Games 4 and 5 of 18 are upon us in baseball's best rivalry.
Tonight it's Yankees' ace Chien-Ming Wang against Buch Clayholz (is that close enough?).
In the ideal Yankees Universe, the Yanks light up Holz Buchclay, and Wang's two-seam fastball dives its way to no-hit the Sawx. But it doesn't always work out that way.
So here is Fernandez and La Monica's Top 5 list (in no particular order) of things that need to happen for a Yankees sweep:
Get that Ortiz jersey back and bury it. It's the complete opposite of the "We gotta get it outta there" move in "Goodfellas," but it just might work. While that jersey was buried in the Kryptonite concrete of the new Yankee Stadium, Ortiz had about three more Major League hits than La Monica and I did this season -- Now, with a two-hit game the other day, it looks like he's starting to turn it around.
Don't let Mussina pitch to Manny. EVER. Mussina should just put up four fingers to the home-plate umpire ANY time Ramirez gets up. Even walk him during pre-game batting practice if the Yankees can work that out with the Red Sox.
Don't let Farnsworth pitch. I know he was surprisingly effective last night, but right now he shouldn't even be able to pitch an idea if it's against the Sox. We're pulling for you though, Farnsie. You keep protecting leads, we'll be your biggest defenders here on Bronx and Beans. By the way...you can throw Hawkins in there as well.
Johnny Damon needs to become a pest again. Grow a mustache. Let the hair go. Join a rock band. Anything. Just get him back to the hitter that made Yankees' fans cringe when he lead off an inning for the Sox. Right now he's like Rick Vaughn in Major League II.
Get Timlin to pitch. Now this one is a bit trickier. The Yankee batters are going to have to take more pitches than they already do and tire out the Sawx starters for this to happen. Maybe put as many righthanded hitters in the lineup as possible so that we don't see Okajima, and hope that it's too early to face Papelbon.
-- Fernandez and La Monica
Comments (10)
FYI, the Yankees and Red Sox actually play 18 times. Not 19.
I love how happy Manny looks in that photo....Beware a happy Manny!
yea they play 18 not 19 that is so bad that they don' t put the right information well yankees gonna win those 2 games
This is sports news? They'd fire me for this crapola in the old days. Then again, we had Presidents back then who had IQs above 12.
dont let wong pitch to Manny either
oops...he just did
1-nil
Nice catch. We changed it back to 18 games. Just a typo. These things happen. Thanks for reading.
this game is killin me,last possesion wins, somebody tell tito to go for 2 if he gets the chance...switching to the only real game that has ever mattered....PLAYOFF HOCKEY !!
hey roger kahn,
i read one of your books once. pretty good stuff. as for your "this is news?" you need to understand the difference between news and blogs.
the world is a different place from when you wrote. for better or for worse, well, that depends on people's point of view.
the real culprit is the 24-hour news networks, if such a phrase is allowed to be used with quotation marks around it.
"what, a truck in idaho is on fire? do we have a camera crew near there? no? well, did fred the farmer take a picture of it? he did? Great, let's put it on TV and call it breaking news!"
Yanks my win a few now and then but the good money is on OUR SOX