Bring Out the Brooms

The baseball season never really starts until the Red Sox and Yankees square off for their first series of the year. This weekend has been a great one for Boston fans, with two wins coming in two exciting games.

On Friday the Sox battled back to overcome a good performance by Yankees' pitcher Andy Pettitte to take the lead in the eighth inning, scoring off of the Yanks great closer, Mariano Rivera.

Rivera's blown save sparked a lot of nervousness throughout the Evil Empire, but as much as I would like to say that Mariano's days of glory are over, I have a feeling that it's not. Rivera is still throwing as hard as he did in years past and last year he struggled a bit early in the season as well.

There are few closers in baseball that I would want to have over Mariano Rivera. Jonathan Papelbon is about at that level, especially because of his age. Personally I would take Paps over Mo right now, but I think many would still take Rivera.

When you look at the struggles most other teams have closing games, Red Sox and Yankees fans should be happy to have great closers.

Saturday's game was one that the Sox had to win. Eventually the Yankees will get Chien-Ming Wang and Carl Pavano back, and will probably sign Roger Clemens (although I still hope the Sox will get him). The Sox will not have the chance to face pitchers like Jeff Karstens and Chase Wright later in the season and they need to grab these wins while they can.

David Ortiz proved once again he is one of the best hitters in baseball, with 4 RBI. Josh Beckett put in another good performance, not nearly as great as he has pitched all year, but it was enough to move to 4-0. Papelbon and the bullpen were dominant once again, proving that the decision to move Paps back to the closer role was a necessary one.

Now the Sox will look to sweep the Yankees at Fenway Park for the first time in 17 years. Once again the game will be nationally broadcasted, on ESPN, which is great for me, because its rare that Sox games are on TV here in Fairfield.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has had three great starts so far, but needs run support tonight. Hopefully Papi, Paps, Daisuke, and the Sox can pull out another big victory, to get the 18 game series started right.