E-Mail This Article to a Friend The Sox live to see another day BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

If I’d had my druthers, I’d hold off publishing today’s column until Tuesday, when a little more would be known in the high drama locally known as the AL Championship Series. By Tuesday, the damn thing could be over and done with and the postmortems could begin, along with the finger pointing and bloodletting.

So as we write, New Englanders and New Yorkers are still trying to sneak in a nap at their desks to make up for the five-hour marathon (on top of Saturday night’s 4:20 debacle) that kept them up until nearly 1:30 on Monday morning. David Ortiz’s 12th-inning home run broke the 4-4 tie and rescued the Red Sox from the ultimate humiliation — a four-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees — and allowed the local nine to play at least one more time. By the time you read this, the whole enchilada may well have been settled, but right now the Pinstripers still lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1, and who knows whether the final blow will be dealt in the chilly confines of Fenway Park or will unmercifully be inflicted back at the Red Sox’ personal house of horrors — otherwise known as Yankee Stadium.

After Saturday night’s 19-8 shellacking that for all intents and purposes left the Sox for dead, most members of Red Sox Nation were probably ready to turn away for the duration of the winter. After all, there is nothing more humbling than having your team face a do-or-die situation — in this case a situation where it would trail, 3-0 — and turn in the most putrid performance imaginable on the national stage. Nineteen runs surrendered by one of the league’s top pitching staffs to the 15th-ranked offense in baseball? And this coming just four nights after giving up 10 in the opener of the series?

But stink up the joint the Sox did, getting outscored by a 13-2 count from the third inning on to fall (irreversibly?) behind in the battle for the pennant.

Given the Halloween-season horror that it produced on the local front, that would have served as a fitting final expletive uttered in these parts toward the baseball gods who deigned to give New England sports fans their long-desired grudge match against the Bombers.

But no. Game Four was on the calendar, and had to be played.

And Sox fans tuned in, expecting the worst (especially with the inconsistent Derek Lowe on the mound). Could the Red Sox make it easy on their fans and go down quietly? It might not have been surprising given the circumstances, but instead Lowe turned in a decent outing, and the bullpen — excoriated for its Saturday-night collective "performance" — also reverted to somewhat acceptable form and held New York scoreless from the sixth inning on. In so doing, it gave the heretofore punchless wonders, the Sox offense, the opportunity to garner a smidgen of dignity and unleash some late-night redemption.

And just when Red Sox fans thought they were out, they were pulled back in by the theater unfolding late into the frigid autumn night in the Fens. Those locals hypnotized or devoted enough to stay with the lengthy affair were rewarded at 1:23 a.m., when Ortiz muscled Paul Quantrill’s offering into the right-field bullpen and staved off elimination for another night.

All through Sunday night’s match-up, Fox Sports did everything it could to keep Sox fans glued to their seats or sofas. The hand-drawn signage at the park was everywhere, urging the faithful to "Believe," and the various crowd shots of forlorn and/or praying Fenway patrons was incredibly over-the-top, but not unexpected given the network’s fear of seeing their cash-cow battle-of-the-titans end in four quick contests. And though Boston’s commuter-rail system had closed down for the evening and the last subway (supposedly) left nearby Kenmore Square at 12:30, Sox loyalists stayed put in Updike’s lyric little bandbox, and the joint still seemed full to capacity when Ortiz delivered the game-winner five hours after the first pitch.

Of course, those eventual exultations in retrospect were merely a temporary salve to those who witnessed the team’s meltdown the evening before. How to explain it? Well, Sox manager Terry Francona’s conversation to the bullpen that night had to sound something like this:

TF: "Ramiro [Mendoza]? I know you’re a set-up man used to working in the sixth or seventh, but I need you to take over here in the third inning [bases loaded, no outs]."

And then:

TF: "Curtis [Leskanic]? I know you did mostly closer duty in KC and have been a late-innings guy even for us, but you’re my first choice to take over here in the fourth for Mendoza [leadoff hitter on, no outs]. He hit a guy, so he must be out of gas."

A three-run homer to Gary Sheffield moments later, and the following dialogue likely occurred:

TF: "Tim [Wakefield]? I know you’re usually a starter, and scheduled to go tomorrow in game four, but I’ve just wasted two of my prime relievers in the last 10 minutes, and even though I should have stuck with them a while longer given the obvious fact that this is gonna be a slugfest, why don’t you take over as my long man and give me a few good innings?"

Next thing you know, three innings later it’s 13-6 in the seventh, and obviously the time for....

TF: "Alan [Embree]? I know you’re usually my eighth-inning bridge to [Keith] Foulke, but I want to give you some work, and I want to save that lefty wizard, Mike Myers, for an important spot, so see what you can do in this nine-run laugher. And try to keep it close!"

Whoops. In one-third of an inning, two inherited runners score plus two more of his own, and Embree’s evening is complete.

And let’s avoid talk of the lefty wizard’s eventual appearance (two runs, five hits in two comparatively "effective" innings) altogether.

Meanwhile, the Sox had the Yankees’ Javier Vazquez (in relief of starter Kevin Brown) on the ropes, then let him off the hook from the fourth inning on, and the Yanks’ former second starter (along with Quantrill and Tom Gordon) were allowed to throw meatballs for the game’s final six innings without consequence, and only a Jason Varitek two-run homer in the seventh prevented the Sox from getting goose-egged from the 6-6 third-inning tie onward.

If this is how a team should perform when their "backs are against the wall," then I’m covering the wrong sport. Sure, Boston’s pitchers were utilized in a head-scratching fashion, but does that excuse not one pitcher contributing a scoreless outing?

After that whupping, which set numerous ALCS records, it would have been perfectly expected if the Red Sox rolled over and died, but that has not been their MO this past season, and just as when they made a game of it and nearly overcame an eight-run deficit in the late innings of game one, the team rallied two different times on Sunday — including the tying run in the bottom of the ninth off of future–Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera — and ultimately gave New England baseball fans one more reason (and night) to believe that this could be the year. Still, it had to be worrisome for local fans to see the team flail away against the likes of 35-year-old (uh-huh) Orlando Hernandez and the human batting-practice machine, Tanyon Sturtze, until the late-game heroics. As Boston hardball fans well know, nothing can be done the simple or logical way with this team, and that’s why it would be foolish to write them off without substantial proof.

So can the Yankees lose three more games in a row and cough up the pennant? Seems unlikely, and it’s never been done in the sport’s long and illustrious history. Maybe a flawed team like Oakland could blow a 3-0 lead, but it seems a bit far-fetched to imagine an explosive line-up like the Yankees’ being shut down for three-straight nights after posting a 19-run outburst.

One would have you believe that given the fact that the two teams have met 49 times over the past 18 months (with the Yanks’ having won 25) and the extensive scouting and video preparation implemented behind the scenes, that the Red Sox would better know how to pitch to guys like Hideki Matsui (.550, two HRs, 10 RBIs), Bernie Williams (.333, seven RBIs), and Jorge Posada (.357, five walks). These guys’ stats during the regular season were nowhere near the numbers they’re putting up now, and Boston’s staff was expected to be able to muffle the Pinstripers’ bats.

And what about the sub-par efforts turned in by leadoff man Johnny Damon (1-for-18, .056, one RBI), Trot Nixon (.235), Kevin Millar (.200), and Mark Bellhorn (1-for-14, .071)? It’s not like these guys have never before seen the offerings of guys like Mike Mussina, Jon Lieber, El Duque, and the bullpen boys.

So it’s easy to close the book now on the 2004 Red Sox and say that they don’t have a chance to overcome this imposing deficit and capture even a bit of respectability en route. They had their chance, and the Yankees simply played and pitched better.

And if Bronson Arroyo or Lowe or even Wakefield were starting game five at Fenway on Monday, then the funereal mood would likely shroud the Hub as it waited for the inevitable. But it’s Pedro Martinez — a man who could be pitching for a place in the history books and most likely even for his 2005 contract and beyond, so there’s a lot at stake for the Dominican ace. And should he win, then the Sox head back to the Bronx in the exact same position they were in last season (and this time with Curt Schilling, and not John Burkett on the hill for game six), and then all bets are wisely off.

Whatever happens — or has happened already by the time you read this — it’s safe to say that while the Red Sox may have disappointed their loyal legions worldwide, they have their grips on the fandom, and keep pulling ’em back in.

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