It was an absolutely beautiful day in the Bronx last night . . . for Red Sox fans, that is.
As Alex predicted, Curt Schilling turned in what was easily his best performance of the year, retiring the first eight Yankees in order and holding them hitless through 3 1/3 innings. A towering upper deck shot by Jason Giambi eliminated the no-hitter with one out in the fourth, but that would be the only hit the Yankees would get until a two-out Robinson Cano single in the seventh, and only run the Yankees would get until a lead-off Matt Lawton walk came around to score in the eighth.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, equalled the two runs the Yankees would score on the day before the Yanks even got a chance to hit. With two outs and an 0-2 count, David Ortiz battled Shawn Chacon for a ten-pitch walk. Chacon then got to 2-2 on Manny Ramirez before giving up an absolute bomb into Monument Park.
Chacon worked around a pair of baserunners in the second and another in the third, but couldn’t escape the fourth, which John Olerud led off with a solo homer into the upper deck in right. Buell Mueller and Gabe Kapler followed with singles and that was a wrap for Chacon, who needed 77 pitches (just 55 percent strikes) to get his nine outs. Felix Rodriguez came on in relief and surrendered a single to Tony Graffanino, batting lead off in place of the sore-shouldered Johnny Damon. With Dale Svuem playing it conservatively (!), that loaded the bases. Rodriguez then got Edgar Renteria to hit a chopper back to the mound, and fired home for a 1-2-3 double play, but his throw sailed low and away, where John Flaherty, starting for the sore-shouldered Jorge Posada, made a great play to simply get the one out at home.
With Ortiz due up, Joe Torre then went to Al Leiter, who got Ortiz to fly out to left, only to have Hideki Matsui lose the ball in the sun and drop it for an RBI single. Singles by Ramirez and Nixon followed to make it 7-0. Then Jason Varitek hit a double play ball to short, which Jeter flipped to Cano, who pivoted and launched a hail mary pass into the stands behind first to plate another run. Leiter then got the sixth out of the inning by getting Olerud to fly out to center.
To his credit, Leiter stayed in the game, pitching five more innings and allowing just one more run, thus saving the bullpen for today’s must win series finale.
With yesterday’s loss, the Yankees are four back in the east with just four games left against Boston. If they lose today, it’s over. To make matter’s worse, Cleveland, Oakland and the Angels all won yesterday, dropping the Yankees into a tie with the A’s, a game and a half behind Cleveland in the Wild Card chase.
At this point in the season, every game is a must win, every loss devastating, but today’s confrontation between Randy Johnson and Tim Wakefield just might be the most important of them all.
