Classic case of bombing in the Bronx
NEW YORK -- Ex-major league pitcher Bob Tewksbury insists he was summoned for one reason, and one reason only: to pitch batting practice, because manager Terry Francona needed a fresh arm.
Just because Tewksbury is the organization's sports psychology coach doesn't mean the Red Sox, who already have performance-enhancement man Don Kalkstein, were loading up on mental-health specialists. They might think about setting up a hotline, however, for their fans, many of whom gladly would have rented a couch for $300 an hour if it meant erasing all memory of last night's 13-5 loss to the Yankees.
We build these Sox-Yankees games up so much, the expectation is that each will be an instant classic, even though we all should know better by now. How many times -- and how many dollars stuffed into scalpers' pockets -- before we remember it doesn't always come down in the end to Yaz vs. Goose Gossage, Bill Mueller vs. Mariano Rivera, Aaron Boone vs. Tim Wakefield?
Ran into Gossage, by the way, while checking into a Midtown hotel Sunday night, and yes, he knows all about Jonathan Papelbon, who has given up just one run this season.
``Love him," the Goose said. ``Old-school. Love [Josh] Beckett, too. Good ol' boy who just goes after people."
Goose did say he probably would take a pass on last night's game (``too much of a hassle to get there"), a decision that seemed prescient by the bottom of the first, when Yankees rookie Melky Cabrera scored from first on a wild pitch, a play that might occur regularly in your kids' Little League games but seldom happens here.
Press the rewind button, and this is what you'll see: With the Sox overshifted to the right side, Beckett bounces a pitch to Jason Giambi that Jason Varitek corrals quickly enough to throw to second, but his off-balance peg sails off target. It strikes the glove of third baseman Mike Lowell and bounds into right-center field, where it is run down by the shortstop, Alex Gonzalez.
Varitek, alertly realizing that third base is unoccupied because Lowell is shifted toward short, heads for the bag. Kevin Youkilis, the first baseman, heads toward the mound, to cut off a throw. What the Red Sox don't realize, but Cabrera does, is that home plate has been left vacant. Gonzalez throws to Youkilis, because he has no one else to throw to. Youkilis turns and throws toward Varitek, who is in a fruitless footrace to the plate with Cabrera.
``It's such a freaky play, because of the way we're defending it," Francona said. ``Once we have the breakdown of the throw, Tek is hustling down to third because that's his responsibility. Youk's got the middle of the field, then we got caught up in the whole . . ."
His voice drifted off.
``I don't think you're going to see that very often," he said. ``That's what happens. Once it got away, we had guys all over the field."
By process of elimination, it probably fell on pitcher Beckett to lay claim to the plate -- though in fairness to him, it's not the kind of play practiced during pitchers' fielding drills in spring training.
The night, of course, only got worse for Beckett, who failed to get out of the second inning, when he gave up two three-run home runs, six straight hits, and kept trying to pump misdirected fastballs by Yankee hitters who happily kept sending balls back at him harder than they were thrown.
Bottomed out? Not quite. That came the next inning, when the Sox thought they had turned Miguel Cairo's tapper in front of the plate into an inning-ending double play and left the field. But plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth ruled that Cairo's foot had come in contact with the ball, which made the batter out and the ball dead, allowing Bernie Williams to return to first base.
The Sox were ordered back onto the field -- they should consider themselves lucky they could still find Manny -- and the inning didn't end until seven batters and five runs later.
Instant classic? How about automatic snoozer? And if you want to feel sorry for somebody, save your compassion for Jerry Remy, the NESN broadcaster who almost scratched from last night's telecast but decided he could fight through the stomach flu. Final score: Bad Baseball 1, Indigestion 0.
But we should know by now. This happens. The Sox won twice over the Bombers last year by 17-1 scores, also by 10-1 and 14-3. The Bombers beat the Sox in Fenway in 2000, 22-1. The only certainty is they'll play again tonight, and we'll be watching.
