The Futility Infielder

It was too good to be true. Through six innings of the American League Championship Series opener, the Yankees, cast in the unfamiliar role of underdogs, led the Red Sox 8-0. Not only had the vaunted Sox offense, the best in the majors for the second season in a row, been held in check, no Boston hitter had even reached base. Not only had Mike Mussina pitched up to his ace reputation, he had been perfect -- no hits, no walks, no nothing.

And not only had Sox starter Curt Schilling failed in his stated desire of "making 55,000 people from New York shut up," but he had been knocked out after three innings, much to the boisterous Bronx crowd's delight. Fighting an ankle problem that affected his ability to push off the pitching rubber, he lacked both velocity and command. Even with his offending ankle numbed by a painkiller shot, he appeared uncomfortable, huffing and puffing and repeatedly tying his shoe between pitches. On this night, his mouth had written a check that his body could not cash. Cue the violins.

The Yanks had capitalized against the wounded Schilling. With two outs in the first, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui hit back-to-back doubles, the latter a brilliant piece of situational hitting, a bloop double into the left-centerfield gap on an 0-2 pitch. Bernie Williams followed with a single to plate Matsui, and the Yanks were in business. Two innings later, they loaded the bases with nobody out on a pair of singles and a walk, and then Matsui struck the big blow, a bases-clearing double into the rightfield corner. Jorge Posada later drove him home with a sacrifice fly.

Schilling departed after escaping the inning, managing to avoid the mid-frame walk of shame -- 55,000 New Yorkers telling him to shut up -- that he so richly deserved for his bulletin-board commentary. Relievers Curtis Leskanic and Ramiro Mendoza withstood numerous threats and held the score at 6-0. But in the bottom of the sixth, Kenny Lofton greeted Tim Wakefield with a solo homer. A Sheffield double and a Matsui single added a run, Godzilla's fifth RBI on the night. Could it get any better?

The answer was no. Like most things too good to be true, when the lie was revealed the illusion crumbled in a hurry. Mussina had retired 19 batters in a row, at one point tying an LCS record (ironically one that he shared with Schilling) with five consecutive strikeouts. He was one strike away from making it 20 retired in a row when Mark Bellhorn, the only Sox player who had even come close to a hit , drove an 0-2 pitch to the left-centerfield wall. Though that ended the Moose's bid for perfection, it seemed harmless enough after Manny Ramirez grounded out. But three straight hits and a passed ball later, the Sox had put three runs on the board and chased Mussina.

Tanyon Sturtze came on in relief and promptly confirmed the suspicion that his late-season carriage had turned back into a pumpkin. He grooved a pitch to Jason Varitek, 0-for-2004 at Yankee Stadium, and the Sox catcher launched a homer into the rightfield bleachers to cut the score to 8-5. Not only wasn't Boston conceding the game, they were sending a message loud and clear: in this series, no lead is safe.

They stayed on message in the eighth inning against Tom Gordon. With two outs and a man on first, Manny Ramirez singled to left, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of the 41-homer slugger David Ortiz. Under normal October circumstances, the expectation was that the Yanks would summon Mariano Rivera to get out of the jam.

But Rivera had endured a long and painful day already, attending a funeral for two relatives who had died in a swimming pool accident on his property in his Panama home. He had left his grieving family to fly back for the ballgame, escorted to the stadium by police. Though he had missed the player introductions, his presence had been felt when announcer Bob Sheppard informed the crowd: "And en route to Yankee Stadium, No. 42, Mariano Rivera." Mo drew a standing ovation simply for entering the bullpen in the fifth inning while his teammates greeted him with sympathetic hugs.

Perhaps protecting his closer in his fragile emotional state, perhaps merely exhibiting his confidence in Gordon, an elite setup man who could close for about 25 other teams, Torre chose not to bring in Rivera yet. He paid dearly for that decision as Ortiz drove a blast to left-center that missed leaving the yard by a foot. Matsui nearly caught the ball, but as he reached behind his head, it deflected off of his glove, and by the time the Yanks recovered, the hulking Ortiz had a triple.

Finally, with the score 8-7, the tying run 90 feet away, and the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife, Torre summoned his weary closer. Rivera quickly fell behind 2-0 to Kevin Millar. But the Amish-looking Sox first baseman helped Rivera, first by swinging at a cutter low and away, then by popping the next pitch to Derek Jeter directly behind second base to end the threat.

The Yankees quickly reclaimed some breathing room. Facing Mike Timlin, A-Rod and Sheffield both singled, and one out later Bernie doubled down the leftfield line to add two runs. The second-guessing about Sox manager Terry Francona electing to have Timlin face Williams when he later used closer Keith Foulke has already begun. And well it should. As Joe Sheehan put it:

Look, if it's important enough that you'll use Foulke down 10-7, wouldn't you get him in there to start the eighth inning down 8-7? Or perhaps with two on and two out down 8-7? Bringing him in after the Bernie Williams double is the mother of all after-the-fact barn door closings.

Despite Francona's poor management and the Yankees additional runs, still the Sox would not go quietly. With one out, Varitek singled, and then Orlando Cabrera singled as well to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Bill Mueller. Five pitches later, Mueller grounded back to the cool, calm Rivera, who started a 1-6-3 double play and finished both a classic ballgame and a long, trying day.

So the Yanks have now stolen a victory against one Boston ace, and with that win and the latest medical news, the balance of the series may have shifted in their favor. According to Red Sox team doctors, a tendon sheath in Schilling's ankle is torn and he will require surgery after the season. "The tendon is snapping over the bone," said Sox doc Bill Morgan. Early in the ballgame and unaware of the severity of the injury, Fox blowhard Tim McCarver yammered about possibly bringing Schilling back on short rest for Game Four, setting him up for a possible Game Seven appearance as well. Now, even a Game Five start appears unlikely, even to Schilling: "If I can't go out there with something better than that, I'm not going back out there."

But Schilling or no, if the Sox proved anything last night, it's that they'll be anything but willing accomplices to a one-sided rout. Even spotting the Yanks six runs, they put up crooked numbers in a hurry, and only the efforts of the greatest closer in the history of October (that's an ERA of about 0.70 in over 100 innings, kids) kept the game from being tied.

For all of Mussina's fantastic effort, he still went less than seven innings, thus exposing the Yanks' shaky middle relief. Like the Bronx Bombers, this Boston team has made its name pouncing on such vulnerable pitching. At this point, expect Sturtze to return to his rightful spot at the bottom of the depth chart, while Paul Quantrill, who pitched two scoreless frames against Minnesota in the ALDS and who's thrown only four innings in the past three weeks, returns to his usual station.

Tonight the Yanks send Jon Lieber, troubled by back problems, to face Pedro Martinez, who broke a string of four straight losses with a gritty effort against the Angels in the first round. Martinez will face his usual difficulties with the Yanks, who generally manage to wait him out, added pressure to reclaim his mantle of the staff ace with Schilling's demise, and a hostile Bronx crowd reveling in the fuel he added to the fire with his postgame comments of a few weeks ago. "Who's your daddy?" signs and chants will abound. But not t-shirts; thankfully Major League Baseball has thought of the children, protecting them from ham-fisted humor that might... that might do what, exactly?

Should the Sox win tonight to garner a split, the pressure will remain on the Yanks as the series heads to Fenway for the weekend. Should the Yanks take this one as well, then expect "sky is falling" reports from Red Sox Nation as the two teams go north. Don't believe the hype. In this series, anybody can come back, anybody can start a rally, anybody can falter on the mound. Down eight runs, down two games, whatever. Repeat after me: No. Lead. Is. Safe. This series won't be over until a spike is hammered directly through one of these team's huge hearts, and maybe not even then.