| Highlights: I thought a Yankee player would get hit by Beckett, especially after the Red Sox built up a rather sizable lead going into the sixth. The Red Sox ace is a figure of some notoriety with his recent suspension, so it fell to Manny Delcarmen to even up that score, which in terms of hit batsmen currently tilts in the Yankees’ favor, 9-2. | |||
Before the game I talked to a friend about which Yankee we thought would get drilled. I said Johnny Damon because he plays the same position as Jason Bay, the Yankees’ favorite target, and has been on a tear. My friend suggested Mark Teixeira.
We were both wrong, and so was Dennis Eckersley. In the eighth Manny Delcarmen tried to plunk the Yankeeiest Yankee of them all, Lord Yankee of Yankeeshire, possessor of a doctorate in Yankeeology, Derek Jeter. Eckersley missed the chance to comment on Delcarmen’s intent while it happened; he simply thought that Delcarmen was going by the book on Jeter and was trying to bust him inside.
Even Don Orsillo thought to raise the issue, asking Eckersley a leading question to that effect. The Hall of Famer brushed him off, saying that Delcarmen was pitching Jeter as all pitchers are taught to do so. In the very next inning Eckersley admitted to Announcer Boy, “You were right, and it makes me sick.”
A.J. Burnett was all over the place last night: 2⅔ innings pitched, 5 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned runs, 5 walks, 1 strikeout, and 1 home run. Believing that Brett Tomko would be an improvement over what you had the mound pretty much tells the tale of how badly the series opener went for the Yankees.
During the first pitching change the Red Sox and Yankees made their first round picks in the amateur draft. Both teams selected center fielders; the Red Sox picked Carlos Beltran’s cousin Reymond Fuentes while the Yankees drafted Zachary Heathcott.
The war between the Red Sox and the Yankees is waged on many fronts: there are the 19 regular season skirmishes and the seven potential postseason battles, but at the root of the conflict is the careful selection of these amateur ballplayers who could become the foundation of a dynasty. I will check in on Fuentes and Heathcott as they make their way through the system and write about them from time to time.
The good news: David Ortiz and Nick Green homered in this game. The bad news: Ortiz has three homers this season, just one more four-bagger than Green.
At the end of the game Josh Beckett gave Daniel Bard a cuff on the back of the neck as a brother would do to a younger sibling. Bard took the mound in the ninth with 100 MPH heat to help Beckett secure the shutout. If Jonathan Papelbon doesn’t sign a long-term deal as Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester have, we may have seen the future closer testing out how his sneaky, hairy cheese plays in the last inning of a game.
