Broomsday in Boston?

I'm terribly sorry this blog is so late, no time for the midnight run after last night's primetime game between the Sox and Yanks. Since that time, the extremest thoughts of Boston's demise have been tempered with tonight's win over a solid Tiger team. It was an unspectacular-but-steady start from Brad Penny, which is usually all it takes for the Sox to win with their lineup. Penny's performance in his win didn't quite measure up to the losing performances of Josh Beckett, Clay Buckholz, and Jon Lester against the Empire. But for today, the Sox lineup is back, getting their usual early lead and putting together hits when needed late. They have broken their 6-game losing streak and now must do some serious work over these next two weeks before the rivalry renews up in New England. So submitted for the approval of the Midnight Blog Readers, the Reilly Sports Blog's recap of the Bronx Beatdown.

• First, this was just a beatdown...not a beheading. As mentioned earlier, the two titans meet again from August 21-23 in Fenway. I think all inklings of psychological advantages were met head on and deposited in the toilet this weekend. It's all about the raw data for me, and the most important number as of tonight is (5.5 GB.) The Sox downed the Tigers and the Yanks fell to Toronto. A few more nights like this, and Boston has New York in their sight by the time they play at home with the Fenway advantage. It'll be easy.
• It won't, in any way, be easy. The schedule leading up to (and following) the big showdown looks like it was sent straight from the desk of Bucky Dent. Including tonight, the Sox play 35 games from now until Thursday, September 17th. Of those 35 games, precisely eight (8) will be against teams under the .500 mark. And six of those eight games are against the Blue Jays, who after tonight are just 3 games below. The winning teams who the Sox play the in the other 27 games aren't slouches, either. They're all there...Angels, White Sox, Rays, you name it. 35 games to make or break the Sox. So far, 1 for 1...
• The Yankees won't be on dream street either. They will be kicking themselves bigtime if they don't take this series from Toronto at home, because after Wednesday's game they wont see their friendly fans nor 250 foot fences until the 25th. In the meantime, it's potentially-tough sledding on the west coast with the Mariners and Athletics and certainly-tough sledding over in Kenmore Square. So far, 0 for 1...

It should be fun to watch. The schedules for both teams will provide some solid tests and fine-tuning as the teams gear up for Fenway. Don't discount the guys defending this division title though. Tampa Bay (it still sounds bizarre) isn't going anywhere, and they will get their head-to-head tilts against these teams as well. The moment the Yanks and Sox start thinking this is a two team race is the moment where the Rays are most dangerous. They snuck up last year and got all the way to the World Series. The Empire and Nation can't let them sneak again.

Well, that officially concludes the analysis of the series that in reality concluded over 24 hours ago. Look for a few more Mets posts in the coming days, none of which I will enjoy writing. They just lost to the Diamondbacks, who really looked ripe for the picking after getting swept by the Nationals. But no team is ripe to pick in the Met's harvest. Even if they were ripe, the Mets would take a bite and find a tapeworm inside.

I better stop; this conversation isn't gonna go anywhere I want to be. Enjoy the weather.