Yankees-Red Sox 2
The last time Boston was here in the Bronx one of the franchises many great baseball minds nodded gravely at my contention that the Yankees might not be that great a team, then could contain his disbelief no longer, smiled broadly at me, and asked, in the way only friends who consider each other slightly nuts can ask, Really?
The Baseball Prospectus folks (sorry, subscription required, these are not plugs, I just really find their work useful) analyzed the nine possible playoff teams four-man rotations based on Support Neutral Winning Percentage, which I think I understand but probably dont. The Cards lead at .575 with the Tigers second, the Red Sox third (.561) and the Yankees, dragged down by Joba Chamberlain, eighth at .520. Thus – natch – Jon Lester has sputtered through a long first three innngs capped by a second-deck home run by Alex Rodriguez, while Chamberlain is perfect through three, havng struck out three of the bottom four Boston hitters and popped up the fourth (Varitek) behind the plate.
Baseball Nerd 
Dick-K, Lester, Beckett. I don’t know. My money is still on the Yanks. Oh dear, now Lester is hurt. We were really depending on him come October.
Steroids aside for a minute –
I have been telling my fellow Sox fans that it’s going to be tough without the Ortiz/Manny combination in the playoffs. I have always thought that it was these two who won us our two championships, even though we did have a damn good starting rotation and bullpen both years. But Oritz/Manny combo always came through when they needed to. You could always count on one of them to get a big hit when needed. And an unsung hero was Kevin Millar. He kept the team loose, which is vital when the going gets tough.
A Yanks fan told me today that the Sox can go somewhere in the playoffs this year, without Ortiz/Manny. He said the opposition this year in the AL isn’t that strong. He is as worried about his NYYs as we are about the Sox. He can’t stand the thought of the NYY facing the Angels. I can’t stand the thought of facing any of the teams. lol
“All I know is (as a Yankees Manager), I pass people on the street these days, and they don’t know whether to say hello or to say good-bye.” Billy Martin