Another strong week... with yankee Stadium next

One look at the box scores and print from "the week that was" will tell you that this was one weird week in the game of baseball.

Two doubleheaders... back-to-back. The first one a sweep of the defending AL champ Tigers and the second a bizarre see-saw affair starting with a 13-3 pasting of the Braves but with Atlanta returning the favor 14-0 in the nightcap. And go ahead and mark down the Mother's Day Comeback as the comeback of the year right now. Red Sox being mowed down for 8 innings to the tune of a 5-0 deficit heading to the bottom of the 9th: and for the first time in the majors in almost 30 YEARS, a team came back to win after having been shutout through 8 and down by 5 or more runs. Sox win 6-5 when the pitcher drops the ball on a bang-bang play at first that would have nailed Julio Lugo for out #3 and end of ballgame. Ouch Baltimore.

Speed demons Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp have been on base and wreaking havoc on a daily basis. Kevin Youkilis is THE hottest hitter in the major leagues (14 game hit streak; 3 HRs, 4 doubles, .400 BA, 7R in last 11 games). David Ortiz is still Big Papi. Manny and JD Drew STILL aren't producing much. Mike Lowell is having another incredible start. Second base is a definite strength with both Pedroia and Cora producing. El Capitan Tek is not smoking it but is getting some clutch hits in key situations. And the pitching is still incredible although the run support for a couple of the starters (Wakefield and Tavarez) has been sporadic at best.

The Sox just finished losing to the NY yanks tonight - not a great start to the road trip and there is WAY too much time to think that every game isn't important but the score wasn't very indicative of how close this game was. Despite the fact that Timmy pitched sub-par at best, he still wasn't hammered and gave up his hits mostly in bunches and to the wrong people. Wang for NY was pitching no better but conversely DID get the key outs in situations where Boston had men ready to score. No keys hits at all tonight. Unfortunately one of the pitchers tomorrow WILL get shelacked as their near 6.00 ERAs will attest... but don't bet against Mussina as the Moose has been slightly more consistent lately and is pitching at home with an offense that just might be waking up a little. Let's hope Schilling can get HIS act together for game 3, otherwise this 3 game set will look pretty ugly come Thursday morning. The Sox haven't lost a 3 game series since the first week of the season, but losing the first on the road to NY is an easy way to change that trend.

I still believe that Boston will have a double digit lead over NY by the end of the month regardless of this series, but time will tell. We've been down this road before... time to finish well boys!!

GO SOX!!