Series Recap: Sox/Stanks

The fog is starting to clear and I am trying to regain my voice and hearing (boy that HD surround sound gets loud when Boston hits 4 consecutive homeruns), and in the light of the Day After The Sweep, I am trying to sift through the numbers and comprehend the scope of what went on at Fenway this weekend.

First let's look at the main numbers:

STATS: NY/BOS
-AVG.: .269/.373
-RUNS: 17/21
-HITS: 29/37
-HRs: 3/7
-ERA: 7.88/ 5.67
-PITCHES: 472/431

Now let's take a look inside the box scores to see who improved and who destroyed their stats(for the Sox, nearly everyone except Lugo, Youk and Papi saw their average increase during this series):

NEW YORK-
Damon: 1-10, run (can you say "no show"?)
Jeter: 4-13, BB, 4R, RBI, HR
Abreu: 1-10, 5BBs, 6Ks (that's impressive)
ARod: 6-13, 2-2Bs, 2-HRs, 5R, 5RBI
Giambi: 5-12, 2B, 4Ks, 5RBI
Cano: 6-12, 2R, 2-2Bs

The only ones that did any real damage were the red-hot A-Rod, 'roid head Giambi and his bloop hits and Cano, who can hit whenever & wherever he wants to. Abreu came into the series scorching hot- .400 (10-25) in the previous 6 games- but was cooled off by Boston pitching, and even struck out three times last night, a rare occurrence for the disciplined contact hitter. Jeter hit the homer last night but was held in check, Demon was a non-factor, although he was supposedly "beat up", and Posada didn't play much due to a bruised thumb.

The rest of the roster is unimportant, so let's skip to the Sox stats.

BOSTON-
Lugo: 2-10, 5BBs, R, SB
Youk: 3-10, 3BBs, 2B, 2R
Papi: 4-13, 2-2B, HR, 2R, 4RBI
Manny: 4-12, 3R, HR, RBI, 2BB
Drew: 5-12, 2B, HR, 2BB, RBI, 2R
Lowell: 5-12, 4R, 5RBI, 2HRs
Tek: 6-12, 2HRs, 3R, 4RBI, BB
Coco: 4-8, 3R, 2RBI, 3B, SB
Pedroia: 2-6, 2B
Cora: 2-3, BB, R, RBI
Willy Mo: 0-4, 4Ks, BB

You know the Stankees pitching staff is horrible when no fewer than four Sox batters came into the series mired in season-long slumps and exited the series on torrid streaks.

Varitek was probably the one who saw his stats improve the most. Entering the series the captain had just 7 hits all season, no homers, 5 RBIs and was hitting an embarrassing .189. Since the Stankees been gone his average has climbed to .265, he had 6 hits in the series including 2 homers and nearly doubled his RBI total with 4 in the three games.

Nipping on Tek's heels for most improved thanks to the Stanks is Coco Crisp, who saw his average go from .167 to .214 with his 4 hits, including a triple and 2 bunt singles. He also scored 3 times, knocked in a couple, stole a base, and had a memorable tumble over the bullpen wall in an attempt to snag an A-Rod homer.

And while Manny only had 4 hits, he did raise his average from .200 to .226, and one of his hits was of the "Oh my God, did you see that?" memorable variety.

On the pitching side, the numbers are not as pretty. The two teams combined to use 20 pitchers, and each team threw an average of more than 140 pitches/game. None of the starters for either team fared very well, especially Mr. Wright, and some of the relievers didn't fare much better (Mariano, are you listening?)

Let's take a look at the three starters for each team:

NEW YORK-
-Pettitte: 7.1IP, 8H, 2ER, 3BB, 3K, HR, HBP
-Karstens: 4.1IP, 9H, 7ER, 2BB, K, HR
-Wright: 3IP, 5H, 4R, 3BB, 3K, 4HRs

BOSTON:
-Schilling: 7IP, 8H, 5ER, BB, 5K, 2HRs
-Beckett: 6.2IP, 9H, 4ER, 2BB, 7K
-Matsuzaka: 7IP, 8H, 6ER, 1BB, 7K, HR, 2HBP

Like I said, not pretty. You won't find any quality starts in there, especially when you include one guy who made history by becoming only the second pitcher in ML history to allow 4 home runs in a row. That dubious distinction got Wright demoted today as the Stanks activated Hideki Matsui from the DL. Also, Pettitte's numbers include a 1-inning relief stint last night. Yes, things are that bad for New York.

With all those balls flying around the yard off the starters, the pens were more overworked than Larry Birkhead's legal team. Some of the relievers succeeded in stemming the tide, others contributed to the rising flood of runs that filled the Fenway field. New York had to rely on guys named Henn, Bruney, Vizcaino and Bean, while Boston may have unearthed a hidden gem in Hideki Okijima, who saved one game and held another.

The main difference was in the two closers. While Mariano Rivera coughed up the save and the game on Friday night and was never seen again, Jonathan Papelbon sat out the Friday affair but then came on to save both weekend games, allowing no hits while walking 2 and striking out 2 (Jeter both times) in 2 innings of "work."

Some of the other interesting things of note this weekend include:

-Boston's 4-consecutive homer barrage had a couple of interesting coincidences related to the history of such a feat. The last time it happened was last September when the Dodgers did it in the 9th inning against the Padres. One of the men to swat one out of Dodgers Stadium? None other than J.D.Drew, who also joined the homer parade last night.

Also, the last time it happened in the American League was in 1964, when the Cleveland Indians did it, and one of the men to accomplish the deed that night was none other than Terry Francona's dad, Tito.

-Boston wore 2 special unis this weekend, the green Auerbach tributes on Friday, and a couple of guys wore #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson yesterday as the Sox game on his tribute day was rained out.

BTW, did Papi wearing 42 bring back memories of Mo Vaughn or what?!

-ESPN showed Julian Tavarez giving Dice-K pointers about pitching A-Rod inside. Matsuzaka subsequently hit Rodriguez with the first pitch he ever threw to him, then also hit Jeter for good measure. (note to Theo: don't let Dice take pitching pointers from Gascan Tavarez, capice?)

-Did anyone notice that moronic, retarded Yankee fan pretending to pick his nose while waving his hand and talking on his celly in the bottom of the 8th on Sunday?

Yep New York, these are your fans.

How sweep it is.