Sox Take Down Yanks, 6-3

There has been a pretty nice theme this year with the Red Sox and Clay Buchholz. Whenever he takes the mound, you expect good things to happen. Fortunately for Boston, the trend continued tonight with their series opener from the Bronx against the first-place New York Yankees. Buchholz hurled 7.1 innings, yielding 3 runs on 8 hits. Not as stellar as we've seen him, but it was plenty good enough on a night that David Ortiz blasted his 24th homer of the season and Ryan Kalish belted his first. In the bottom of the 8th inning with the Yankees threatening, Jacoby Ellsbury made a fantastic diving catch in centerfield, keeping the bombers at bay. Despite the great diving catch, Ellsbury continued his struggles at the dish, going 0-for-4.

Don't look now, but the Red Sox are just 5 games back of the Yankees and 4 games back of the Rays. With still 3 more games in this 4-game set with New York, the Red Sox can really make their push to gain some ground in the division. It will all fall on the things I've mentioned before. If the Sox pitchers can consistently perform to their skill levels, then the team will be fine. When players start underperforming and the overall confidence dips, that's when Fenway becomes a haunted house approaching October.