I love the title of this article Also, congrats to the Yanks for setting a new major league record for consecutive games with an error (18 and counting)

KICKIN' SOME MASS.

The Yankees have not won a game in 2009 vs. the Red Sox, and yet may have one of the most important victories in years over their main rival.

That is because the Yankees got Mark Teixeira. And the Red Sox didn't.

Teixeira has upgraded the Yankees' offense and -- don't ignore this -- been the key in transforming the defense from wretched to respected.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox did not add a player whose presence would have made David Ortiz's plummet more tolerable.

Boston appeared the frontrunner for Teixeira last December, but the Yankees entered the bidding late to win the switch-hitter. Had the Red Sox prevailed, they wanted to move Kevin Youkilis to third and use Mike Lowell as a trading chip.

Lowell has been fantastic this year. Still, the Red Sox probably need to add lefty production. They will likely have to use assets -- notably from a deep reserve of pitching prospects -- to find it. And without Teixeira, the Red Sox could feel greater pressure to retain free-agent-to-be Jason Bay, who has performed like an MVP this season.

Clearly, the Red Sox were imagining a five-year-plus phase in which Teixeira, Dustin Pedroia and Youkilis would form their daily backbone. So it has been a loss for the Red Sox. Obviously that makes it a gain for the Yankees.

And it is about time.

Because when it has come to Yankees-Red Sox personnel decisions, Boston has enjoyed an upper hand that has led to championships, even when it has lost out on a player that both rivals value.

The Red Sox went after Alex Rodriguez, did not get him and won the World Series at the end of that season, anyway. They lost out on Jose Contreras, who never blossomed into a front-of-the-rotation stalwart for the Yankees. They lost out on Carl Pavano, and that was an exhale of relief you just heard from New England.

And when it has come to plucking from the same venues, the Red Sox obtained Curt Schilling from the Diamondbacks, the Yanks Randy Johnson; the Red Sox bought Daisuke Matsuzaka from Japan, the Yanks Kei Igawa; the Red Sox landed Josh Beckett from Florida, the Yanks Pavano; the Red Sox acquired Bay from Pittsburgh, the Yanks Xavier Nady.

The Yanks needed to stem that trend. That is why Brian Cashman became such a pest to the Steinbrenner family during the offseason. He knew the offseason philosophy was starting pitching, starting pitching and more starting pitching. Yet Cashman constantly let ownership know he wanted Teixeira despite a budget that precluded such a move if the Yanks -- as they hoped -- got CC Sabathia and another big starter such as A.J. Burnett, which was the plan.

Cashman told Teixeira in a Washington, D.C., meeting that he wanted the first baseman, but that he was a backburner issue to pitching. Teixeira, however, was represented by Scott Boras, and Boras is a master of employing patience with his best free-agent clients to gain a true rendering of who the suitors are and what they are willing to do.

Once the Yanks landed Sabathia and Burnett, Cashman returned to ownership one last time. He pledged to trim elsewhere, beginning with the removal of a $12 million bid for Andy Pettitte. After that he made essentially this pitch: Teixeira is exactly what the Yanks need, his kind of prime-age positional difference maker will not be available again soon in free agency and -- vitally -- if the Yanks don't sign him, Boston almost certainly will.

"Thankfully, I kept saying it and thankfully they (ownership) let me keep mentioning (Teixeira's) name without throwing me out of the office," Cashman said. "I knocked on that door enough and Hal finally authorized an offer."

The Yanks got their man for eight years at $180 million. After a slow start, Teixeira was second in the AL in homers, fourth in RBIs and turned hits into outs at first in a way not seen by the Yanks since Don Mattingly (sorry, Tino, this guy is better).

And if he wasn't doing all of this for the Yanks, Teixeira almost certainly would be haunting them in Boston. That is one big victory in the Rivalry.

Source: NY Post