No resorting to head games

You can play hardball without resorting to beanballs.

Terry Francona said he wouldn't have expected anything less from the Yankees, even though Sox pitchers hit Yankee batters five times last week, including Mike Timlin's fastball that knocked off Derek Jeter's helmet and sent him to the hospital. Jeter also was hit on the hand; Yankees DH Jason Giambi was hit three times.

Those who were expecting retaliation from the Bombers this week miscalculated, at least through the first two games of the series. Bill Mueller of the Sox took a knuckle curve from Mike Mussina off his right knee in the second inning Monday, and Kevin Millar was grazed by a pitch from Jaret Wright last night in the sixth, but no Sox hitter has been sent sprawling by projectiles hurled near his head.

That could change, of course, when one of the most feared pitchers in the game, Randy Johnson, takes the hill tonight for the Yankees, which guarantees that no one in a Sox uniform will be comfortable in the batter's box.

"I don't think Joe thinks it's an issue," Francona said, referring to Yankees manager Joe Torre, "and we don't think it's an issue.

"They have big strong guys who stand on the plate. If you don't pitch them inside, they're going to kill us. We're not throwing balls behind guys. They know that."

Well, actually, John Halama of the Sox did throw one ball behind Alex Rodriguez in the season opener, which occurred to Francona in his next breath. "That," he said, "was a mistake."

A-Rod laughed about it at the time, and Halama did afterward.

Since the start of last season, Sox pitchers have hit Yankee hitters 30 times, while Sox hitters have been hit by Yankee pitchers 16 times. You have to look beyond the numbers, Francona said.

"I think most people know when there's a retaliation," he said. "I don't think it's a big secret. Even when people are scratching their heads every once in a while and ask, was there a reason, not too often.

"When we hit Jason Giambi in the hand with an 0-and-2 pitch, we're trying to get him out."

Giambi hangs over the plate, Francona said. Jeter has a reputation for diving toward an outside pitch.

"Some hitters, you let their arms get out there, they're going to kill you," Francona said. "They're too good to go out there and get that [outside] pitch. They're too good."

A couple of years ago, Pedro Martinez hit Jeter in the hand with a pitch and Alfonso Soriano also was hit in the hand by a Martinez pitch that he swung at, two days after Roger Clemens hit Kevin Millar in a hand he'd raised in self-defense to protect his head. Clemens sneered afterward that Millar should have gotten out of the way, provoking outrage from the Sox first baseman.

"If they want to get into any headhunting thing, we've got the ultimate headhunter on our side," Millar said in warning.

When the Bomber stars went down, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner demanded that Major League Baseball investigate. That didn't happen, but if retaliation by the old-school rules ever seemed warranted, this would have been the time. Jeter said it was up to the pitcher; Mussina, working that day, eschewed the eye-for-an-eye route.

"When he went out there the next inning, I remember calling a fastball in and him acknowledging it," John Flaherty, who was catching for the Yankees, said at the time. "I remember sitting there on the inside corner thinking to myself: `Is he going to hit this guy? What's going to happen?' He pitched his game."

Mussina said he didn't want the umpires to issue a warning, which would have made it tough for him to pitch inside.

Francona said the umpires issued no warnings before this series began, further proof that no one was expecting anything untoward to happen.

"Joe's going to stick up for his guys," he said. "I'm going to do the same thing, even when maybe they're wrong, because they're our guys. It's my job. And he's going to do the same thing."