After a long weekend of constant taunting and heckling from Red Sox Nation, Alex Rodriguez put it all behind him with one swing of the bat. As the rain fell in the 9th inning, A-Rod took an 0-2 pitch from closer Jonathon Papelbon over the right field wall to break a 5-5 tie and put the Yankees ahead for Mariano Rivera. Rivera, who received only his seventh opportunity to save a game this season battled with David Ortiz before getting him to hit a towering shot to Bobby Abreu in right field. He would then strike out Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell to close out the game and seal the victory. For New York, it was their third win in the last four games, and their fourth win in the last six against Boston to pull the season series to 7-5 in favor of the Red Sox. With their last six to play at the end of August and September, the Yankees needed to make the most of this series and they came up big taking two of three to cut the standings deficit by a game to 12.5 back.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox traded shots in Game 2 of Rivalry Series 4 on Saturday but Boston delivered the knockout in the seventh taking advantage of a New York meltdown for an 11-6 victory. In a game highlighted by Yankee miscues and injuries, none was more demoralizing than news that Roger Clemens is suffering from a fatigued right groin, an injury that has lingered for the past few seasons, and will delay his much anticipated debut as savior to the Yankees struggling staff.

The benches cleared and the 2007 rivalry rebirth came to a head in the ninth inning with the Yankees holding on to a commanding 9-5 lead when Scott Proctor came inside on Kevin Youkilis prompting a turn towards the mound. The Yankees second ejection of the game confirmed their desire to shake things up and fuel a fire that hasn’t been seen in the clubhouse yet this season. And as the dust settled at Fenway Park, the Yankees pulled out a much needed win to take the series opener from the division leading Red Sox in front of a hostile crowd donning buxom blonde female masks, an obvious reference to the newly appointed Stray-Rod.

FINALLY! The Yankees take a series from the Red Sox in the 2007 Rivalry Series with a win in the finale, 8-3. One loss away from dropping to 11 1/2 games back in the standings, the Yankees responded to a Game 2 loss with some much needed run support to back a brilliant performance from Andy Pettitte. Ha ha Curt Schilling! You really showed your age and your temper looking like the whiny infant you portray on your blog through 6 innings of frustration on the mound. The Bombers brought their bats and eight through two delivered collecting 11 of the Yankees 16 hits. Derek Jeter did keep his hit streak alive pushing it to 18 straight and Hideki Matsui and Doug Mientkiewicz went deep to secure an almost must-win for the ailing pinstripes.

The daily turn of the New York tides raised the panic level back to code red as the Boston Red Sox sent the Yankees back to double digits in the standings with their sixth win in eight meetings this season. Mike Mussina surrendered all seven runs getting touched for 10 hits through 6.2 innings of work all the while looking beyond his years with fastballs hitting speeds that felt not much higher than his age. However, after a first inning mistake to Manny Ramirez, Mussina settled in to pitch quite well getting consecutive inning ending double plays to make it into the seven inning (the fourth time a Yankees starter has managed that feat in the last five games, and yes, that is something to mention this season) before giving up three runs upon his departure. After an aggressive Game 1, the Yankees lineup went cold, blowing multiple bases loaded opportunities and leaving 20 total on base throughout the game. Derek Jeter may have extended his hitting streak to 17 games but without the wins to show for, the Yankees captain is hardly thinking of his personal successes this season. What he has to be wondering is how the hell can the Red Sox throw their number five, Julian Tavarez and his gaudy 5.59 ERA, against an All-Star lineup and limit them to 3 hits through 5.2 innings. Or how Manny Ramirez and his .240 batting average can tear down the left field wall with another one of his over-dramatic homerun celebrations around the most humbled diamond in baseball. Or how Big Slopi Ortiz makes a mockery of the shift and pads his ridiculous career numbers against the Yankees. Yes, as long a season as it has been in the early goings you can bet a hit streak will be the furthest thing from New York minds as the Yankees look for Andy Pettitte to save face in the series finale against media heartthrob Curt Schilling. Let’s go Yankees! We need a win.

For as hard as it is to listen to the painful commentating of Rick Sutcliffe, I actually found myself in agreement with him as the New York Yankees delivered a much need win against the division leading Boston Red Sox. As the game played on, Sutcliffe pitched the first piece of good color commentating since his departure from the mound when pointed out the return of the swagger the Yankees lineup hasn’t boasted during their most recent slide. As expected, the Bombers plan to run, run, run against Tim Wakefield opened the doors for the hitters, but the aggressive flair that followed around the diamond carried some much needed relief to fans gripping the panic button. The 6-2 victory against the Red Hot Sox couldn’t have come at a better time, where coming into the game the Yankees were looking up to a 10 1/2 game deficit in the standings. The win also marked their first back-to-back victory since early May after avoiding the Subway Sweep at Shea Stadium this past weekend.

The Red Sox handed New York their 8th loss in 9 games taking the series finale and leaving the struggling Yankees in last place to end April for the first time since 1985. Making his second start of the season, Chien-Ming Wang, took his second consecutive loss after turning in an uncharacteristic performance. The groundball induced outs typical to Wang’s outings were overshadowed by the longball as David Ortiz and Alex Cora hit homeruns that would prove to be too much for the Yankees offense to overcome.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for the slumping New York Yankees, Julio Lugo’s first inning line drive off the leg of Jeff Karstens sent another blow to the struggling rotation. Karstens who was making his second start of the season, will make his second trip to the disabled with a fractured right fibula. But what looked like another misfortune to the Yankees recent struggles became an opportunity for Kei Igawa to regain his lost spot in the rotation. As Igawa emerged from the bullpen for his first relief appearance of the season, he promptly drew hope getting David Ortiz to ground into a double play. Over the next six innings, Igawa pitched a gem, holding the Red Sox lineup to two hits and no runs as the Yankees snapped their seven game losing streak with a much needed performance by a New York starter.

Rivalry Series 2 began in New York on Friday as the Yankees played host to the first place Boston Red Sox. It was the debut of Dice-K at Yankees Stadium and the last of the anticipated matchups against former countrymen in Hideki Matsui. But for the fans of New York, the matchup was the furthest thing from their minds as the struggling Yankees came home carrying a 6 game losing streak. The team looked to their best starter, Andy Pettitte to right the ship and bring New York back to their winning ways. But on another cold night in April, the Red Sox literally walked to victory over struggling pitching staff, closing the game out of reach in the ninth in an 11-4 win that featured two bases loaded walks.

Say it ain’t so, a sweep in the opening rivalry series of the 2007 season at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. As bad as that sounds, what was more discomforting was the back-to-back-to-back-to-back homerun performance started by Manny Ramirez in the third inning, a record first time in Red Sox history. But as the dust begins to settle on an unmemorable weekend, I have a feeling Yankees fans have a little more to smile about than most would think.