Just another 9-5 Red Sox domination of the Yankees on the strength of seven innings from Beckett (4-0 vs. New York this year) and two-run homers by David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jason Varitek. The Sox are 11-3 against the Yanks this season.
Personally, I was looking for a return to the dustups of the old days. I wanted something along the lines of Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk kicking and gouging as they rolled around the dirt behind homeplate. I wanted a return to the golden days when Bill Lee got his shoulder popped out of his socket, then referred to Billy Martin’s Pinstripe Gang as “Yankee brownshirts.’’
I wasn’t thinking we needed fans in the center-field bleachers hurling darts and cherry bombs at Curtis Granderson (Mickey Rivers dodged those when he played in Fenway), but I’d be OK with a reenactment of Pedro Martinez shucking Don Zimmer to the turf, or Varitek stuffing his catcher’s mitt into the face of Alex Rodriguez.
Face it, people: There hasn’t been a Yankee-Red Sox brawl since those golden days of 2004, which also happens to be the last time the rivals faced one another in the American League Championship Series.
We had a taste of the good old days earlier this summer when Yankee manager Joe Girardi got peeved at the sight of Ortiz flipping his bat after hitting yet another homer against the Yankees. Hard-working scribes did some deep research after the episode and determined that the Yankees had not hit Ortiz with a pitch over a span of almost 700 plate appearances. (Contrast that with Derek Jeter, who has been hit 24 times by Boston pitchers since he came into the big leagues.)
Armed with that information, CC Sabathia drilled Papi the next night and Ortiz blamed the media.
The chippy stuff resumed in earnest Tuesday at Fenway. John Lackey almost hit Granderson on the hands in the first inning. Sabathia retaliated by hitting Ellsbury on the elbow in the bottom of the first.
Then we had Francisco Cervelli’s excessive celebration when he homered off Lackey. Lackey drilled Cervelli the next time he came up, which emptied the benches and got Yankee coach Larry Rothschild tossed.
