In last night's loss to the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and specifically Andy Pettitte, was victimized by Jacoby Ellsbury in the most exciting play in baseball - the straight steal of home.

Ellsbury's steal highlighted the Sunday night game, and, in addition to his home run off of AJ Burnett the day before, demonstrated just how more athletic the Red Sox have become, having several multi-dimensional players with good combinations of power and speed.

Most people blamed catcher Jorge Posada and Pettitte, although Posada did warn Andy prior to the steal. But some blame has to go to Joe Girardi and the other coaches on the bench. Knowing that Ellsbury was on third AND the struggling JD Drew up at bat, they should have demanded that Pettitte go from the stretch. 

Another factor was that third baseman Angel Berroa was so far off the line with the left handed Drew up at bat, which allowed Ellsbury to get a bigger lead. With the speedy runner at third, there is no way Berroa should have been that far away from the line.

A good field manager knows where each of his players should be positioned prior to each pitch. The defense should not be the same during each pitch within an at bat for the same player, they should adjust positioning to the count and where the ball is to be pitched. 

In addition to the speed factor (5 SB's in the series), the Sox also banged out 10 doubles and 5 Home runs, including the big, game tying 2 run blast on Friday night by Jason Bay off of Mariano Rivera. The Red Sox won the game on an extra inning home run by uber baseball player Kevin Youkilis.

Besides Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, who is a man among boys in MLB, I would take Kevin Youkilis over any other position player in baseball. While Youkilis probably can't throw a football, probably can't dunk a basketball or hit a three pointer, and definitely couldn't serve and volley with Roger Federer.

But Youkilis is a true baseball player, doing anything he can to help his team win. Drawing a lead off walk, hitting a game winning homer or playing both first and third base last season with equal aplomb, he exudes the term gamer.

Another reason why the Red Sox have been better than the Yankees over the last half decade - unselfish players.