As charmed as the 2019 baseball season has been for the Yankees, they are still flawed and fighting for that first World Series this decade. The Houston Astros made a tectonic move at the trade deadline, making them the new favorites to reach the Fall Classic.
But the Boston Red Sox won't be among the Yankees' woes and foes this summer. After sweeping the Sox through four straight games over the weekend, the Yankees brushed Boston off the plate of contention like a chest-high fastball from Nolan Ryan. And they made it look easy too, outscoring Boston 26-12 over this quartet of beatdowns.
Maybe we can't quite crown the Yankees yet, but we can wave a hearty goodbye to the Red Sox, who have lost eight times in their last eight games - five to the Yanks, and three to the Rays - clubbed by a combined score of 58-32. It's one thing to hit a serious slide or slump, but to do so against the two teams above you in your division in August is pretty much a death blow for any team except the 1978 Yankees. But not even that squad had to overcome the bottleneck of games between Boston and New York right now.
Boston has made a few lurches toward contention, spending a respectable amount of time time at and around ten games over .500. But now, at 59-55, they are 14.5 games behind the Bombers (72-39), who are now setting sights on 40 games over .500. Boston also has a losing record at home, the only MLB team with a winning overall record to say that. If Fenway is not the normal house of horrors for the visitors, then there's nothing to fear about the hosts.
In fact, if you didn't know it already it would be hard to believe that Boston won the World Series last year. If you need any proof that the Red Sox are waving the white flag, consider the conversation Gregg Giannotti had with Sweeny Murti this weekend, during which the stalwart beat reporter said the Sox were admiring the Yankees for doing the things that the Sox did last year on their way to their fourth title since 2004.
With the Yanks winning five straight and the second-place Rays banking six in a row, the Red Sox are firmly ensconced in third place in the AL East, looking up at a 6.5-game gap between themselves and the second wild-card spot. Boston has choked on the Bombers' dust, and they still need to somehow catch the Rays or Cleveland Indians, while leapfrogging the Oakland A's, just to sniff the playoffs.
This is mostly the same Sox club that won it all last year, that swatted the Yankees from the postseason, that should have been almost as good this year. Boston hasn't had a conga line of stars spinning through the injured list as the Yankees have (with 16 players on the IL right now). Boston has much of its rotation intact, while the Yanks have had to use wire and duct tape to keep something resembling a starting pitching staff.
If you're a fan of the old (and only) Star Trek show, you may recall Captain Kirk telling Spock that we humans have a streak of barbarism in us, appalling, but there nonetheless. We can admire and be against someone at the same time. In other words, something can be ugly yet lovely at once, like the rivalry between Boston and the Bronx, which has lasted a long century.
As we're increasingly told that competition is old, if not obsolete, and everyone gets a trophy for showing up and the score is incidental, reality tells us otherwise. To hell with the participation trophies and consolation prizes. We love Yanks-Sox because one usually wins at the other's expense. Maybe the feud doesn't have the fever pitch it did 40 years ago, or even 20 years ago. But not long ago, Posada and Pedro were barking at each other, and Don Zimmer made the foolhardy charge at the pitcher, and A-Rod (a tourist at the time) got into that scuffle with Jason Varitek in front of home plate.
Silly stuff to the intelligentsia, but bone-warming comfort for the rest of us. What is sports without Duke and North Carolina? Without the Wolverines and Buckeyes? Without the baseball iteration of the Hatfields and McCoys? You're still allowed to hate the Red Sox, and they may hate the Yankees. You can still feel a modicum of respect and loads of rancor. Yes, it is better when the Yankees win the AL East, and even better when they batter the Boston Red Sox along the way.
Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
