The Futility Infielder

Three outs from a pennant. Three outs from a pennant with the best closer in postseason history on the mound. Three outs from a pennant with the bottom of the order due to bat. Three outs from a pennant via a four game sweep of their bitter rivals, one which they could celebrate on said rivals' home field. Three outs from a pennant that New Englanders would rue for at least another 86 years or until their next World Championship, whichever comes first.

The Yankees had the Red Sox right where they wanted them on Sunday night, up 4-3 in Game Four of the ALCS going into the bottom of the ninth, on the brink of popping the bubbly and heading to their seventh World Series in nine years. But Mariano Rivera couldn't close the deal. Thanks to a leadoff walk to Kevin Millar, a stolen base by pinch-runner Dave Roberts and a single by Bill Mueller, the Sox tied the game before Rivera could even record an out. The Sox had wriggled free.

By the end of the inning it was Rivera who needed to wriggle free. A sac bunt and an error by first baseman Tony Clark, who had made a pair of sterling plays earlier in the game and had driven the potential pennant-winning run, got Mueller to third with only one out. Mo settled down and blew Orlando Cabrera away on three pitches that went up the ladder. He looked to pitch around Manny Ramirez via an unintentional intentional walk, going 3-0 on the Boston slugger before throwing two quick strikes. Ramirez finally worked a walk and then David Ortiz popped up to end the threat. A tense ballgame, one as diametrically opposite as the one-sided slugfest which had proceeded it, headed to extra innings.

So much had come before. Sox starter Derek Lowe, a man who'd spent the better part of the season wondering aloud about his place in Boston and scarcely lived up to his ability (a 5.42 ERA), a man pummelled by the Yanks in his last appearance against them, a man who only got to start in this series when Curt Schilling went down with an ankle injury and scheduled starter Tim Wakefield volunteered to take one for the team the night before, pitched his heart out.

Looking nothing like the guy in the catalog, Lowe jumped all over Yankee hitters by throwing first-pitch strikes to nine of the first ten he faced. He dodged a bullet in the second inning when a Hideki Matsui leadoff double and a pair of infield grounders led to Godzilla being thrown out at home by a mile. He looked to close out the third after Derek Jeter took a strike in his two-out at-bat.

But Jeter battled Lowe for seven pitches, spoiling good inside ones that a more patient hitter might have taken for strike three. Finally he slapped a single off of third baseman Mueller's glove and into leftfield. Watching this, I turned to my fianceé and remarked that it was Lowe's first bad pitch of the night, and let's see if he makes another mistake. Lowe did on his very next pitch, one which Alex Rodriguez drove over the Green Monster to give the Yanks a two-run lead.

On the other side, Orlando Hernandez had been his usual wily self. Relying on location and control while lacking velocity, he bobbed and weaved through four shutout innings, allowing only one hit and two walks while striking out five. But he threw four straight balls to Millar to open the fifth, then fell behind Mueller before inducing a fielder's choice. A walk to Mark Bellhorn and another fielder's choice -- Johnny Damon beating out a double-play grounder -- put runners at the corners with two outs. Orlando Cabrera climbed out of an 0-2 hole to single through the right side for the first Boston run.

Yankee pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre paid El Duque a visit after Cabrera's hit, while Tanyon Sturtze and Felix Heredia readied themselves in the bullpen. But Joe Torre chose to trust in his starter rather than his shaky relievers, even after the ever-dangerous Ramirez walked to load the bases. Finally, Ortiz drilled a two-run single to give the Sox only their second lead in the series.

It wouldn't last long -- sixteen minutes according to the Fox announcers. Continuing to spray hits around Fenway Park, Matsui slammed a one-out triple to deep centerfield, chasing Lowe, who got a healthy ovation for his efforts to stave off the long New England winter. Mike Timlin came on in relief, carrying a cheekful of chaw and the disdainful sneer of the well-traveled relief pitchers the world over. Central casting did well when they sent him over.

Timlin battled Bernie Williams to a full count but could only look on as Williams' infield squibber eluded the bare hand of Cabrera. Tie ballgame. A wild pitch sent Williams to second, and Jorge Posada drew a walk. Another pitch that escaped from Sox catcher Jason Varitek sent Williams sprinting for third, but a great peg and fine block by Mueller nailed him. But Ruben Sierra slapped an infield single to keep the inning alive, and then Tony Clark hit another one -- again to Sox second baseman Mark Bellhorn, this time on the edge of the grass in rightfield -- that sent Posada home with the go-ahead run.

Twelve outs from a pennant, the Yankees sent Tanyon Sturtze to the mound in relief of El Duque, and if you had uttered that sentence anytime before September 15, you might have been laughed out of the country. Sturtze pitched two stellar innings, allowing only one hit which was quickly erased by an inning-ending double play.

Meanwhile, with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Sox manager Terry Francona summoned closer Keith Foulke -- a brilliant move given that the Sox could ill-afford to give up another run. Foulke escaped the seventh with a ground ball and a nine-pitch strikeout of Williams, and kept the Yanks at bay through their half of the ninth. Not to be outdone in the early-summoned-closer sweepstakes, Torre brought in Rivera to face the heart of the order in the eighth inning. Ramirez singled to lead of the inning, the first time in the postseason that Mo failed to get the leadoff hitter, but Ortiz struck out, and then both Varitek and Trot Nixon grounded out to end the threat.

With the score tied into the tenth, the Sox brought on Alan Embree, normally a lefty specialist. Facing four switch-hitters in a row, it wouldn't have mattered much, as he worked through the tenth allowing only a Sierra single. The eleventh was a trickier matter which required a group effort. Miguel Cairo singled to open the inning, Jeter bunted him over (ugh), and after A-Rod lined out, Gary Sheffield went to 3-0 before being intentionally walked. Embree departed. Mike Myers came on and threw four straight balls to Matsui to load the bases, and then he too departed. With Wakefield up in the pen yet again as Francona burned through his options, Curt Leskanic came in and got Williams to fly to center to end the inning.

Tom Gordon had shut the Sox down in the tenth and eleventh, pitching as well as he had all postseason. But for the twelfth, with the game creeping past the five-hour mark and this reporter slumped in the couch with one eye covered, Torre summoned Paul Quantrill. The suddenly hittable setup man showed why he's fallen so far in the depth chart; Quantrill yielded a single to Ramirez, and then Ortiz blasted a walkoff homer -- his second of the postseason -- over the rightfield wall which gave the Red Sox a 6-4 victory, a stay of execution, a shred of dignity, and a glimmer of hope. No team has come from down 3-0 to win a seven-game series, but the Sox no longer trail 3-0, they're down 3-1, a deficit from which several teams have rallied.

A mere 15 hours after Ortiz's hit, Boston sends Pedro Martinez to the hill on four days' rest in the hopes of continuing their season at least one more game. Martinez will need to go deep to cover for a weary pen that has thrown 20.2 of their 37 innings pitched in this series. It's a tall order for a pitcher who tends to fall off dramatically after 100 pitches, but an inevitable one with Boston's back still to the wall. If the Yanks are patient, they should come out on top. As a New York Post item noted today, "On four days' rest this year, Martinez has worked 111 1/3 innings and posted a 4.77 ERA with a .265 batting average against. On five days' rest, he's worked 99 2/3 innings and managed a 2.98 ERA with a .202 batting average against."

Though they'll have to recover from being so close they could taste the champagne, the Yanks bring back the nearly-perfect Mike Mussina. The Moose won't have the luxury of a deep pen either, with Gordon and Rivera likely limited to only a single inning of work apiece. Up 3-1, you still have to like their chances at making the World Series, but those chances got just a bit slimmer than before after Sunday night's marathon. Eight runs, three games, whatever... I've said it before: no lead is safe.