ALCS 2004 - A Great Start

As a Bronx-born Yankee fan living in Red Sox country for the past 26 years, it's nights like this that remind me why I've kept my allegiance for so long after I left the New York area. Yes, all the pot-shots that folks up here take at the Bronx Bombers and George Steinbrenner year after year, do wear one down bit by bit over time. And then come the yearly contests, with the Red Sox always playing the underdog... and everybody likes an underdog, right?

Nope! :-)

The eternal hopefulness, and eternal desperation of the Red Sox fan is what keeps me a Yankee fan! What would people in Boston do without the Yankees to hate? If the Red Sox won five championships in ten years, who would play the role of the bogeyman? If the Red Sox consistently outbid the competition for the best free agents, how would Bostonians get their daily dose of angst? Boston is a great city, a historic city... old by US standards... and a city full of the best of many things, but Boston is ever so uncomfortable in it's greatness. Boston wants to embrace greatness as a city, but Boston also wants to deny it's greatness. If Boston played the part of the great city that it is, all the other cities might be jealous and make fun of it. Cities, like teenagers, can be so cruel, and Boston just wants to fit in with all the other cities. Boston likes it just fine the way it is: with all the other cities being cruel to New York.

Boston loves the Patriots because football is everyman's sport. It's a modern sport, not a historic sport like baseball. It's a game of conquest of territory by strength and strategy, not a game of timing and finesse. A football championship (or two!) puts Boston on a par with cities like Green Bay and Dallas. Nothing wrong with that!

Boston needs the Yankees, and they need people like me, the Yankee fans in their midst, to provide constant reminders that Boston isn't New York and never will be. Boston is Boston. It doesn't need to be New York to be a great city, and it doesn't want to be. And I'm pleased to do my part to keep Boston happily unhappy about the Red Sox.

Bottom of the first, two outs, Schilling pitching for the Sox... Sheffield doubles down the left field line. Matsui doubles in the left-center gap, Sheffield scores. Williams singles up the middle, Matsui scores. 2-0 Yankees. It's going to be a fun night, no matter what happens.

Bottom of the third, no outs. Schilling still on the mound. Jeter singles. Rodriguez beats out an infield single, Jeter to second. High and tight to Sheffield on ball two. Sheffield walks to load the bases. Matsui doubles, this time to the right field corner and Trot Nixon slips trying to play the carom, Jeter, Rodriguez and Sheffield scoring. Still none out. 5-0 Yankees. Matsui goes to third on Williams' ground out, and then Posada sacrifices to center, scoring Matsui, and it's 6-0.

Botton of the fourth, no outs. Schilling's out and Leskanic is now pitching for the Sox. Lofton walks. Walking the leadoff batter is never good, and it's never a good sign when a new pitcher walks the first batter. Fox's announcers taking pains to remind us that the Yankees had a 7 - 0 lead over the Sox one day in July, and proceeded to lose the game by a score of 11 - 10. It's still only 6 - 0 tonight. Anything can still happen. If Boston weren't a great team, they wouldn't be in the ALCS, and despite everything I said above, Boston never wants to go down without a fight. I certainly don't expect them to. Jeter walks. That's two in a row from the new pitcher, and two leading off an inning, but Rodriguez hits a slow grounder that the Sox turn into a double play (surprising given Rodriguez's speed). Lofton goes to third, but Leskanic works out of the jam by striking Sheffield out. An escape like that is just the sort of thing that might turn a team around.

Or maybe not. Mike Mussina, pitching for the Yankees, is looking very strong. He struck out the side in the fourth, and Ortiz went down swinging to lead off the fifth. Mussina has faced the minimum so far. No Sox baserunners. I observe the tradition, but Fox's announcers have used the "P word" three times this inning so far. I guess they don't get superstitious about it until a little later in the game. Millar strikes out, making it five in a row, tying his own record (shared with Red Sox starter Schilling, actually) for consecutive strikeouts in an ALCS game.

Bottom of the fifth now, and Ramiro Mendoza, a former Yankee, is on the mound for the Sox. Posada is hit by a pitch. Olerud follows with a single to left, and Posada hustles into third. Mendoza gets out of it by getting Cairo to line out to shortstop.

Mussina rolls through the top of the six. The "P word" continues to be heard. In the Yankees' half of the inning, Wakefield takes the mound for the Sox. Knuckleballers are always interesting, but the Sox should have saved him for tomorrow. It's supposed to be windy, and knuckleballers can be impossible to hit in the wind. I guess it must not be windy in New York tonight, however, because Wakefield promptly served up a gopher pitch that Lofton parked out in right field short porch for a 7 - 0 Yankee lead. A little extra insurance, but a this point the excitement is all in what Mussina is doing. Wakefield got Jeter and Rodriguez, but with two outs Sheffield doubled to left, bringing up Matsui again, Godzilla singled down the right field line, knocking in Sheffield, his fifth RBI of the night, and it's 8 - 0 Yankees. Williams flew out to left to end the inning.

Bottom of the seventh with one out, and Bellhorn breaks up the perfect game with a double to the left field gap. The apparanet "boos" from the crowd are not what they seem. They're "Moos" in appreciation for Mussina. After a groundout by Ramirez, Ortiz follows with a single to right, but Bellhorn stops at third. Millar followed with a double, scoring Bellhorn and Ortiz. A passed ball got Millar to third, and Nixon followed with a single scoring Millar. It's 8 - 3 Yankees, and Mussina is done. He gets another chrous of "Moos". Tanyon Sturtze comes in to pitch and promptly serves up a gopher to Varitek, and now it's 8 - 5. I said above that anything can still happen, and we haven't heard the fat lady sing, have we? Sturtze gets out of the inning by striking out Cabrera. It's one batter too late, but now that the perfect game is gone the rest of the game wouldn't be fun if the Sox didn't get back into it. It wouldn't be the first time a team has come back from an 8 run deficit in the post-season, although it would be the first time since 1929. Still, the Sox are hoping to do something they haven't done since 1918. What's a few extra years? :-)

After some further browsing, by the way, I'm no longer certain about the five consecutive strikeouts tying an ALCS record. The site I pulled it off had a 1997 date on it. So, I've gone back and struck that out above.

Bottom of the seventh, and Embree is in to pitch for the Sox now. Embree gets the first two outs, but Cairo hits a single down the right field line, right over the bag. The Yankees haven't gone down in order since the second inning. But Embree gets Lofton on a fly to left to end the inning, and he's looking more effective than any Sox pitcher so far.

Tom Gordon in to pitch for the Yanks in the 8th. Miller and Ramiriz sandwich singles around a strikeout and fly out by Damon and Bellhorn. Gordon stays in even though the Yanks have Rivera warming up in the bullpen. Ortiz triples to the gap in left, off the wall and just out of Matsui's reach, scoring Mueller and Ramirez, and now it's 8 - 7. Ortiz came up just a few inches short of tying it all up. I wanted a fun game, but this much excitement might be a little more than I was looking for :-)

The Fox announcers are aghast that Joe Torre left Gordon in to pitch to Ortiz, but they're ignoring the fact that Rivera just got off a plane from Panama two hours ago, returning from a funeral for two of his wife's cousins. I sure wouldn't have brought him in if I could avoid it. Then again, Rivera got Millar to end the inning, so what do I know? On the other hand, Rivera didn't break Millar's bat, so he's clearly not at his best tonight.

Bottom of the 8th, and Timlin is in for Embree. Why? Embree looked good and he was already the Sox's fifth pitcher. Jeter grounds out, but Rodriguez lines a single to left. Sheffield singles to left, and Godzilla is back up again, with a runner in scoring position, but he pops up to the shortstop. bringing up Williams. Williams drives a double to left, over Ramirez's head, bringing in Rodriguez and Sheffield and going to third when the throw missed the cut-off man. It's 10 - 7, Yankees, and I'm breathing a little easier for the moment. The Sox bring in their seventh pitcher, Foulke. It's unusual to bring in your closer down by three runs, but the Sox have invested a lot of pitchers in this game already, so they pretty much have to stop Williams from scoring in order to preserve a chance of winning, and they do stop him when Foulke gets Posada to line out to third.

Top of the 9th, and Rivera gets Nixon to pop out on the first pitch. No broken bat, but I'll take it :-) After Rivera threw the 1 and 2 pitch to the backstop, Varitek guessed low on the next pitch, got what he was looking for and lined a single to right. Then Cabrera took the first pitch to left for another single, bringing Mueller, the potential tying run to the plate. Rivera clearly doesn't have the movement on the ball that he normally does, which is evident from the hard foul that Mueller hits on the two and one pitch, but the next pitch is a classic Rivera fastball that looks like it's going to tail up a bit but then cuts in on Mueller, and he hits a come-backer that Rivera turns into a game-ending double play.

10 - 7 Yankees, final. It's clear that this series is going to be an all-out battle. I won't be surprised if it goes to seven games.