1. The Yankees and Red Sox are constantly competing against each other and judging themselves by one another. In spring, there were questions asked if you would rather have Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester in your rotation or Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy now, and perhaps add Joba Chamberlain later. Well, Lester pitched a no-hitter on Monday night to join a club that Buchholz entered last September. The no-hitters are merely symbolic. Plenty of ordinary (or worse) pitchers have had magic moments for a single day. And we should note that Buchholz is now on the DL with a broken fingernail and a 2-3 record and 5.53 ERA. But we should also note that Lester is 3-2 with a 3.41 ERA, and at age 24 putting his bout with lymphoma well in the past. The Red Sox have gotten a level of usefulness or better in the rotation this year out of Buchholz/Lester that the Yanks have not with Hughes/Kennedy. It is still early. Maybe that changes over the long season. But right now we are talking big advantage to Boston in yet another area in which the two teams are in competition.

2. Remember how the Yanks used to throw no-hitters or perfect games at home during their championship run (Dwight Gooden, David Wells, David Cone). More and more, it feels as if the championships and magic are all switching to Fenway.

3. Here is one other item to remember: Wasn’t the big story in spring about how detrimental to the season it would be for the Yankees to have innings caps for Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain? Well, it is detrimental. Because the pitchers are going to get nowhere near the approximately 140 innings for Chamberlain, 160 for Hughes and 180 for Kennedy. At present Chamberlain has 18 1-3 innings, Hughes 22 innings and Kennedy 37 innings (combined between the minors and majors). In fact, the bigger problem for the Yankees is going to be this: If they keep the same philosophy next year of protecting young arms by adding just 30 innings annually, well, then aren’t we back to square one. Notably the Yanks are now admitting Chamberlain might not be transitioned to be a starter during the season. That leaves it difficult to see how Chamberlain could be raised above 140 innings in 2009. Thus, the Yanks are then wondering if they need to begin with him in the pen again as a way to regulate/limit innings.