Yanks/Sox: ’09 Just Like ’06?
Via Jon Heyman -
Boston is 6-9 this month and 12-17 since the All-Star break, and is now in a fight to make the playoffs. The rival Yankees are too far in first (7 1/2 games) to be a concern. The Rangers are the real competition now, and Texas’ 7-2 record against the Red Sox gives them additional reason to doubt themselves.
Boston looks as vulnerable today as at any point since 2006.
“The second half has been a struggle for us,” Red Sox GM Theo Epstein said by phone Sunday night. “The only solace we can take is that we’ve played as poorly as we possibly can and still have a chance to get ourselves into October. We have to stabilize the back end of our rotation and hit better with runners in scoring position to do it, however.”
This is funny – as just this morning I was thinking to myself about how much this Yankees season is reminding me of 2006…when the Yanks were four games out of first on July 1st and then were eight games ahead in first place on August 31st.
New York went 34-21 during July and August in 2006 while Boston went 24-33 over those two months.
Let’s just hope that October 2009 doesn’t mirror October 2006 in Yankeeland – because, if it does, I would imagine that some may want to storm the South Bronx if happens and burn down the new castle.
Yanks never had a sustained run of outstanding play in 2006 as they have this season. For example
In 2006
They were 19-13 after 32 games.
They were 38-30 after 68 games.
They were 50-36 at the All-Star Break
They finally got to 30 games over in mid-September.
The 2006 team didn’t have any runs like 23-6, 36-11, and 58-26 for such a large number of games.
And they didn’t have CC and AJ at the top of the rotation, and the bullpen wasn’t nearly as deep. The lineup may have been slightly better overall, but the team defense was much worse.
No, I really don’t see the comparison.
Evan3457 wrote:
Let me help you:
2006 Yanks. July 4th, in 2nd, 4 games back of first. 42 games later, they were in 1st place, up by 6.5 games.
2009 Yanks. June 27th, in 2nd place, 4 games back of first. 37 games later, they were in 1st place, up by 6.5 games.
Same swing, just about the same time of the year, in just about the same amount of games.
Is that so hard to see?