EIGHT IS ENOUGH

I'm not sure that you've heard: the bird's the word. No, just kidding. This weekend is Yankees vs. Red Sox in the Boogie Down Bronx. And of course, you probably haven't heard that the Red Sox are 8-0 against the Yankees this year. Oh, wait, you have?

Well I'm here to say that eight is enough. It's time to step up against our biggest foes. Since we last met, the teams have had very different paths.

The Yankees have been slowly putting the pieces back together. A-Rod has come back and he and Teixeira have formed the best 3-4 in baseball. The Yankees have shored up a bullpen that had no sure-fire relievers a few months back. Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera, Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada are all having bounce back years. Joba Chamberlain has learned how to pitch again (via the fist-pump, of course). And the Yankees have made a few nice acquisitions in Jerry Hairston, Jr and Eric Hinske to really shore up that bench.

The Red Sox, on the other hand, have changed their team quite a bit. On the DL are Tim Wakefield and Dice-K and in the rotation are Clay Buchholz and John Smoltz. Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have gone from unreliable to two of the best starters in the American League. They also added Victor Martinez, a smart acquisition for a team that has struggled to score runs at times. They are a slower team than they've ever been in the past (Jacoby Ellsbury is their one speedy player in the lineup), but they have a great deal of depth.

So what happens in this big four-game set in the small confines of New Yankee Stadium? Well, anything is possible. But the one thing I'll be glad about is that when I step into Yankee Stadium on Saturday, I know the Yankees will be in first place. That's why their two-game set against Toronto was so big. They knew they were facing Roy Halladay in Game 1 with hit-machine Sergio Mitre going in Game 2. And they won both.

After the poor showing in Chicago, you have to be happy as a Yankees fan to come home with the best record in the AL. Now it's time to beat the Red Sox. I'll be posting Yankees/Red Sox related stuff throughout the day so stay tuned...