The Man

Game 17 - Red Sox

Red Sox 7, Yankees 5
Record: 10-7

At some point, the Yankees will realize that pitching to Manny Ramirez just isn't a high-percentage play. Or at least, Mike Mussina will realize that leaving his 85 mph straightball in the middle of the plate against Manny tends to yield loud, unpleasant results.

Manny made the Yankee fans make that noise again, Josh Beckett overcame one scruffy inning to give the Sox 8 full frames, Jonathan Papelbon chose a different entertainment medium than his normal domination, allowing a shrug-it-off 2-run homer to Melky Cabrera before recording the final out, and the Sox returned home winners of 3 out of 4 games in Cleveland and New York. Tidy.

Courtesy of the far more diligent research team at Joy of Sox, here are Manny's numbers against the Yankees since 2006:

       AB   H  HR  BB  BBI  AVG  OBP  SLG    OPS
2006   45  25   7  17   6  .556 .667 1.111  1.778
2007   51  20   4   8   4  .392 .475  .686  1.161
2008   19  10   3   2   0  .526 .571 1.105  1.677
    115  55  14  27  10  .478 .573  .922  1.495

We're getting beyond small sample size and into the rarified Holy Hot Shit! territory. No wonder Yankee fans cheered like it was Free Burning Garbage Night when inbreeding research project Kyle Farnsworth buzzed Manny's upper region with a 7th-inning fastball last night. The Gammons was mouth-foaming angry, as apparently was Commander Kickass(TM - all rights reserved by Surviving Grady). Me, well, my reaction was "meh". I'd probably do the same thing if a guy had taken my lunch money for the better part of 3 seasons. 'Course, I'd be smart enough to throw at his thighs or hips, but I suppose Farnsworth's Ph.D. thesis has been stalled in committee for a reason. The Sox and Yanks do, however, play each other 13 more times this year, so I wouldn't be shocked to see this one come back later in the summer.

Bygones, then, because if there's anything we lack here at MLC, it's Ally McBeal references. That, and posts by anyone other than me. Honest to God, the rest of you clowns are off to a worse start than Papi. (Who is now 7-for-63 with 1 HR and 4 RBI. Whimper.)

Sox back to Fenway to face the Rangers over the weekend, and despite their need for a rest, they don't get one until the 28th. Says here they're overdue for a 17-4 drubbing at the hands of somebody.