I was watching the Phillie/Met game, but flipping to the Yankee/Sox game too.

At a coaching/umpire clinic given a few years ago, a former MLB coach showed us how to watch a baseball game backwards, and literally made us watch a game from the 27th out to the first. The point was that while we focus on the developments late in a game, games are just as much decided in the early innings as they are in the late innings.

Early in the Yankee game with the score 0-0, NY had runners on first and second, nobody out and Cabrera failed to sacrifice successfully, which would have put runners in scoring position with one out and the Yankee ace on the mound. After the failed bunt a fly ball was hit to left and Swisher was inexplicably doubled off second. I thought the failure to advance the runners was as key to the outcome of the game as any other play in the game.

Also, Swisher is starting to live up to his reputation as a great guy with respectable power, but a bit of a bonehead between the foul lines. And Johnny Damon just wanted to hide after dropping a routine fly in Fenway.

But don't despair Yankee fans. Take care of the Mets this weekend and the Phillies will try to stifle the Sox.