Okay, they’re tied with the Bostons. But still….you’ve got to start somewhere. The Yankees look like a completely different team than when they lost five straight to the Sox earlier in the season, and the Red Sox look not so hot. (That’s what’s great about a 162-game season, right? Mood swings.)

David Ortiz went 0-4! (Though you’ll find no mention of that in the Globe, which has become the official David Ortiz cheering section.

He struck out on three pitches in his first at-bat, the last an 89 mph fastball that Slowey left up and over the middle of the plate.

Yesterday Nick Cafardo wrote an entire column about Ortiz without once mentioning the s-word.

Instead, it’s filled with self-aggrandizing lines like, “Before the game, I told David Ortiz…..”

Ugh.

There’s no question in my mind that Ortiz is costing the Red Sox games, and now that the Yanks are right up there in first along with them, it’s a bigger deal than it used to be. How long can Terry Francona stick with him? Or is time to stick a fork in him, because he’s done?

For Yankee fans, it’s win-win. Unless Theo Epstein goes out and finds some great young replacement….