The Yankee Illusion

The Red Sox are 3-1 against the Yankees this year and for some reason those wins seem to mask the fact that in mid May the Red Sox are STILL sub .500!But man it feels good to win by one run against the Yankees.Bartolo Colon has 2 losses this year and both were hard luck losses against the Sox.Meanwhile Joba Chamberlain is the gift that keeps giving... if by giving you mean insurance runs.Daniel

Bobby jenks and his bond with Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon

Today the Red Sox took a flier on former White Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks for some bullpen depth. How could it hurt?But as Jenks changes the color of his Sox, he has a unique bond with current Boston pitchers Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon:All three were the pitchers on the mound when their team won the World Series.Beckett tagged out Jorge Posada on a little dribbler to end the 2003 World

Yankees read the Red Sox their Miranda rights

So many things went right this weekend...The Sox won the series and avoided elimination...The Sox knocked the Yankees out of first place...The Sox showed some grit and resolve...Jon Lester won #19...Dice-K was great...Rivera was vulnerable...And yet it ended with such a bad taste in my mouth.A bases loaded walk off walk?I never understood how those are possible.LOB IT DOWN THE HEART OF THE PLATE!

Can there be ANYTHING good taken from today's game?

This was rough.REALLY rough.The Rays lost... the Yankees lost... The Sox got a come from behind lead and an OK start from Josh Beckett...And EVERYTHING went wrong in the 9th.Here's a note. If you give up 5 walks in the 9th inning, chances are something TRULY horrible is going to happen.I guess if ANYTHING positive happened today is that they didn't LOSE any ground.Oh who am I kidding?Evidently

HEY! The Red Sox picked up a game on the Rays!

It was a typical Dice-K performance. Really terrific except for one grotesque inning... but it was good enough for win #9.It wasn't a pretty game, right down to the heart in your throat 9th with Papelbon.But it was a win.A series win. And yes, the Red Sox are closing in.OK, they are still 7 games back in the loss column with 28 games to play... so the chances are kinda sorta against them.But as

ACED

It was a matchup of two Cy Young contenders... and the Red Sox desperate to climb back into the land of relevance.And as I wrote before, tonight was a must win for the Red Sox... and they did.They won with power, Lester shutting them down and Papelbon striking out the side. (Don't tell me you didn't have images of Dan Johnson's 2008 homer off of Papelbon dancing in your head when he came up.)And