Red Sox, Despite Denial of Media and Fans, Are Overmatched by Yankees - Period

I cannot understand why so many Red Sox fans are in denial about the limitations of this team - when compared directly to the 2009 New York Yankees. I see the Red Sox as one of the better teams in baseball, but, they are NOT EVEN CLOSE to the Yankees right now. Not even close.

All one has to do is watch the teams' head-to-head games. It's not a fluke that the Yanks have won nine of the last ten games vs. the Red Sox. They're simply much better. Earlier in the year, when the Sox won eight in a row vs. the Yanks, that Yankee team was more flawed and missing A-Rod for a chunk of that period. Now, it's painful to watch these old rivals play because the dynamic - instead of being close and competitive and suspenseful - has evolved into a mismatch over the past few months. The Yanks, with Phil Hughes excelling as their setup man and C.C. Sabathia being an incredibly consistent ACE for most of the year and seven or eight players hitting 20 homes runs or more - and on - and on, have the best team in all of baseball - and, clearly the big favorites to win the World Series.

So, why do fans and writers around Boston persist in a state of mass denial about the mismatch between the Yanks and the Sox? Why do they come up with arguments and theories that amount to poppycock about how the Sox pitchers are SO, SO much better than the Yankee pitchers even though, in recent series, most of the Yankee pitchers have simply outperformed our pitchers? Why do they pretend not to see the enormous gap in talent between the Yankee hitters and the Red Sox hitters? The Yankee lineup can consistently score runs against good pitchers while the Red Sox have often been shut down by an array of "average" pitchers - including rookies - this year. The baseball writers and fans here have held on to this parochial, narrow-minded, naieve view that the Sox are equal to the Yanks - even if the stats and what one sees on the field shows that is false.
I wish all this were not so. I hate the Yankees and I'm sick of everything about them, including all the credit they get for simply having an All-Star team that plays like All-Stars --- but, this year, it's going to take some outstanding pitching by some team to stop this Yankee juggernaut. Maybe the Angels could do it with pitching, hitting and a lot of steals. Maybe the Phillies could get pitching and have hitting that keeps them close enough to win.

The only way the Red Sox have a chance vs. the Yanks - if they face them in the ACLS again - is with near-perferct pitching from Jon Lester and Josh Beckett - with one great game from Clay Buchholz or Daisuke Matsuzaka mixed in. However, Beckett, unfortunately, has not been in top form for the past month and a half. His mechanics got messed up (or he has secret injury)and he's much more hittable. Meanwhile, after a line drive hit Lester in the knee on Friday, Sept. 25th, he may be impacted negatively somehow by the opening of the playoffs, although the signs are good. The point is the Yankees' hitting line-up is historically top-notch. It is even more of a powerhouse than some of the other All-Star lineups the Bombers have fielded in recent years!
This means there is almost no margin of error when you play the Yankees, who, uncoincidentally, are about to win their 100th game any day now.
The Red Sox, by contrast, has often featured Jason Varitek, who's batting about .140 for the second half. And virtually all of our hitters - except Victor Martinez - are less consistent and more streaky than the Yanks. I won't go on illustrating it Any observer cannot deny the Yankees' hitting superiority. The Yanks, literally, do not have one weak hitter in their lineup!
What's amazing is how so many sportswriters and fans go to extraordinary lengths to explain how the two teams are virutally "equal" and to claim our pitching is so much better and our bullpen is better -- blah, blah, blah. It's all BS. C.C. Sabathia is the only ace who overwhelmingly shut down the other team twice in a row - which is what he just did by allowing only one hit today over seven innings after coming close to that domination in his previous win vs. the Sox. Beckett, meanwhile, has been erratic against the Yanks. Lester has been good, but, before he got hit by the line drive Friday night, and had half-decent stuff, he was still getting knocked around. The Yankees can win games multiple ways - as they did in the first two games of the current series against the Red Sox. The won the first 9 - 5 with hitting and good pitching and then today, they won with a masterpiece by Sabathia and not as much clutch hitting, 3-0.
I want the Red Sox to beat the Angels in the ADLS, but, while I'm watching, I know I'll have sort of ambivalent feelings. Why? I'll feel that the Angels have a better chance to beat the Yankees, who they did well against again in 2009, than the Red Sox will. I'm tired of watching an overmatched edition of the Yankees beat up on the Sox. It feels like going back in time to the late 1990s.
I just don't get why so many baseball writers and fans can call the Red Sox what they are against the Yankees: Big Underdogs. There's nothing wrong with being Underdogs. I'll root for them against the Angels - as underdogs against them too. And telling the truth about your team can be more therapeutic than living in fantasyland.