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April 23, 2007
Judging by the results of our most active sports survey, fans are not convinced that this weekend's series has proven anything like the Red Sox' superiority against the Yankees. Boston, after all, has a history of beating up on New York in April, and the Yankees' pitching staff is a shambles. No one, including myself, would be surprised to see the patched up Yankees take two of three this coming weekend in the Bronx.
But here's another way of seeing it: The Red Sox showed this weekend that their lineup can be pretty good -- and let's forget for a moment about the Yankees' rookie starters. After all, the Red Sox scored 10 runs in 16.2 innings this weekend against pitchers not named Jeff Karstens or Chase Wright. All told, they put up 21 runs on the weekend with Manny Ramirez in a horrendous hitting slump. Meanwhile, the Yankees will be getting Hideki Matsui back, but Alex Rodriguez will be hard-pressed to stay this hot.
As far as Manny goes: for a guy who has hit exactly two home runs this season, his reaction to hitting the one in Toronto and the one at Fenway might trick you into believing that this is all routine. During the same four-game stretch in which Ramirez has hit home runs, he's also contributed to killing three early rallies by grounding into double plays twice (against Roy Halladay and Andy Pettitte) and popping up on another occasion (against Wright).
What they're saying: The New York Daily News' Subway Squakers blog had this prediction heading into last night: "Manny Ramirez will do something wacky. Did you see the way he kind of skipped over the ball A-Rod hit Saturday? Wacky. Then there's the hair, with the red strands in it, covered by the Boston do-rag. Wacky. He looks like a pirate - all he needs is a jaunty eyepatch!"
The Manchester Union-Leader wonders whether the slump is ending.
MLB.com's Ian Browne says not to expect any changes to the middle of the batting order.
New York Newsday's Jim Baumbach reports that the immortal Paul Foytack was actually watching last night's game when Wright tied his 44-year-old record by giving up home runs to four consecutive batters. But Foytack, who lives in Tennessee, tells Baumbach that he turned the channel after Manny hit the first of the four, so he never got to see his "feat" get matched. At least Wright will be able to say that he gave up his four home runs against four very good hitters. Foytack, while pitching for the Angels in 1963, gave up his against this rogues gallery of Cleveland Indians: Woodie Held, pitcher Pedro Ramos, Tito Francona (father of Terry, of course) and Larry Brown (not the basketball coach). These guys combined for 366 home runs in their careers, against 935 and counting for the Red Sox four.
By the way, if you hear Manny's name called this weekend during the NFL Draft, chances are you've been watching too long. Also, keep in mind that this is not Manny the slugger, but Manny the offensive tackle out of Texas Tech. The writer at the Badger Herald over at the University of Wisconsin has Manny of the gridiron being taken by the Patriots in the first round -- I think he's joking. Is this region big enough for two Mannies?
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 1:44 PM to Projo Mannybeingmanny
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