The Boston Red Sox opened the 2010 season Sunday night with a 9-7 come from behind victory over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Yesterday, Josh Beckett signed a 4-year $68 million dollar contract extension to remain with the Red Sox through 2014. Despite a seemingly positive start to the season, Michael Felger is still not satisfied.

Felger: "For all the pink hats opening night must have been great. With the Neil Diamond and little Josh Sacco running out before the game and reciting the speech from the miracle on ice. All the casual pink hat fans must have turned to one another and gone, "well jeez isn't this great?" However, for all of us normal people it was way over the top and way too much. It was like the Red Sox were producing a Red Sox vs. Yankees TV show and not a Red Sox-Yankees game. As usual they went way too far over the top with the Pedro thing and how long that lasted. It was like please, come on, there's a game being played here people. I wonder if because it was the opening game for all of Major League Baseball and it was on Easter Sunday if it made the Red Sox go even further than they normally do? From strictly a baseball perspective though Tony, last night was a good win for the Red Sox. It was one of those games a good team can point too later in the season as an L that turned into a W. Almost like one of those games that you steal from another team."

Mazz: "I agree with you on most of what happened at Fenway before and during the game last night, but I disagree on Pedro. I thought that was awesome Mike. I enjoyed it, the fans enjoyed it, and Pedro definitely looked like he enjoyed it. I mean yeah, he milked it for all it was worth and was having a great time out there, but I had absolutely no problem with Pedro coming out last night. I thought that was a unique idea and it wasn't forced at all. On the whole, whether you liked all the pomp and circumstance aside from the game, it was a perfect night for the Red Sox. That was a damn good win against a very good team and against CC Sabathia no less. To be down 5-1 in the middle portion of the game against the Yankees ace and come back like that is something that most didn't feel would happen at the time. The difference in the game to me was the strength of the two bullpens. The Red Sox bullpen help up much better than the Yankee pen and the bridge to the closer was Daniel Bard last night and he did a terrific job. There was no question the difference in the game was the bullpen."

The Collin-tary: With the Red Sox offense scoring nine runs on opening night, five of which came against Yankee ace CC Sabathia, the Nation seems more optimistic about the new look lineup. While I agree the Sox stole this game from the Yankees and that the bullpen played an important role in the win, the turning point came in the sixth inning.

The key for the Red Sox was getting into the Yankee bullpen early enough to allow themselves time for a comeback. Yankees manager Joe Girardi was forced to turn to the likes of David Robertson, Demaso Marte, and Chan Ho Park in the middle innings. The Red Sox offense feasted off the Yankees middle relievers. Robertson blew the save for Sabathia by allowing a game tying single to Adrian Beltre. After the Yankees took the lead once again, Park surrendered a game tying two-run homer to Dustin Pedroia, and Marte gave up the lead for good on a wild pitch.

Sabathia had just nine first pitch strikes in 23 batters faced. The Sox walked only twice against the Yankee starter, but forced him into a bevy of deep counts. Boston hitters fouled off 12 Sabathia pitches while having only seven swinging strikes. Most importantly, the Boston lineup forced Sabathia to throw 104 pitches to get 16 outs. Sunday night should be the blueprint for the Boston offense this season. Consistently battling deep in the count and forcing high pitch counts early is the recipe for success for the 2010 Red Sox.