Yankees and Red S*x in the Home Stretch

Admit it. The season series means a little to you. The Red S*x won the first eight games they played against the Yankees this year, and all you could hope for was that the Yankees would stop the bleeding and find a way to contend for a wild card.

One ridiculous post-All Star run by the Bronx Bombers, however, changed all that, and our goals changed: we hoped the Yankees, once on the outside looking in, could maintain their firm grip on first place and that, most of all, they were not a bully team. Meaning: as good as they looked against everyone else, we hoped they wouldn't get punched in the mouth and go back into their shell when the Red S*x came calling.

Our fears were assuaged and then some. The Yankees won six out of seven over two series in August, with Alex Rodriguez delivering key home runs in the 15-inning classic at Yankee Stadium and the tight affair 48 hours later. We knew then that we were in first place to stay, and, almost as delicious, that we had sent the Red S*x reeling. We knew -- we know -- that true redemption for all that has gone wrong the last eight years can only be earned in October, but for the time, things couldn't be much better.

Then something happened: the Red Sox turned themselves around and became the hottest team in baseball, with the starting pitching that was so shaky in those seven games straightening itself out and the team dominating at home even more than before. Meanwhile, the Yankees' kept winning, but at a slower pace, and with the starting pitching outside of CC Sabathia looking as shaky as ever. A.J. Burnett never came close to matching his performance that Friday night against the Red S*x, Andy Pettitte's shoulder got sore, and Joba Chamberlain went from being unreliable to being effectively the biggest threat to the Yankees' prosperity.

So we entered this weekend with this: it's probably too late for the Red S*x to catch us for the division title, and even if they do, we're in the playoffs, but a poor performance against the Red Sox this weekend would have left us with serious doubts about the Yankees' prospects of getting through the American League's postseason gantlet.

So, after two wins in two games at the Stadium this weekend, is everything okey dokey? Not exactly. Sabathia was wonderful today, but he was awesome last year and the year before in the regular season for Milwaukee and Cleveland, respectively. His postseasons, however, have left something to desire. Like Alex Rodriguez, he is going to have to shine in October. And surely last night's performance, as good as it was, does not erase all doubts about Chamberlain. He is not yet an effective starting pitcher. He has the talent to be one, and I'm willing to wait. He's only 23. But I don't know that he's going to help us turn a 2-1 series lead into a 3-1 lead in a playoff series. And Burnett with his inconsistency and Pettitte with his shoulder will remain question marks at least until they pitch well against the AL Central champ in the ALDS.

So what does this weekend mean? It's for bragging rights, and little else. Red S*x fans got to whoop it up as much as ever when they were 8-0 against the Yankees. That massive lead has all but evaporated. If the Yankees finish off another sweep tomorrow night, they will have tied the season series, 9-9. It will be meaningless comepared to anything that happens in October, but it will assure that those eight losses will never be a source of humiliation for us again. The games may count the same, but I'll take them during the pennant race over the early season any day.