The Futility Infielder

The outcome of Thursday night's Yankees-Red Sox game was pure Christmas in July for Yankee fans, and in Fenway Park no less. It won't erase the sting of last October, but in the face of increasing adversity for the Yanks, it may not get any better all year. Whether or not they win the division or the World Series in 2005, this victory was special.

Spotting the Red Sox four runs in the first inning, four runs off of one of their two remaining healthy starting pitchers, the Yanks slugged their way back against the Sox, tying the game at 5-5 in the sixth and 6-6 in the eighth. Then Curt Schilling made his debut in his new role as a reliever -- a role not unanimously accepted in the Red Sox clubhouse -- and immediately yielded a double to Gary Sheffield, who scuffled with a Fenway fan his last time in Boston, and then a two-run shot to Alex Rodriguez, the man The Big Shill spent the winter taunting. Mariano Rivera, with his own Red Sox demons to chase, came on to blow away all three Sox hitters to nail down an emotional 8-6 win. Boo-yah!

I missed the first five innings of the ballgame due to TiVo incompetence, though I'll treasure that episode of That Seventies Show I recorded in its place, as it will certainly make for more entertaining viewing than the four runs the Sox plated on Mike Mussina in the first. Moose started the game on the heels of the news that the Yanks had sent rookie Chien-Ming Wang, the surprise of their rotation, to the 15-day disabled list with "shoulder inflammation," an appointment with Dr. James Andrews, and ominous whispers that he is done for the season with a torn rotator cuff.

With Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, and Jaret Wright already on the DL, this was not exactly a welcome development. The team recalled Tim Redding, acquired along with Darrell May in the Paul Quantrill trade, to start tonight, but they'll be scrambling to find enough able bodies to fill out the schedule. Unit and Moose and pray a hyena gets loose and devours the opposition before the Yanks have to send Redding, newly hired advance scout Joe Kerrigan, or yours truly to the mound.

The Yanks clubbed their way back into the game on the strength of second-inning homers off of Bronson Arroyo by Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams, two Yankees who spent most of the season's early days as offensive ciphers. Giambi bashed five homers last week, and since May 24 (an admittedly selective date) is hitting .347/.488/.614 over a span of 129 plate appearances, bringing his season numbers to .279/.427/.476. Williams has hit .328/.400/.531 over his last four weeks, a span of 75 plate appearances, bringing his overall line to a still-meager .257 /.347/.386.

The Yanks added another in the third on an RBI double by Sheffield. While the Sox got the run back off of Moose in the bottom of the inning, Shef pounded a solo homer in the fifth to trim the lead to 5-4, the score when I tuned in. They pulled even by capitalizing on a passed ball and a throwing error by third baseman Bill Mueller, chasing Arroyo in the process.

The Sox came right back, putting the first two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth. A grounder sent Kevin Millar to third base with one out, but Mussina reached back and found the stuff to strike out not only Mark Bellhorn but also Johnny Damon. After the Bellhorn strikeout, the YES camera cut to a shot of Joe Torre pumping his fist in the dugout, a rare display of emotion from the stolid Yankee manager. Alas, Boston retook the lead on a homer by David Ortiz into the Sox bullpen off of Tanyon Sturtze, who's likely slated for the rotation in his next appearance. But the Yanks countered on a pair of doubles by Jorge Posada, who yielded to pinch-runner Tony Womack, and pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra.

The stage was thus set for Schilling. With Keith Foulke having gone to the DL for long-overdue arthroscopic knee surgery after a nightmarish first half (6.23 ERA and murmurs about his off-field problems) and Schilling lacking the stamina to return to the Sox rotation, the Boston brass has slated their pompous, messianic ace for the closer role. The decision appeared to divide the Red Sox clubhouse, which sounded more like 2001's epic collapse than 2005's championship afterglow when Johnny Damon second-guessed the move:

"[Schilling has] never done it," center fielder Johnny Damon told the paper Wednesday night. "He throws 60 pitches to get loose for a game. He needs to get loose. Two outs in the eighth, a home run is hit. Get ready, 10 pitches. He can't do it. Timlin could, Bronson could. I don't think it's a good move for us. We've always talked about all year he'd come back and be a starter, and be a good starter. He can't just walk in and be a good closer. He's not ready yet. He's not ready."

Elsewhere, Damon, who's in the midst of a 26-game hitting streak and thus qualified to comment on matters of national importance, accused the team of "panicking" in routing Schilling to the closer role. Ah, the fragile equilibrium of unhappiness.

After his extended warmup in the Boston bullpen, Schilling took a long, slow journey to the mound, jogging out of the bullpen gate then slowing to a meander as he milked the Fenway crowd's adulation in a manner befitting "Red Light Curt." His honeymoon was short-lived, as Sheffield, already with two big hits to his credit, doubled off of the left-centerfield wall on Schilling's fifth pitch.

Next came Rodriguez, who's spent the last year and a half as Public Enemy Number One in Boston ever since the Sox failed attempt to acquire him from the Rangers. Last season's early clutch failures, the fight with Jason Varitek, the slap of Bronson Arroyo in Game Six of the LCS, the sore winner gripes from Trot Nixon (who?) and Schilling that A-Rod wasn't a "true Yankee"... you couldn't write a better script leading up to this point.

Schilling, Public Enemy Number One to Yankee fans, looked back at Sheffield then fired his first pitch to A-Rod, a splitter that split the field of play in a big hurry. Rodriguez lofted a long fly ball as Damon could only look up for a cursory farewell. A beautiful sight, a burden lifted, a cold plate of revenge served to a pompous douchebag in front of his adoring throngs. Eat it, fatso.

Rivera, who blew two saves in the season's first series in New York (his only such failures on the year), came on to close out the ballgame, and he did it like a man with a vendetta himself. Thirteen pitches, only four of them outside the strike zone, and Mo had whiffed Damon, Edgar Renteria, and finally Ortiz to nail down a crucial win for the Yanks, bringing them to a game and a half behind Boston.

Whether they can close that gap is another story. Redding comes into his pinstriped debut sporting a 9.10 ERA on the year and a 5.04 mark for his career. Randy Johnson will go on Saturday, but it's anybody's guess who will fill the next two starts; interested parties may apply by emailing Brian Cashman with a resume. Neither Al Leiter, who was designated for assignment by the Florida Marlins thanks to his 6.64 ERA nor Shawn Chacon, a failed closer who's back in the Rockies starting rotation and sporting a reasonable 4.30 ERA though a 29/33 K/BB ratio, are appealing trade options, but they've both surfaced in the news. It's more likely that the Yanks buy themselves time until Brown and then Pavano return by filling from within via May, who was bombed last Saturday, and Sturtze, a move that would significantly compromise the Yankee bullpen even as Felix Rodriguez, hardly the cavalry, returns to the active roster.

Those are problems for another day, however. Even in the face of the bad moon rising, this win is worth savoring.