A-Rod beat out Ortiz for MVP?

Monday night's game between the Yankees and Red Sox marked Johnny Damon's return to Fenway for the first time in a Yankee uniform. While that story received all the publicity, the game played out like nearly every Boston-New York game of the last several years. The game stayed tight until the bottom of the eighth until some timely hitting broke it open. Not surprisingly, the big blow was dealt by Yankee killer David Ortiz. He continues to show that designated hitters deserve to be considered in the MVP race. There has not been a single player in the recent Boston-New York rivalry to have such an impact as Ortiz. While I certainly still believe that players who play the field, especially athletes who do it as well as A-Rod, deserve extra credit in the MVP voting. However, Alex "I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn in an important at-bat" Rodriguez simply does not have the clutch prowess that Ortiz brings to the table.

Aside from all the normal story-lines behind this intense rivalry, a few other things surfaced. As already mentioned, David Ortiz continues to provide the big blast for Boston and terrorize the Yankees. The notable part of this at-bat is the failure of lefty specialist Mike Myers to get his job done. He left an 81 mph fastball on the inner half of the plate to David Ortiz with two on and already facing a one run deficit. That quickly become a four run hole and it was ball game Red Sox. The Yankees acquire Mike Myers to deal with lefties in the division, most notably Ortiz, and he has been successful until last night. It is not a good sign that his first real test resulted in failure. Even though Aaron Small took the loss, his return is a huge boost to the bullpen. He looked strong in his 2 1/3 innings and will be a valuable long reliever. Tanyon Sturtze continues to struggle, giving up the single that brought in the game winning run. For the winning Sox, the Yankees got their first taste of new closer Jon Papelbon. He looked strong in a perfect ninth and did not seem phased by facing the Yankees.