A Banner Weekend: 3 of 4

Before the series in the Bronx began on Thursday night, I was hoping the Red Sox could simply split the four games. It would have made me very happy.

But the Red Sox went one better than that. They came within an eyelash of a four-game sweep. Brandon Workman's wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth gave New York its only win of the weekend.

So be it. At least they hung two blown saves on Mariano Rivera, giving him 16 lifetime against the Sox. Will Middlebrooks homered off Rivera to start the ninth and tie the game. Once again, the Sox show no quit, even having Rivera three outs from a save.

The Sox exposed the faulty New York Yankees pitching, and battered them to the tune of 37 runs, 10 of which were home runs. It was an impressive display of power.

The pitching wasn't that great. Jake Peavy and Jon Lester turned in pretty good efforts, John Lackey had a hard time after the Sox gave him a nine-run lead on Saturday (after all the trouble he's had getting a W he gets a pass from me), and Felix Doubront got hit hard once again on Friday night. He will be skipped this week, as Clay Buchholz will make his long awaited return in St. Pete against the Rays on Tuesday night. Ryan Dempster goes Wednesday, and Jake Peavy on Thursday.

The Red Sox are now 7 1/2 up on the Rays, who won this afternoon in Seattle.

The news on Jacoby Ellsbury isn't wonderful, but it is not a disaster. He has a compression fracture in his foot, but John Farrell is hopeful he will return during the regular season. Here's more from Extra Bases.