The Futility Infielder

As might have been predicted back when the American League schedule was first released, the Yankees had a rough four days up in Boston this week. While they tried to roll through it with their dignity intact, in the end, they came up short.

The Yanks lost two out of three to the Sox, but the results of the games will hardly be remembered for what took place around them. Monday's game was preceded by a moment Sox fans have waited for (what was that number again?) 86 years: the presentation of World Series rings to their players and the raising of a World Championship banner. That the festivities were done with the Yankees in the house, of course, made it all the sweeter for Sox fans.

While there had been hemming and hawing from the Yankee side that due to the timing of the ceremony, most players would likely be inside the clubhouse changing from batting practice garb to game uniforms, in the end the Yankees did the classy thing. They stood on the top step of their dugout and watched respectfully. Manager Joe Torre tipped his cap to Sox manager Terry Francona, closer Mariano Rivera absorbed the Boston crowd's sarcastic ovation with a smile and a wave. As captain Derek Jeter later explained, "I'm probably a little jealous, but they deserve it... You have respect for what they accomplished, because you know how hard it is to do." Even the Sox idiots were appreciative and gracious. Said Johnny Damon, "I don't know how they did it for all that time, but that shows they're all about class over there... For them to respect everything we did means a lot.''

Would that the rest of the series had gone as well for the Yanks. In the afterthought of a ballgame on Monday, they rolled over for the Sox, losing 8-1. Once again Tim Wakefield's knuckelball was a riddle the Yank hitters couldn't solve, and they managed only five hits and an unearned run while looking flatter than ginger ale I couldn't stomach after puking that afternoon.

The Yanks followed that off day with a day off, then returned for their one shining moment of the week, outlasting Curt Schilling in his return from the DL. In classic form, the Yanks wore down Schilling, whose stigmata wounds had finally healed, taking him deep into counts and fouling off 11 two-strike pitches in the first three innings alone. Leadoff hitter -- yes, it's come to that -- Tony Womack drew the sole walk issued by Schilling, but that walk came amid a rally that put the Yanks ahead, foreshadowing the rusty Boston ace's hard luck on the night.

Schilling had thrown 94 pitches through five frames, not an unusually high amount except for his fresh-from-rehab status. But when Francona sent him out for the sixth inning, the Yankees busted out the whupping sticks. Following a one-out single by Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi crushed a 2-1 slider that didn't slide for a two-run homer to rightfield to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead. Francona stuck with Schilling, and two batters later Bernie Williams made him pay for that decision with a solo homer, Bernie's first on the year. Batting ninth for the first time in a decade, Williams finally pumped some life into his batting average, racking up three hits including a double and a late single from the other side of the plate off of sidearming southpaw Mike Myers.

Yankee starter Jaret Wright was shaky, especially during an interminable third inning in which he struggled with his command, walking three. A fine Derek Jeter play on an Edgar Renteria grounder -- moving to his right, charging a soft-roller on the infield grass and firing to first on the run -- enabled him to escape a bases-loaded jam. Following Wright was Tanyon Sturtze, who has apparently usurped Paul Quantrill's role as the first righty out of the pen. His cut fastball mojo working, Sturtze tossed two scoreless frames at the Sox, allowing only one hit in his fifth appearance of the season (Quantrill, by comparison, seems headed for a milk carton near you; he has only two appearances after racking up a whopping 86 last year, his fourth season above 80 in a row). Refreshingly, the Yanks capped the game with a save from Mariano Rivera, who received another derisive ovation from the Fenway faithful but shut them up and the Sox hitters down to break his string of four "consecutive" "blown" saves against them.

With that feather in their caps, the Yanks had to like their chances in the rubber match, with Randy Johnson going to the hill against Bronson Arroyo. But the Big Unit was the Big Ugly, yielding a two-run homer to Jay Payton in the second (probably getting back at me for my smack-talk last week, the fantastically untalented Payton was). Renteria, who's looked like a $40 million bomb thus far this season, followed by crushing a hanging slider for a two-run jack over the Monster in the third.

But the Yanks came right back against Arroyo, who appeared to have little of his usual frustrating arsenal at his disposal. A single and three walks, the last to Gary Sheffield with the bases loaded -- leading to the ejection of Sox hitting coach Ron Jackson, who went postal -- netted one run, Hideki Matsui singled in two more to tie the score at four, and then Alex Rodriguez, the latest lightning rod in this rivalry, blooped an RBI single to rightfield to put the Yanks up 5-4.

The lead didn't last long, as Johnson grooved a pitch to Jason Varitek that got lost on Landsdowne Street a mere two batters later. That was Johnson's last mistake of the night, as he gritted his way through the seventh without allowing another run.

The bottom of the eighth inning will forever be consigned to the uglier pages of lore in this rivalry, and not just for Tom Gordon's shaky performance. Gordon yielded a leadoff single to Johnny Damon on an 0-2 pitch, then gave up an RBI double to Renteria. He sandwiched an intentional walk of nemesis David Ortiz between two flyouts, then fell behind Varitek 2-1. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Varitek lined a ball down the righfield line. It caromed around the corner and when Sheffield attempted to field the ball, he was apparently grazed by a Sox mook -- recall that the wall in rightield is less than four feet high in some parts. In mid-play, Sheffield came up with the ball, lunged at said mook, sending beer a-spilling, before firing the ball back to the infield. Two runs scored as Varitek took third, as Sheffield turned back to the crowd. He threatened a punch but didn't throw it as Fenway security quickly leapt in. The Yankee bench cleared, play was delayed, and chaos reigned for several minutes. Explained Sheffield of the play:

"I just felt something hit me in the mouth... It felt like a hand hit me in the mouth, but I have to look at the tape.

"I don't know if it punched me or not, but it felt like it. I thought my lip was busted. I continued with the play, then I thought about it and didn't react. It could have been worse if I didn't hold my composure. I almost snapped. I thought about the consequences."

Sheffield's mid-play reaction was, alas, somewhat 'Blauch-headed, though the umpires should have ruled the play a ground-rule double for fan interference, preventing Ortiz from scoring. Sheff did manage to exercise some restraint in the post-play confrontation, later invoking the negative memory of Ron Artest, the Indiana Pacer who gave the entire sporting world a black eye when he retaliated against a Detroit Pistons fan last November, drawing a suspension for the balance of the season.

It was an ugly incident all the way around. The Yanks already have a legacy of tangling with Fenway fanatics; recall the altercation in the 2003 American League Championship Series involving Jeff Nelson, Karim Garcia and a partisan groundskeeper. Bosox fans have made an increasingly routine habit of interfering with balls down the rightfield line; the night before they prevented the speedy Womack from trying for a triple, though if memory serves, souvenir hungry kleptos-in-training also grabbed at Sox hits. Yankee fans can hardly take a high road in terms of fan interference, as one needs only remember Jeffrey Maier's grab of a Derek Jeter fly ball in Game One of the 1996 ALCS against the Orioles.

But it was the fan's contact with Sheffield, whether inadvertent or not, which escalated the situation. Sheff looked ready to crack skulls and skip the name-taking, and really, who could blame him? Not even the Sox players. "I can understand why he got mad," said Johnny Damon. "He did a good job of restraining himself." It will be interesting to see whether Major League Baseball mandates tougher security, particularly closer to the field of play, for the next round of matchups -- perhaps to the point of keeping those close-to-the-field seats empty -- but given Bag Job Bud's closeness with Sox owner John Henry, Yankee fans shouldn't hold their collective breath.

Nonetheless, the damage was done, and the Yanks had a three-run hole for themselves to dig out of in the ninth. They made a tantalizing effort, with Sheffield -- funny how that worked out -- narrowly missing a home run off the Green Monster to lead off the inning against Keith Foulke, who'd already thrown 18 pitches in working the eighth inning. Matsui followed with a walk to bring the tying run to the plate with no outs in the form of A-Rod, but the Yankee third baseman continued his tormented legacy of clutch woes by flying out. Posada popped out and Giambi worked a walk before Torre called on his favorite low-OBP pinch hitter, freeswinging Ruben Sierra, to hit for rookie Andy Phillips. After drawing a ball, Sierra popped up Foulke's second pitch into foul territory. It almost escaped the field of play, but a hustling Varitek ran it down to seal the victory and chase the Yanks out of town.

The two teams have now split the pair of season-opening series, and really, is that any surprise? This is a heavyweight matchup that will likely go the distance, and anybody thinking it will be decided on a frigid April night has less sense than the Sox fan who took on Sheffield. The fracas in rightfield will continue to elevate the rhetoric, hype, and scrutiny for this matchup beyond the tolerance of all but the face-painted set, and that's no surprise either. But let's hope that the fans' part in the playing of these games has drawn to a close with this early-season exchange. This rivalry is intense enough, these teams well-matched enough, these games important enough, that there's just no need for such bush-league bullshit, either at Fenway or Yankee Stadium.

As for the Yanks, nine games into the season, they're still searching for a groove. They've lost two series out of three and have been outscored on the season. The facelifted starting staff holds a mediocre 5.13 ERA and is averaging only 5.3 innings per start (even allowing for Carl Pavano's liner-aided departure they're under 6.0). Most ominously, the pitching staff yas yielded a scorching .342 batting average on balls in play, or a woeful .658 Defensive Efficiency Rate, if you prefer to look at the half-empty glass from another angle. It's a small sample size with a high percentage of games in Fenway, but those numbers don't say nice things about the team's defense, particularly underscoring the fact that they should have nabbed the nimble Carlos Beltran when they had the chance. That's a dead horse that will continue to be worth flogging. Stay tuned.