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Yankees pound Bobby V's Red Sox in opener

YANKEES 6
RED SOX 2

What is the best tonic for a baseball team with high expectations that has watched its starting pitching struggle out of the gate and watched the middle of its order struggle out of the gate, a la the New York Yankees? The Boston Red Sox.

The Boston Red Sox are in complete free-fall. The Bobby Valentine experiment, granted only 12 games into the season, is looking more and more like the biggest failure in baseball in some time. Valentine was brought into Boston with the plan that he would discipline a rambunctious clubhouse that basically chased out the mild-mannered Terry Francona. Instead, it has completely backfired.

Not only are the Red Sox losing and losing badly, but Valentine is having difficulty getting along with both the players and the general manager; moreover, Valentine's support is waning with the fans up in Beantown who are booing him louder every time he sticks his head out of the dugout.

Valentine's status didn't get any better on Friday, as the Yankees pounded Boston on the 100th Anniversary of Fenway Park, on the day when the Red Sox honored their historic past of highs and lows with great players from yesteryear and most recently the Red Sox World Series titles in 2004 and 2007 returning to Boston. Neverthless, Valentine's BoSox put up a stinker.

The Yankees wasted no time in putting their foot on the throat of the Red Sox; in the first inning, Alex Rodriguez delivered an RBI single to drive in Derek Jeter, who led off the game reaching on an error by Dustin Pedroia.

Then in the third, the Bombers brought the thunder out. Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez went deep with solo shots to extend the Yankees lead to 3-0. Boston's Clay Buchholz was awful. He surrendered five solo homeruns against the Yankees including two to Chavez, who hadn't even started a game this year until this one. Even A-Rod got into the act, cracking a 424 foot homer over the Green Monster to make it 5-1 New York. The homer was A-Rod's second of the year, and it put him in sole possession of fifth place in the All-Time Homerun list, surpassing Ken Griffey Jr.

The barrage on Buchholz continued into the sixth inning when Russell Martin blasted his first homer of the year to give the Bronx Bombers a 6-1 lead. Why Valentine felt the need to leave Buchholz in the game is beyond human understanding. Valentine should have pulled him out of this game a long time ago if he wanted to give his team a shot. Instead, by leaving Buchholz in to get blasted, he killed his team's spirit.

As for the Yankees: What a win1 This was a huge win for a ball club that is starting to get its sea legs after a rough start to the season. Ivan Nova was once again incredible. Through six innings Nova surrendered two runs and scattered seven hits, while striking out five. He is the true number two starter of this team. I don't care what Joe Girardi thinks after his dreadful decision to make Hiroki Kuroda the Yankees number two starter this season. Nova is the real deal and is now a team best 3-0 this year.

If the Yankees should win one of these next two games, especially on Saturday afternoon, it will become very interesting to see what the headlines will be for Boston. Remember the Red Sox got off to a hideous start last season, fought back and had the playoffs within sight before they choked. This AL East is too tough, and if Boston continues to freefall, its hard to imagine that Valentine will survive Stay tuned.




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