No elbow room found

The final 2004 regular-season game between the rival Red Sox and Yankees yesterday was edgy all the way to the last out.

It might have been an 11-4 Red Sox blowout, which allowed Boston to cut its deficit in the American League East to 3 1/2 games, but that did not matter. While the Yankees are concerned with how poorly Kevin Brown pitched in his first game back from breaking his left hand (two-thirds of an inning, four runs, six hits), New York also is dealing with the effects of what looked like a routine ground ball out to second base in the third inning, which led to a game-long squabble between Kenny Lofton (who hit the ball), and Doug Mientkiewicz (who fielded Mark Bellhorn's throw at first).

To the surprise of no one, Lofton and Mientkiewicz have differing opinions on what precipitated the bad blood, which began when Lofton elbowed Mientkiewicz as the Yankee outfielder crossed the bag.

Lofton claimed Mientkiewicz failed to clear the bag in a timely fashion after Bellhorn's throw. Mientkiewicz said Lofton creates the contact in part by running inside the base line.

They did agree on this much -- yesterday wasn't the first time the two have crossed paths.

"There are 700 players in the league and he's the only one, for some reason, who I get an elbow from anytime," said Mientkiewicz, who said Lofton used to do the same thing when Mientkiewicz played in Minnesota and Lofton was with Cleveland. "I have nothing personal against Kenny, I just don't like to be elbowed."

Lofton claimed he was innocent.

"You guys can watch the replay and you guys can write what you see," Lofton said. "I have nothing to say about it. I didn't do anything."

The two jawed briefly after the contact.

"He said something to me, I don't know. I couldn't really tell because of the crowd noise," said Lofton. "I was telling him `Why didn't you get out of the way?' That's all I was saying."

In the aftermath, Boston's Pedro Astacio and Yankee Brad Halsey were ejected, Astacio for throwing behind Lofton and Halsey for buzzing Dave Roberts. New York skipper Joe Torre also was ejected when his team ignored two umpire warnings. Halsey's actions prompted the dugouts and bullpens to empty, though no punches were thrown.

David Ortiz, a teammate of Mientkiewicz in Minnesota, wasn't surprised by yesterday's incident -- but offered a solution.

"They haven't liked each other for a long time," said Ortiz. "They pretty much bump all the time. I guess I'm going to have to get them together one day and take them out to dinner."

Lofton thought the issue was a dead one -- until he faced Astacio.

"Yeah, I think I was surprised about [Astacio throwing behind me]," said Lofton. "I don't know, maybe they were trying to start something, I don't know."

Torre was skeptical about the timing of when the Red Sox chose to retaliate against Lofton.

"I have no idea about that other than I hope it was just coincidence that when they threw behind Kenny it happened the same time that most of the regulars came out of their lineup," Torre said.

Yankees first baseman John Olerud backed up Lofton on the role of the first baseman in that case.

"Kenny was expecting [Mientkiewicz] to move out of the way. Obviously, what the first baseman does depends on the throw, but you like to try to catch the ball and get out of the way because you can get stepped on," Olerud said.

Lofton understands that sometimes a first baseman has to adjust to make plays.

"A couple of times on plays where guys have to reach over for the ball and you make contact you'll say, `Oh that's my bad,' and he'll say `Sorry.' It's a courtesy by both teams. That's cool. But when a guy catches the ball on a good throw, he catches and steps aside, but it doesn't happen with me and him for some reason."

Lofton understands the heated rivalry between the franchises. From his point of view, there is no carryover to the next game.

"These are two good teams and we both play hard," Lofton said.

Lofton didn't agree that the Sox winning the series could give Boston an emotional advantage if the teams should meet in the playoffs.

"No," he said. "That's overrated."

Bob Hohler of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.