scha·den·freu·de/ ˈSHädənˌfroidə/ Noun: Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune (From the German language)WOW - go figure, the Germans have a word that means " Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune "...shocker.
While I have nothing but admiration and affection for the people of NY, when it comes to the NY Yankees, it is a wholly different situation.
Guess the three game sweep of the NY Yankees in the Bronx sent a sure statement of where things stand right now....Keep it up RED SOX...Pour it on boys....Make'em count.
For those keeping score, the BOSTON RED SOX have gone from season starting cellar dwellers to AL EAST Powerhouse.....AWESOME.
For Yankees, it's Mission: Failed
June, 10, 2011 - espn.go.com
The Yankees had several objectives heading into Thursday night's game against the Red Sox, and perhaps the least important was the simple act of winning the game.
Along with that, they needed to send a message to the Red Sox, who over the past three series in the Bronx have pretty much turned Yankee Stadium into Fenway Park South, they needed to regain a share of the AL East lead, and perhaps most importantly, they needed to salvage some measure of dignity out of a three-game series in which they appeared not only over-matched, but intimidated.
And oh yeah, they needed to put the fear of God into David Ortiz.
Ultimately, they accomplished none of those goals.
They waited through a 3-1/2 hour rain delay to play this important and perhaps symbolic game, and by the time the final pitch was thrown, shortly before 2 a.m. New York time, had failed dismally in every single one of their objectives.
See David Ortiz smiling? Not what the Yanks wanted.
Not only did they lose, 8-3, to be swept at home by the Red Sox for the second time this season -- and have now lost nine of their last 10 meetings with Boston here dating back to last Aug. 9 -- their attempts to get some measure of revenge on Ortiz for showing them up after hitting a home run Tuesday night and at Josh Beckett for using their lineup as ducks at the wrong end of a shooting gallery turned out to be laughably impotent.
Oh, sure, CC Sabathia finally plunked Ortiz with a pitch -- after both Derek Jeter (leading off the game) and Alex Rodriguez had been hit by Beckett. But he neither hurt Ortiz -- the pitch caught the hefty lefty's heavily-padded right thigh -- nor scared him very much, since he smiled right after being hit and then followed with two hits, a single and a two-RBI double, in the Red Sox's seven-run 7th inning that blew the game open.
The Yankees were staked to a 2-0 first inning lead when Curtis Granderson, who has been missing in action the past half-dozen games, launched a Beckett offering into the right-field seats with Jeter aboard. The Yankees could not manage another hit until Jorge Posada's single in the fourth and finished with just four hits all night.
Meanwhile, Sabathia cruised for six innings and then was dismembered in the seventh, allowing six hits including the two by Ortiz, and RBI triple by Jed Lowrie and an RBI double by Mike Cameron.
And after his double, this is how chastised Ortiz was by being hit by Sabathia: He clapped his hands on second base and then clawed at the air with his left hand in a show of defiance.
Maybe that's why after the game, both Sabathia and Joe Girardi played it coy about their rather lukewarm form of retaliation. Asked if it was a case of an ace protecting his teammates or simply a pitch that got away, Girardi said, "I don't know. I didn't throw it.''
Sabathia, who did throw it, said this: "It was a two-seamer and it kind of got away. I've only been throwing it a couple of years. I can't really control it.''
What the Yankees can't seem to control right now is their own destiny as long as the Red Sox are involved. Needing to send a clear message that they are capable of at least beating Boston in their own ballpark, the strongest impression the Yankees left is of a team that is going to need help from someone else if they have any hope of getting past the Red Sox in the postseason. Because if the Yankees can't do the job --and right now, it does not appear that they can -- they're going to have to find someone else who can.
"Well, there’s still a lot of baseball to be played until we see them again,'' said Girardi, referring to a schedule that keeps the teams apart until Aug. 5 at Fenway. "It’s not how you wanted it to end tonight. We felt pretty good about ourselves when we came home from the West coast trip and now we lose three games at home. I still think we’re a very good team. We didn’t play like it these last three days, but we'll be back.''
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