And so the implosion begins

And so the implosion begins

Not that of the Red Sox, but of the Yankees. Technically, the Red Sox are still in this wild card race, with nowhere to go but up. It won’t be easy, as the Sox still have one more game in the Bronx before taking off for 4 games in Chicago. The White Sox will be looking to play spoiler to their Red counterparts. Technically they are also still in the wild card hunt, but they are at a nearly impossible distance from the Yankees (10 GB), while the Red Sox are only 5.5 GB the Yankees, but only 5 GB in the all important loss column.

Jon Lester turned up the heat on the Yankees today by tossing 7 shutout innings reaching 19 wins against 8 losses. He had a perfect game through 4 innings, notching 4 K’s along the way. A-Rod drew a walk to lead off the 5th inning, but Cano up next followed up with a grounding into a double play. No hitter still intact. Cervelli broke up the no-hitter in the 6th inning, but Lester still had a shutout going at the end of the 6th inning. He finished with a gem: 7 IP, 2 H’s, 0 R’s, 3 BB’s, and 8 K’s, leaving him with a 2.96 ERA and a shot at the Cy Young Award, (that is if Clay Buchholz doesn’t win it.) Bard gave up a run, and Okajima’s strong string of scoreless innings came to an end. Papelbon was not available after throwing 21 pitches last night.

The Sox presented a well balance offensive attack with 8 men in the starting line-up getting at least 1 hit, 4 of them getting 2 hits. Yankees starter Nova, in for Hughes whose start was postponed to keep him fresh for the playoffs, couldn’t make it out of the 5th inning.

The Vegas oddsmakers are probably reworking their probability and statistics numbers as I type. Tampa Bay is a full game and a half above the Yankees, and have a cake schedule over their final games- Seattle, Baltimore, and Kansas City. The Yankees have 4 games with the Red Sox and 3 games at Toronto.

In the name game department (remember Drew v. Drew and Byrd v. Byrd in 2008), Nava was 0/2 but coaxed a walk from Nova.

Maybe it’s too early to say the Yankees are imploding, but they have lost their last 4 games. We can still hope and dream, it’s not so unrealistic anymore.

Red Sox 7 Yankees 3 BOX SCORE