Red Sox Conquer Evil Empire

I'm going to skip the obligation to write a paragraph that it is only April and I should take the success of the Red Sox with a grain of salt -- or a few Bud Light's. I'm not buying it this year, the Red Sox are flat out better than the Yankees and that is not going to change from May-September. The Red Sox beat the Yankees 7-4 today. The Yanks allowed three Boston homeruns (to David Ortiz, Alex Cora and Manny Ramirez) and they could not take advantage at the plate facing Boston's No. 5 starter, Julian Tavarez. It is getting so bad that Joe Torre's job could be in serious trouble. Would you be shocked to see him fired tomorrow? Or if he walked away before Steinbrenner can pull the trigger? I give the Yankees the advantage at the plate. They field an All-Star team: Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano and whoever plays firstbase (Doug Mientkiewicz or Josh Phelps). But the Yankees do not have the starting rotation or the bullpen to beat the Red Sox, contend in the American League or win a World Series. Pitching is the ultimate equalizer for any lineup and the Sox have the pitching. Their top four starters -- Curt Schilling (3-1, 3.27 ERA), Josh Beckett (5-0, 2.48), Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-2, 4.36) and Tim Wakefield (2-3, 2.59) -- have been brilliant and they will soon replace Tavarez with Jon Lester. The setup crew of Hideki Okajima, Brandon Donnelly, J.C. Romero and Mike Timlin have been great in getting the game into the hands of Jonathan Papelbon. And the Sox bats aren't anything to overlook. David Ortiz is off to another great start. Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew are fitting in just fine in the Boston lineup. Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis and Jason Varitek are all chipping in with the bat. Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia are helping too, drawing walks and getting on base. The one real negative Boston bat has been Manny Ramirez (.202 BA, 3 HR, 13 RBI, .314 OBP, .315 SLG, .629 OPS). But I'm not worrying about Manny this early. He started off slow last year too and ended up with this stat line: .321/35/102/.439/.619/1.058 in only 130 games. So forget what month it is. The Red Sox have faced the Yankees twice this season and have dominated them both times. They swept the Yanks at Fenway last weekend and took 2-of-3 this weekend. The games might not have been blowouts but the Sox have asserted themselves as the better team. The Sox are 16-8, first place in the AL East. The Yankees are 9-14, last place in the AL East, 6.5 games behind Boston. There is a long way to go but April will not be an abberation in 2007. The Sox are on top and the Yankees are in serious trouble.