Red Sox vs. Yankees (May 15, 2011)

Red Sox (19-20) @ New York Yankees (20-17)

SP - Jon Lester (4-1, 2.96) vs. Freddy Garcia (2-2, 2.61)

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. David Ortiz, DH
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Jed Lowrie, SS
8. Carl Crawford, LF
9. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C

Three Strikes:

1. After shutting down the Yankees last night for the second time in as many chance in 2011, Josh Beckett is 3-1 with a 1.75 ERA for the year.

Beckett has bounced back from a terrible 2010 season due to being completely healthy and using his curveball, changeup, and cust fastball effectively against opponents who were just sitting on his four-seam and two-seam fastballs a year ago.

It can't be stated enough how important a healthy and dominant Beckett means to the success of the Red Sox.  Along with Jon Lester, he gives the team a true ace at the top of the staff.  When you throw in Clay Buchholz, the Red Sox have as good of a top three than any team not named the Phillies.

2. Rich Hill should remain in the Boston bullpen, even when Bobby Jenks and Dan Wheeler return from the disabled list.

Hill has been an excellent lefty option for Terry Francona.  In four appearances he has struck out six and allowed just four baserunners in posting an ERA of 0.00. 

His success could mean that Hideki Okajima's time in Boston is coming to a close.

3. There has been a lot of great things to write about Adrian Gonzalez during his recent tear at the plate.  This 14-for-36 run over his last eight games has included seven homeruns and 13 RBI to push his season stat line to an incredible .325/9/34/.962.  It already looks like the price to acquire Gonzo - top prospects Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo, and Reymond Fuentes and a 7-year/$154-million contract - was a bargain.

Here is another interesting note on Gonzalez, who hit a clutch three-run homer off of CC Sabathia last night to extend the Red Sox lead to 6-0 in the seventh inning. 

After being beat by Sabathia in his earlier at-bats, Gonzalez decided to channel Ichiro Suzuki's hitting approach and started his swing early to catch up to Sabathia's fastball.  It amazes me that a hitter as good as Gonzalez would be willing to make such an adjustment during the game.