Mike Napoli hit a fly ball to right field in the top of the 9th inning last night that would have been a home run in just one ballpark in America: Yankee Stadium. And that's where last night's game was played, and the home run gave the Sox a huge 2-1 win.
Live by a short porch, die by a short porch.
Those stupid Fox cameras that follow players to the dugout after they hit home runs (I'm still trying to figure out their purpose) caught Napoli calling Masahiro Tanaka "an idiot" for throwing him a high fastball on that pitch. Tanaka shook off his catcher twice, and had struck out Napoli twice on splitters. It was a 1-2 pitch. So why didn't Tanaka throw a splitter?
He is an idiot for doing that.
But naturallly, the NY Daily News is attempting to stir up crap, with their back cover talking about "payback" on Napoli for his "idiot" comments. If the Yankees are smart, they let this go. This is a struggling Red Sox team, that has scored just two runs in two games in this series, both on solo home runs. The last thing you want to do is wake up a team in the throws of an enormous offensive slump. And besides, a lot worse is usually said in dugouts that these snooping cameras don't pick up. And I haven't heard anyone with New York screaming about "payback."
Jon Lester was magnificent last night, going eight innings, allowing just one run. He didn't allow a hit until the sixth, and earned his ninth win and Koji Uehara pitched a perfect ninth for his 17th save.
Last night's game marked the midway point of 2014, and the Red Sox are a disappointing 37-44, 7 games back in fourth place.
The Sox are 3-6 on this 10-game road trip, and it ends tonight with John Lackey on the hill, and the Mookie Betts Era will begin, as he is expected to be in tonight's starting lineup.