The Yankees beat the Angels on Wednesday night, beat them doing what they do best, which means hitting home runs at Yankee Stadium, where balls continue to fly into the seats like they are Titleist golf balls. The Yankees scored nine runs and made it a nice, easy night for Ivan Nova, who is about twice the starting pitcher A.J. Burnett is right now.
The game was also noteworthy for another reason: The Yankees got back over .500 against teams with winning records in the American League this season.
Now you might not think that's such a big deal. But I sort of do, mostly because the rules say that if they are going to make it back to the World Series this season, they have to beat two teams with winning records from their league. It sound crazy, but there you have it.
Of course these numbers from the regular season of 2011 are more than somewhat skewed because our kids are 2-10 against the Red Sox this season. Now in our company town, this really isn't supposed to matter because of two things, as far as I can tell reading and listening:
Twenty-three years ago – 23 – the Mets beat up on the Dodgers during the regular season and only lost to them once and still got beat by the Dodgers, seven games, in the National League Championship Series that year. I mention that stat a lot myself, even though I never assume because the Dodgers got hit by lightning one time that you can practically expect something like that to happen in the playoffs because it happened in '88.
Two years ago the Red Sox won all those games early against the Yankees and then the Yankees came back on them late and ended up winning the World Series.
Basically this is a way of looking for reasons to say that 10-2 for Boston against the Yankees this season and 4-0 against Sabathia don't matter all that much. Seriously? You think it would be treated as irrelevant in the big, bad city if the Yankees had big, bad numbers like that against the Red Sox? Here's the deal: You either think these Red Sox-Yankees games matter in the regular season, or you don't. If not, lose the hype and buildup forever. If we're going to talk about The Rivalry and the history and how it's the best thing going in baseball and maybe all pro sports, then just because the story doesn't come out the way it's supposed to – that means from New York's way of thinking – means that these games are such trifles that they practically shouldn't be counted in the standings. It doesn't work that way.
And by the way? I was never one of the people who thought that the Red Sox were going to run and hide in the AL East because they signed Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford during the regular season. The idea that those signings, the Red Sox spending for one winter the way the Yankees usually do, turned the Yankees into $200 million underdogs is as ridiculous now as it was then. I never think the Yankees are big underdogs to anybody starting the season, and that includes the Phillies after the they sign Cliff Lee. Whatever all the "experts" say.