Final Score: Boston Red Sox 3, New York Yankees 5Well, that didn't go as well as expected. Five to three isn't exactly an ass-beating, but for all of the run scoring against Chicago this past weekend and New York's worst-in-a-hundred-years road thrashing yesterday, there wasn't exactly a pinstriped collapse in the Bronx tonight. Instead of a blowout, we had a classic Sox/Yankees match - a throwback to a time not too long ago when these two teams were at a much closer parity - a back and forth shoving match that ended as perhaps all of these matches should: with a single swing of the bat.
That's not to say I'm not bummed there's no sweep, no sugar on the top of the revenge the Sox are trying to serve up for last year's five loses of humiliation. I'd love to bury our implacable, time-honored foes so far down the loss column they're playing golf while Detroit or Seattle claims the spoils of the wild card. I'd love to celebrate a World Series victory that doesn't involve a march through New York and the removal of five years of my life in the process. I'd love to have that pitch that went from Matsuzaka's hand to Damon's wheelhouse to the right field porch back and keep the game tied until the Sox could, for the first time in the game, take the lead and hold it with the dominant beast the Red Scare has become.
However, as I said back in April, this ain't the Biggest Rivalry in Sports without a real fight by both sides. Take that pitch back from Damon and the game achieves a balance, a fight to a standstill. Here was a contest of sumo wrestlers, equally matched. Tonight, New York found a way to drop their weight and push at just the right time. A bitter balance, but they won't be so lucky tomorrow night.
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