I guess Mother Nature must be a Red Sox fan. In the same weekend that spring finally graced New England, an even lovelier event accompanied her: a clean sweep of the New York Yankees.
Oh, I know it's only April, that there are 15 games left to be played against the Yankees, that by next weekend the tables could easily be turned. But for now it is springtime in Boston, and that means the Red Sox are on top of the world, not to mention the league standings.
As Jonathan Papelbon secured the final out of the three-game series on Sunday night, any fan would admit this was not only a brilliant way to start off the 2007 campaign for the Sox, but also a sweet bit of revenge for last season's humiliating five-game sweep at the hands of the Evil Empire that ousted the Sox from any chance of a postseason appearance.
Of course, the Boston Massacre, as the series was quickly labeled, bore much more gravity than this series, but a win is a win, and even in April, three of them in a row against your archrival is something to take stock. Amidst the many positives of this series, the best were perhaps the biggest surprises.
After last season, we all knew that Papelbon was on course to enter the same breath as other Boston greats such as Bird, Russell, Williams and Orr. We expected nothing but dominance, and so far that's what we've got, with six saves on six opportunities and a stalwart 0.00 ERA. What most fans didn't expect, however, was just how good Hideki Okajima would be.
Sporting a 1.04 ERA, Okajima was lights out against the Yankees, giving up no runs and holding opponents to just a single hit. After a dubious beginning against the Texas Rangers in the season opener, in which his very first pitch was sent into the bleachers, Okajima did not surrender a single run in his next eight appearances.
Seemingly just the other Japanese pitcher to come along with Matsuzaka, Okajima has quickly established himself as one of the go-to guys in the bullpen, and having a right-left power combo like Papelbon-Okajima is something most ball clubs can only dream about. Again, it's early in the season, but the type of performance Okajima showed in the pressure-cooker of a Yankee-Sox series bodes well.
The other pleasant surprise of last weekend was the one-two punch of J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell. All off-season I prayed Lowell would not go the way of the Todd Walkers or the Mark Lorettas - fan favorites that quickly get shipped off after a season or two. But thankfully for the team, Lowell is back, and having a banner start. He's hitting .323 with 14 RBIs and three home runs, including two against the Yankees, one of them part of that amazing back-to-back-to-back-to-back onslaught Sunday night.
Equally impressive has been Drew, who's batting .350. When the Sox picked up Drew, most fans realized what a boom it meant to have his hitting supporting the already impressive performance of Ortiz and Ramirez, but his appearance has also been immensely helpful to Lowell. The three through six holes of the Boston lineup is truly one of the most devastating in baseball, which the Yankees learned first hand.
The Big Three, Matsuzaka, Shilling and Beckett, looked passing at best against the Yankees, but the rest of the team proved it was more than capable of backing its aces that have so far been superb. So maybe the Yankees are injury-plagued, maybe their pitching staff is in shambles and maybe this is just April. But every victory counts in a 162-game season. And right now, it feels good to be on top.
Andrew Bauld is a senior majoring in English and political science. He can be reached at andrew.bauld@tufts.edu.
