And round 1 goes to the Sox

The first two games of this series proved to be encouraging - even Saturday's game was a very close one, but yesterday was just heart wrenching for us. First off, Phil Hughes showed his rookie status by letting the pressure of the Red Sox rivalry get to him. It was almost painful to watch as he gave up 7 runs over 2 innings (6 of them earned). Even more painful was watching the Red Sox take complete advantage of Jorge's hurt shoulder, after he was forced into the game when Betemit was put in to pinch run for Molina. The Yanks really fought back - and were effective against Matsuzaka who was also not having the best start of his career - but overcoming a 6 run deficit isn't easy.

Not to point fingers - but I have to say that I think the biggest mistake in this series was Joe G. leaving in Moose to pitch to Manny in the 5th on Saturday. Manny has batted against Mike more then any other Red Sox player and knows him like the back of his hand. That first at bat where Ramirez hit the homer, looked to me like Manny knew exactly what Mike was going to throw and was waiting for the right pitch. It's not very often that you see a hitter psych out a pitcher but that seemed to be the case. I thought for sure that Joe would take Moose out in the 5th when he started to look tired - but not the case and once again Manny took advantage of Moose and hit a double that ended up tying things up......and picking up his 3rd RBI of the game.

Not to worry, we have plenty more times to tie things up with Boston. The drama of this match-up has just begun.  

Now for more bad news. Apparently we don't know who our catcher is going to be going into the series against Tampa Bay tonight. Molina hurt his hamstring on a slide into home on yesterday's game. Look's like they will move Betemit to the disabled list for pink eye and move up Chad Moeller from Triple-A.  Wow, I am having strange deja-vu's from the beginning of last season when we could not seem to stay healthy. Let's hope this isn't a trend that's going to continue much longer.....