Sox pitching slammed by Yanks

-- Just as Boston was building confidence with an 11-6 Thursday thrashing of the Angels to complete a 4-game sweep, the Sox are now trying to avoid a devastating home sweep at the hands of those damn Yankees with Sundays showdown.

If it wasn't bad enough watching an improving Josh Beckett fully collapse to give up 9 earned runs in 5-1/3 innings for a 10-3 Friday night loss, the Sox pitching found a way to unravel completely on Saturday.

The Sox managed to put up 3 runs in 3 innings as Victor & D-Mac both went deep. The Yanks had a 6-3 lead with 2 outs in the bottom of the 5th when the rain poured down on CC Sabathia, causing a full-tarp rain delay that lasted a good hour.

Still, at this point there was hope. Then the Yankees went on to blow out Boston 14-3 with 3 homeruns from Mark Texeira alone.

Red Sox Record: (15-16)

Yay's:
- Ya know, a win's a win's a win--but it's just a win in the singular fashion no matter how many runs are tacked on. I have confidence the Sox are gonna be in this thing Sunday, with a heating up Jon Lester on the mound. Expect it to be low scoring though because unfortunately AJ Burnett is pretty hot right now as well.

- And ya know what? The Yankees didn't start out the 2009 season overall as bad as the Sox have this year, but I do believe the Sox-Yanks matchup started 9-0 in favor of Boston. And who went on to win the World Series? My point: it's a long season. It doesn't look great right now, but don't ever, ever count out ballclubs with as much stockpiled ammunition and talent as the Sox or the Yankees.

- Friday night Beckett started with dialed-in control, striking out 6 of the first 9 batters. Its taking another approach to maintain that control over 6, 7 or 8 innings that Beck must find now.

Nay's:
- When Beckett's meltdown began in the 6th inning Friday night he not only gave up 3 walks, with 2 batters beaned, but 2 runs walked in. Then there was a 2-run single, followed by a homerun. It was about the ugliest 1/3 of an inning I've ever seen.

- Obviously Beckett and Bucholz's performances were less than great, but other than a couple outbursts of power, the Sox havn't been able to string the bats together against the Yankees the way they did with the Angels last week.
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