E-Mail This Article to a Friend The Red Sox cannot escape the specter of the team in the mirror BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Sometimes in the post-season, fans who have been following a team all season long find themselves introduced to a squad that seems utterly unfamiliar to them. Yankees fans experienced that upon the completion of game one of their team’s ALDS with Minnesota, and found themselves thinking: "Who are those guys out on the field bumbling around and making errors en route to a 3-1 loss at home?" It happened with Braves fans in their NLDS opener against the Cubs: "We thought our team was the top-hitting team in the National League this season (.284)? How in sam hill did the godforsaken Cubbies hold our beloved Cherokees to just a single run on three measly hits?" Giants fans: "How on earth are we giving up nine runs (in game two) to this anonymous Marlins team?"

Red Sox Nation, though, was more than familiar with the team that showed up and dropped a mind-numbing 5-4 12-inning defeat to the Oakland A’s in the opener of their best-of-five AL division series. Sure, they hadn’t seen that version of that team in a while, but once the bullpen imploded in the bottom of the ninth, and the team proceeded to go silently into the morning three innings later, it was as if Sox fans had run into a long-lost acquaintance.

He-yy-yyy-yyyy! I know you! Where ya been, stranger?

Maybe it was the fact that the Olde Towne Team had not played a game against a team above .500 for nearly three weeks. Maybe it was the fact that the bullpen had briefly solidified itself and closed ranks to become — egads! — reasonably effective. Maybe it was that the team’s offense had provided such solid leads nightly down the stretch that the opportunities for meltdowns and blow-ups had been few and far between.

Whatever it was, Boston fans may have forgotten the Can’t-Look Kids of this past spring and summer in favor of the vastly more entertaining Comeback Kids, but apparently the original bunch was never really too far from view. And there they were again, showing up like the proverbial skunk at the garden party. Sox fans cringed in their Barcaloungers in Thursday’s wee hours as Sox manager Grady Little decided to lift set-up man Mike Timlin — after a 1-2-3 13-pitch eighth — and brought in alleged closer BK Kim with a 4-3 lead in the ninth.

Yep, they said: "I know you. You’re the ones who turned my hair so gray this summah. You’re the ones who made the term ‘bullpen by committee’ the closest thing to a four-letter word that is not in the Webster’s Curse Word Dictionary. You’re the ones that I had forgotten were the sole reason that I had misgivings about the Sox winning the whole chalupa."

And now you’re back. From outer space. I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face.

Another relative stranger who showed up about the same time was an equally unwelcome stink-critter: you remember Mr. Lack of Clutch Hitting, don’t you? Soitanly!

Oh sure, there was the ghost of Dave Henderson in the mortal body of Todd Walker that first night, smacking two home runs among his four hits and driving in three of the four runs. And there was Mr. Ol’ Reliable, catcher Jason Varitek, who reached base four times and bashed a homer of his own to provide for the fourth (and final) Sox run that night. Unfortunately, the rest of the game-one roster was MIA offensively: Johnny Damon (1-for-5), Manny Ramirez (0-for-5 with five baserunners stranded), David Ortiz (0-for-5), Bill Mueller (1-for-5), and Trot Nixon (0-for-3). Sure, this gang was part of the juggernaut that established a number of major-league hitting records this season (along with a league-best 26-16 record in one-run games after going 12-22 in one-runners last season), but on this night, they were dead ringers for the squad that got shut out by Detroit back on July 13.

Nope, they weren’t playing Tampa, Cleveland, or Baltimore anymore. These were the playoffs. Maybe the Sox thought that their hot-hitting style would continue no matter who the opponent was, but the Oakland pitchers through the series’ first two games have shown that even the majors’ number-one-hitting pack of wolves can be silenced by the lambs. And so it is that the Sox trail in the ALDS, 2-0, heading home to Fenway over the weekend, and have scored just one run in 14 innings since Walker’s second dinger of the game in the seventh inning on Wednesday/Thursday. And the only Soxers to claim credit for an RBI thus far are the aforementioned Walker, Varitek, and yesterday’s sole run-producer, Johnny Damon. Other than that trio, the balance of the line-up went a combined 5-for-33 in game one and 4-for-24 in game two against A’s aces Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. As a team, the majors’ number-one offense is batting .228. Strangely, Oakland is batting .194 as a team — which is not necessarily surprising given its roster — but that light-hitting squad has a couple of wins in its back pocket as it heads back East.

Indeed, the Sox’ starters haven’t been too bad themselves through the first two games. Pedro Martinez (7IP, 3ER, 3H, 4BB) and Tim Wakefield (6IP, 3ER, 3H) acquitted themselves nicely, but unfortunately, Sox fans expected shutout ball from Pedro — who had accumulated an 0.82 ERA in September and was well-rested — and didn’t count on Wakefield giving up a five-spot in the second inning of Thursday’s contest.

That’s not to say that the Red Sox cannot come back and take the next two games at Fenway, thereby sending it back to Oakland for a winner-take-all afternoon game on Monday. Indeed, if Derek Lowe can come back effectively from his 42-pitch relief stint in game one, and — the big if — John Burkett (who gave up seven runs in one-third of an inning in his most recent start) can steal game four against Hudson (on three days’ rest), then Martinez has another chance to propel the Sox to the next level, despite his 130-pitch outing the other night.

But their best chance has gone up in smoke via those haunting figures from those calamitous days of yore: bullpen breakdowns, a dearth of hitting, and defensive liabilities. In the opener, the Sox committed two errors, along with a hit batsman. In Thursday’s game two, there was another error — a critical one by hero-turned-goat Walker that allowed two runs to score — along with two more HBPs and a passed ball. Several other plays that could and perhaps should have been made — buenos días, Seňor Ramirez — were not, and while they did not show up in the scorebook as miscues, those what-ifs still extended innings. Oakland, meanwhile, has played flawlessly in the field, and has also successfully employed a suicide squeeze and a hit-and-run in taking the commanding 2-0 lead.

And all those who were complaining that Boston might not even get a chance to meet the hated Yankees in the ALCS may see their fears fulfilled — not because the Yankees go down to the Twins, which may still happen, but because their own team reincarnated their season-long bugaboo and confounded all the prognosticators by losing to the $50 million payroll Oakland A’s.

There may yet be a happy ending for the 2003 edition of the Boston Red Sox. But unless three straight victories are in the books by the time the sun sets over the Bay Bridge on Monday, it’ll be just another chapter in the storied tale of a team that can’t shake its past, its inherent identity — and its ghosts.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com