Hoping to clean up with sweep

Saturday in the park saw the Red Sox pulverize Yankees youngster Jeff Karstens, and as the 7-5 victory unfolded, it was hard not to think about the prospect of a sweep. The $103 Million Man, Daisuke Matsuzaka, gets the ball for the Sox tonight, while the Yankees' chucker will be 24-year-old lefty Chase Wright, making his second start in the big leagues.

The Yankees are playing without left fielder Hideki Matsui and catcher Jorge Posada. Johnny Damon (sore back) was on the shelf yesterday until the ninth. Gary Sheffield has taken his wall-wrecking bat to Detroit. The Yankees have four starters on the disabled list and four rookies in the rotation. Mariano Rivera has blown two of two save opportunities.

"I don't think there's any revenge," said Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis. "We can't worry about last year. This is a whole new year. We're just playing for 2007. We can't worry about the past."

Sox manager Terry Francona and his players are right to minimize the magnitude of this weekend. There's another series in New York next weekend, 15 more games against the Bombers after tonight, and five-plus months of baseball still ahead.

But there's a lot of satisfaction in the Red Sox owner's box and in the baseball ops office on Yawkey Way. The Red Sox were humiliated by the Yankees here last August. The five-game sweep effectively ended the Sox' season, inspired Manny Ramírez to stop playing for the rest of the year, and exposed flaws of logic and gaps of talent in the House of Boston Baseball.

The Yankee sweep taught the Sox to be aggressive, not passive, when it comes to player acquisition. It reminded them that you need lefthanders in your bullpen when you play New York. Most of all, it embarrassed the front office into spending competitively with the Yankees. No more crying about the Yankee payroll -- not when you charge the highest prices in baseball, not when you regularly raid the rosters of the A's, Marlins, and Diamondbacks of the world.

And so the Boston winter of 2006-07 yielded the best pitcher money could buy, a $70 million right fielder, and an expensive new shortstop. The bullpen was padded with veteran (read: expensive) help. The "building for the future" mantra was junked in favor of the late George Allen's "future is now" philosophy.