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BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
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In the end, it didn’t come down to whether you were sitting in the exact same spot as you were one night earlier. It didn’t come down to whether you were wearing your lucky Red Sox cap or T-shirt. It didn’t matter which superstitions you employed or what rituals you followed to ensure that the outcome of Thursday night’s game seven in the Bronx turned out reasonably the same as game six did a night earlier. It just didn’t matter. And, to paraphrase Bill Murray’s Tripper Harrison in Meatballs, "And even if we win, if we win, HAH! Even if we play so far above our heads that our noses bleed for a week to 10 days; even if God in Heaven above points his hand at our side of the field; even if every man, woman, and child joined hands together and prayed for us to win, it just wouldn’t matter because the Yankees will always win because they’ve got all the players and the Red Sox are cursed! It just doesn’t matter if we win or if we lose. IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!" Of course, the Yankees’ 11-inning 6-5 victory over Boston in the ALCS’s deciding game mattered, and matters, to a helluva lot of people. And while those people will forever discuss whether the Red Sox really are under a curse, there are legitimate reasons why the Sox blew leads of 4-0 and 5-2 en route to last night’s heart-wrenching loss in Yankee Stadium. Here’s one: 0001000. That was the Red Sox line score following Kevin Millar’s solo home run in the fourth inning, which gave Boston its fourth run. After that, numerous opportunities were squandered, including a first-and-third, no-outs situation that unfolded after Millar’s dinger. Yankees ace Mike Mussina, who had never before appeared in relief during his major-league career, came on and struck out Jason Varitek on three pitches and then induced Johnny Damon to hit into a 6-3 double play. Indeed, the only other run that the Red Sox could muster the rest of the game would be David Ortiz’s solo shot off David Wells in the top of the eighth. (As a side note, has there ever been a pitching line-up — outside of an All-Star game — like the one the Pinstripers threw out against the Sox last night? Roger Clemens, Mussina, Jeff Nelson, Wells, and Mariano Rivera? Right there you have three surefire Hall-of-Famers at nearly the height of their careers, all pitching in the same game. And I certainly won’t mention the ka-ching! factor. Wouldn’t be relevant, would it? Wouldn’t be prudent.) Despite the fact that Mussina had just pitched Monday and Wells had gotten the win on Tuesday, both made appearances for Yanks skipper Joe Torre out of the bullpen when Clemens faltered. Sox manager Grady Little’s handling of his relievers was markedly different, but we’ll get to that later. It’s irrefutable that New York was able to get solid relief work for those seven critical innings, and while it’s hard to blame the vaunted Sox offense for getting shut down by the likes of the Bombers’ collection of All-Stars, it can’t be ignored that the Boston bats went to sleep from the fourth inning on. Furthermore, like it or not, Damon went 0-for-5, and Todd Walker, Nomar, Manny, and Bill Mueller each went 1-5 — those are among Boston’s most potent regular-season bats, and they went a combined 4-for-25 (.160) in the season’s biggest game against a bevy of hurlers who on paper shouldn’t have had their best stuff. The Yanks-Sox showdown eventually came down to a game seven, so everything that preceded that contest could conceivably be thrown out the window as far as relevancy goes. But the fact remains that Boston got exactly zero victories from its top two starters, Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe. Martinez got the loss in game three and a no-decision in the finale, while Lowe lost both of his starts, though he was hardly putrid in either game. The Sox got to game seven at all in large part because of knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who tossed two gems (in games one and four) but perhaps saw all that fine work overshadowed by the game-winning gopher ball he surrendered to third baseman Aaron Boone in the 11th inning on Thursday. The other component that got the Sox to this series was the work of the bullpen, which had given up just one run heading into the decisive game. Yes, you heard it right: the Sox bullpen, which had the epithet "much-maligned" attached to it throughout the season, turned out to be the team’s utmost strength — at least after the game-one meltdown in the ALDS in Oakland. And therein lies the irony: throughout the season, when it came time to call on the bullpen, Grady Little never hesitated to summon a committee member, even though the pen’s struggles were well-documented. But on Thursday, when Martinez was obviously tiring and had already given up a couple of tape-measure shots to slumping Yanks slugger Jason Giambi, the Sox manager did hesitate to call on the bullpen — even though it had solidified itself in recent weeks and was as close to a sure thing as it had been all season long. At this point, with a 5-2 advantage in the most critical situation in the most important game of the season, Little decided to leave Martinez in against three successive left-handed batters (admittedly, two were switch-hitters) in the eighth inning. Each one, plus Derek Jeter before them, had had two strikes rung up on them by Martinez before delivering key hits. Left-hander Allan Embree, who would have been the logical choice to face Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, and Jorge Posada, was brought in only after the proverbial horse was out of the barn and the Empire Staters had rallied to tie the game at five. Embree and Mike Timlin continued their fine post-season work, but as Red Sox fans already knew, it was just a matter of time before the inevitable ending would come. It wasn’t a matter of how it would happen, just when. Fans of the Olde Towne Team will forever wonder what would have gone down if the game had extended into a 12th inning, since Rivera, having already thrown three full innings in relief, would likely have been pulled, and Torre would have had to choose among Jose Contreras (who was bombed the night before), the mediocre Gabe White, and the highly combustible Jeff Weaver. Little still had Wakefield, who could have gone as long as it took, plus Bronson Arroyo, Todd Jones, Jeff Suppan, Derek Lowe, Scott Sauerbeck, and closer Scott Williamson. A lot of good it did him. By a strange coincidence, both Dream Match-up World Series contestants — the Sox and the Cubs — seemed to have their clinching games in the bag, boasting three-run leads with one out in the eighth inning. For both teams, though, tragedy struck in quite disparate ways from that point on, and each ultimately went down to defeat in heartbreaking fashion. No one likes to be known as a know-it-all, and I frankly hated to be so prophetic when I wrote a week ago that "[i]n [Cubs fans’] minds, there is no talk of next year. After all, next year would seem to be here, and the good Lord above wouldn’t take the team this far just to break their hearts in the final reel, now, would He? "Well, Sox fans could have some stories to tell about the Almighty’s post-season sense of humor ... and who are Sox fans to tell Cubs fans to, you know, be prepared for the worst? "Let them enjoy the ride while it lasts, but as Sox fans well know, nothing can ever be taken for granted when it comes to the Boston Red Sox or the Chicago Cubs. Nothing." So instead of the Armageddon Fall Classic between baseball’s two most proficient losers, FOX-TV now has its worst-nightmare World Series: the Yankees and the Marlins. Has there ever been a Series match-up with two such sets of spoiled and entitled fans? We all know about the Pinstripers and their cuddly supporters, but that franchise’s 26 titles and tradition are in stark contrast to the history of the Marlins, who know something about buying championships (see 1997) and fickle fans (regular-season attendance: approximately 10,000 per game). It makes you wonder about the baseball gods and why they would put together a World Series match-up that not only omits the two teams who wrote arguably the most uplifting chapters in the sport’s history this past season, but that also pits two teams that are at opposite ends of both the payroll ($180 million versus $49 million) and talent spectrum? And why does a nondescript guy like Aaron Boone (a .176 hitter in the ALCS) become a hero and guys like Tim Wakefield and the Chicago foul-ball interferer become goats? Makes you wonder. Tune in to the World Series on FOX if you like, but for fans in New England, the real Fall Classic just ended, and for Sox fans, it was another classic fall. Again. "Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com
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