Series Recap: Sox/Stanks

Sox win series, 2 games-1
GM 1: BOS 11-4
GM2: NYY 3-1
GM 3: BOS 7-4

-STATS: BOS/NYY
RUNS: 19/ 11
AVG: .276/ .214
HITS: 29/ 21
HRs: 5/ 3
BP ERA: 0.93/ 5.51

The second Sox/Stanks series of 2007 was another productive one for the Boston offense and this time an excellent one for the Sox pitchers, unlike last weekend's sloppy slugfests.

Boston ended the month in style, taking 2-out-of-3 in New York to retain its comfy division lead while pushing the Stanks further down the AL East food chain, into the sub-hell that lurks below the D-Rays permanent residence.

A couple of players stayed hot (Cora, Lowell) or warmed up (Lugo, Youk) in this 3-gamer, while others remained icy-cold (Tek, Pedroia) or showed some signs of thawing out (Manny.) Here's a look at how the numbers shook out for the series.

Three-game Composite Box Score:

• Lugo: 5-13 (.385), 3R, 4RBI, 2B, HR, 2BB, 2SB
• Youk: 5-13 (.385), 3R, 3RBI, HR, 3BB
• Papi: 4-11 (.364), 3R, 3RBI, 3BB, K, HR
• Manny: 3-11 (.273), R, 2RBI, HR, 3BB, 3K
• Drew: 0-9, 4Ks
• Lowell: 3-10 (.300), R, 2B, 2RBI, 3BB, 2K, 2E
• Tek: 2-8 (.250), R, 2BB, 2K, E
• Coco: 4-12 (.333), 3R, RBI, 3B, 2K, SB
• Pedroia: 1-6 (.167) , 2R, 2B, BB, K
• Cora: 2-5 (.400), 2R, 3B, HR, 3RBI
• Hinske: 0-5
• Willy Mo: 0-0
• 'Belli: 0-2, BB, 2K

As you can see this team is so deep that not everybody has to be clicking on all cylinders to keep the machine humming along; when guys like Manny & Drew are scuffling, others like Cora, Youk and Lugo are there to pick them up.

The pitching in this series was much improved from the previous weekend in Fenway, where the Boston staff allowed almost as many runs (17) as the Sox scored (21). This time the Boston hurlers held the Stanks potent lineup in check, giving up only 11 runs in 3 games and shutting down some of the Stankees' more prolific hitters.

Let's take a look at the composite linescores of the pitchers, and also what they did to some of the New York batters:

• Dice-K: 6IP, 5H, 4ER, 4BB, 7K, W
• Wakefield: 5.1IP, 5H, 3ER, 6BB, 3K
• Tavarez: 5IP, 3H, 3ER, 2BB, 2K, HR, W
• Okijima: 3IP, 2H, 5K
• Timlin: 2IP, 3H, ER, 2K, HR
• Paps: 1IP, H, K, SV
• Romero: 1IP, BB, K
• Snyder: 1IP, H, K
• Pineiro: 1IP, BB, K
• Donnelly: 2/3IP, H, BB

Demon- 1-11 (.090); Jeter- 7-14 (.500), HR; Abreu-1-12 (.083); A-Rod-2-11 (.181); Giambi- 4-9 (.444); Posada- 2-9 (.222), HR; Cano- 0-11, 4K; Matsui- 1-10 (.100)

The numbers don't lie in this case. Boston pitching was exceptional, especially not-so-secret-weapon Hideki Okijima, who continues to baffle righties & lefties with his yakker, and Papelbon, who has yet to allow a run this season. That's in stark contrast to New York's closer Mariano Rivera, who looks like he's ready to take up residence in the Shady Acres retirement community, although he did get New York's first save of the season in Game 2.

Other interesting notes include Mike Lowell making 2 errors to take over the major league lead with eight, Mr. April cooling off to the point that he had no homers and no RBI in the series, and Alex Cora basically carrying a neon sign flashing "PLAY ME" after another weekend of heroics vs. the Stanks.

All in all an excellent way to end the first month of the season, by taking 5-6 from the hated Empire and sitting atop the AL East.

Five more months and 12 more games vs. NY to go before we can start popping that playoff bubbly again, though.

But at least they're off to a good start.