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Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: A postmortem on the weekend »

Baseball Today: Monday, June 4

BLAST FROM THE PAST: They haven't done much of this so far this season, and -- given their age, injuries and overall skill level -- they may not do it many more times the rest of the way. But for last night at least, they were the Yankees of old. They were patient, driving up the opposing starter's pitch counts; they got shutout pitching from their bullpen; they got clutch hits in the late innings (including a tie-breaking home run from Alex Rodriguez (New York Post), right, on an 0-and-2 pitch from Jonathan Papelbon with two outs in the ninth), and they got shutdown, bottom-of-the-ninth relief from Mariano Rivera (New York Post), albeit aided by a deep drive to David Ortiz that died just short of the bullpen. And in a four-plus-hour torturethon -- another flashback to past Yankee glories -- they beat the Red Sox, 6-5, and took two of three in their weekend series. (projo.com)

TIP YOUR HAT: Sean McAdam writes the Red Sox thought Papelbon made a good pitch to A-Rod, and they saluted Rodriguez for being able to hit it out. (projo.com's Sox Blog) ''I would say with almost every hitter in the league, it’s probably a great pitch,'' said manager Terry Francona. ''But (Rodriguez) has the ability – not all the time – to hit that ball out, like only maybe Manny (Ramirez) and (Vladimir Guerrero) and only a couple of hitters can.''

STIRRINGS: As for the Yankees, who are still six games under .500 and trail the Sox by 12 games in the loss column, last night's win may have been their best of the season (New York Daily News), especially coming on the heels of Saturday's loss, which may have been their worse defeat. (projo.com) It seemed to be an affirmation of pregame Yankee vows to keep on fighting. (projo.com) The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan says the Yanks did just that.

DROPPING LIKE FLIES: It wouldn't be a Yankee game without a starting pitcher getting injured, though the Yankees don't think Andy Pettitte is hurt badly. (New York Post) Speaking of injured pitchers, Roger Clemens is now aiming for a Saturday launch (New York Post), which means Matt DeSalvo will start tonight for them in Chicago. And continuing to speak of injured pitchers, Phil Hughes may be lost for the season. (New York Daily News)

THEY'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES: And speaking now of injured first basemen, Doug Mientkiewicz is expected to miss six to eight weeks after his collision with Mike Lowell on Saturday. (New York Daily News)

AMEN: Terry Francona is ''really, really glad'' that the Sox and Yankees -- who met 12 times in the season's first 55 games -- don't play each other again until August. (projo.com)

THE PRESSURE IS EVERYWHERE: Because this rivalry is so intense, reporters almost came to blows in the yearly Boston-New York media game at Fenway Park.

OLD BUSINESS: Curt Schilling's self-analysis of Saturday's Red Sox victory: ''Let’s see, I sucked, we still won. That about cover it?.'' But, of course, he had much more to say that that.

YOO HOO. ANYBODY HOME? After launching his personal blog with great fanfare last week, Kevin Youkilis has yet to make a second posting. And it's not like he hasn't been in the headlines recently. (projo.com)

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Sean McAdam reported Sunday that the umpires recommended Scott Proctor be suspended for hitting Youkilis Friday night, an action they deemed deliberate, but were overruled by Bob Watson, Major League Baseball's vice-president of on-field operations.

WELCOME BACK: The Red Sox expect J.D. Drew to return to the lineup tonight. (projo.com)

IN THE WIND . . . are whispers of a Bobby Abreu-for-Jermaine Dye deal. (Chicago Sun-Times) And Bob Klapisch raises the idea of the Yankees putting Johnny Damon on the market (North Jersey Media Group)

NO, THANKS: Angels owner Arte Moreno hints that his team wouldn't be interested if A-Rod opted out of his Yankee contract and became a free agent. (Riverside Press-Enterprise)

YOU MEAN THERE WERE OTHER TEAMS PLAYING THIS WEEKEND? Sure were, though not that you'd know it by the national media. (The Red Sox, incidentally, are just thrilled they had to play an ESPN Sunday night game -- which wound up crawling past midnight, to boot -- and then fly to the West Coast to begin a series with Oakland tonight.) And one of them, the Cubs, may have lost their manager for a while. (Chicago Sun-Times)

THILLSVILLE: The Tigers split their weekend series with the Indians and couldn't be more happy. (Detroit News)

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:01 AM | Permalink