Your Morning Dump... Where the theme is "Good at-bats"

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“We’re going to fight," Pedroia said. “You look 1 through 9, we’re going to put good at-bats together. Everyone’s going to go up there and grind out at-bats. If we do that consistently, we’re going to be a really good offensive team.

“That’s why everyone was kind of shocked when they doubted our offense. I know we don’t have the guy hitting 40, 50 home runs. Not a lot of teams do. We’ll try to find ways to score runs other ways."

Globe - Pedroia, Sox outshine Yanks

“Personally, we all have faith in ourselves, we know we have a good-hitting team,” said Youkilis, who finished his night 3-for-4 with two RBI and three runs. “I don’t think we have to prove that to anyone but ourselves. Just go up there and have the same philosophy and the same approach that a lot of these guys have had on different teams in different parts of the league. We showed tonight that we put together some good at-bats.”

Herald - Youkilis, Pedroia take offense

Remember what a scrappy, dirt-dog bunch the 2004 Red Sox were? If the 2010 Red Sox are going to excel this season, they might have to out 'dirt-dog' that squad. If the new guys (Scutaro, Cameron, and Beltre) can follow the lead of Pedroia and Youk, it just might happen.

Let's start the counter on how many times we hear "good at-bats" associated with this Red Sox offense. I set the over/under on 6-thousand.

On Page 2, the Yankees middle relievers sucked worse than the Sox middle relievers.

(Photo: Christopher Evans/Boston Herald)

Chan Ho Park left a pitch too far over the plate and Dustin Pedroia [stats] deposited it in the second row of the Monster seats to tie the game at 7.

“With Chan Ho, one pitch really changes the whole ballgame,” Posada said. “That pitch to Pedroia really was supposed to be a little farther inside.”

Park then surrendered a double to Kevin Youkilis [stats] before yielding to Damaso Marte, who provided no relief.

The left-hander’s first pitch to David Ortiz [stats] scooted past Posada, allowing Youkilis to move to third on the wild pitch. Later in Ortiz’ at-bat, a high fastball popped out of Posada’s glove and rolled far enough away for Youkilis to charge in with the game-winning run on the passed ball.

Herald - Yanks open to debate

Dave Robertson, Park and Marte combined for 3 runs in 1.1 innings. Scott Schoeneweis, Ramon Martinez and Hideki Okajima tallied 2 runs in 2.1 innings. Edge: Red Sox.

The rest of the links:

Globe - Sox come roaring in | Champs wounded, but how badly |Youk comes out swinging | Beckett didn't have command performance | Trio made some positive first impressions | Herald - Plenty of fight at night | Granderson eases way into heated rivalry | Yanks open to debate | Season's Greetings from Sox | Over the Monster - Youk, Pedroia bring Sox back | WEEI - About that Sox offense |Story behind Sox 'Miracle' speech kid | 10 Thoughts on Opening Night | Youk post game presser |