The Yankees' just-finished 10 game road trip was their longest of the season--and they responded by going 7-3.
Think about that for a moment.
That's the type of road trip that separates the contenders from the pretenders.
The Yankees, going into the series against Boston had only one thing they needed to do, and that was to not get swept. They accomplished that the first night, but tonight they won the series as well.
It's not very often a baseball team will get five home runs off of Josh Beckett (Matsui had two--all four of his hits on the road trip were home runs), but that is what happened tonight.
Funny game, that baseball.
The Yankees couldn't buy a run off of Junichi Tazawa yesterday, but scored in each of the first five innings today.
Some observations:
- Derek Jeter hit .500 on the road trip. Let me repeat. Derek Jeter hit .500 on the road trip. There's being good, there's going on a hot streak, and then there's that.
- The Yankees --okay, Robinson Canó--was doing his best Luis Castillo impression in the field today. He mitigated it a bit with one of five Yankee home runs, and I wouldn't get too concerned--one poor defensive game does not a season make.
- Sabathia wasn't unhittable, but he was what the Yankees needed, and the bullpen was (as it usually is in a win) excellent.
- It's going to be an odd series with the Rangers--the Yankees want to win, of course, but us fans have been rooting for the Rangers to win the Wild Card. Guess we will see who are true Yankee fans and who are just Red Sox haters...
- Nick Swisher had his consecutive-game-reached-based streak snapped, but this only underscores how great he's been this season--especially on the road.
