Mike Celizic

Now, if only Asante Samuel would show up at Patriots’ camp and declare himself ready to take on the season, life in Beantown would be so beyond perfect someone would have to pass a law against it.

As it is, the Pats are, as usual, one of the pre-season favorites to return to the Super Bowl; the Celtics, with Kevin Garnett aboard, move straight to the head of the class in the NBA's Eastern Conference; and now the Red Sox, with the addition of Eric Gagne, have all but Yankee-proofed their position atop the AL East.

Things were pretty good in Boston on Monday, when the Garnett deal was announced. But on Tuesday, the good news went stratospheric when the Red Sox reacted to their failure to pry Jermaine Dye away from the White Sox by working the Gagne deal.

Every time we write about pennant races, we always say that anything can happen, if only because history has taught us that. So, yes, something still could go wrong with the Red Sox’s campaign to end the Yankees’ nine-year ownership of the division.

But let’s face it, getting Gagne is a major coup, the kind that for 50 or 60 years the Yankees always seemed to pull off. It’s probably an even better move than getting Dye would have been, because while offense spins the turnstiles, pitching wins championships.

And the way the game is played today, the pitching in the final three or four innings of the game is probably more important than what a team throws out there for the first five or six innings. All you had to do was look at the trade deadline wish list of the teams that are still in contention for playoff spots. Nearly every one of them wanted relief help.

Some got it, but none enter August with what the Red Sox have. Already boasting probably the best set-up man in the game in Hideki Okajima and one of the best closers in Jonathan Papelbon, Boston added Gagne, who has been pitching recently like the great closer he was before elbow and back surgery laid him low.

Gagne’s a formerly great closer who many teams were trying to get as a set-up man. On the Red Sox, he’ll probably be a bridge. And if he’s as good as his last several outings suggest he is, that means if you don’t have a lead on Boston after six innings, you’re not going to have one after nine.

The Red Sox entered the last day of July with a team ERA of 3.71, which isn’t just the lowest in the American League but the lowest in all of baseball. Considering that National League ERAs are historically about a half run lower than those in the AL, which has the DH to fatten offensive production, that’s a truly scary number.

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The Yankees have a middle-of-the-pack ERA of 4.37, seventh in the league.

Combined with an offense that produces 5.68 runs per game, their run differential is +1.31, which is awfully good. But Boston’s differential is +1.45 — even better.

And now Boston has Gagne. It’s not good news for the Yankees, because the addition of Gagne destroys the New York game plan.

The Yankee starting pitching is just okay, with only two pitchers, Andy Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang who regularly get deep into games. But it doesn’t need to be that great, because the Yankees will be glad to spot you a couple of runs, then beat the snot out of your bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings, rendering your closer — should you have one — superfluous.

Boston has been a problem because of Okajima and Papelbon. With the addition of Gagne, the Red Sox have taken away what the Yankees do best.

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New York would have liked to have had bullpen help, but they also had a pitifully weak bench. Their big move was sending erratic set-up man Scott Proctor to the Dodgers for utility infielder and pinch hitter Wilson Betemit. It gives Joe Torre a bat for late-game situations, but it doesn’t nearly match what Boston pulled off.

But this just seems to be Boston’s week and year. The Pats are powerful.

Garnett’s a Celtic. And the best pitching staff in the major leagues just got even better.

It’s just too bad about those Bruins.

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