Red Sox happy to take two

NEW YORK -- The party invitations do not have an expiration date. Sooner than later, the Yankees will have their celebration, just as they have in each of the previous eight seasons, and only the place and time remain to be determined.

But at least the Red Sox won't have to serve as reluctant witnesses to the festivities. They gave themselves an out by beating the Yankees, 6-3, yesterday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader, then rallied from two runs behind to win the nightcap, 5-4, with Mike Timlin notching the save in both games.

The sweep left the magic number for the Yankees to clinch their ninth straight division title at four; the other team that has yet to be officially eliminated, the Toronto Blue Jays, also won yesterday, which means the Yanks would have had to keep the champagne corked regardless of what the Sox did.

``We have a chance to beat up on some people in the race," said Timlin, already peeking ahead to the pending visit by the Minnesota Twins, who are a game out of the lead in the AL Central while trying to hold off the White Sox for the wild card.

``We'll definitely take our day off, try to rest up after this horrific weekend, and see what we can do against the Twins. They're a great team."

In just over 34 hours, from 1:27 p.m. Saturday until 11:52 p.m. last night, the teams combined to play four games, the shortest of which was 3 hours 19 minutes. The others went 3:42, 3:39, and last night's finale, 3:45, on a day in which the teams combined to use 36 players in the matinee and nightcap.

``It's the nature of the beast," said an exhausted Timlin. ``It's what we do for a living. Hey it's a great job, but those people who think it's great to travel everywhere, I'd like them to take a shot at our schedule."

Mark Loretta, who wangled a walk out of a 14-pitch at-bat in the Sox' decisive four-run rally in the seventh inning of Game 1, broke a 4-all tie in Game 2 with a sacrifice fly in the ninth, after the Sox had rallied to tie the score in the eighth with two runs against former Sox reliever Mike Myers, whose wild pitch with Dustin Pedroia at the plate allowed Mike Lowell to come home with the tying run.

Left in the on-deck circle at the end of the night -- after Timlin gave up a pinch-hit single to Johnny Damon but induced pinch hitter Alex Rodriguez to pop out and Melky Cabrera to fly out -- was Derek Jeter, whose 25-game hitting streak was halted.

Jeter reached on a sixth-inning throwing error by shortstop Pedroia but went hitless in four at-bats, grounding to first in his final at-bat despite taking the rare step of swinging at a 3-and-0 pitch from Craig Hansen, the first time he has done so since 2002. Jeter has come to the plate with a 3-and-0 count 115 times in the last four years; this was the first time he swung.

Lefthanded reliever Javier Lopez, who struck out Bobby Abreu with a runner on third to end the seventh, then worked a scoreless eighth, was credited with his first win with the Sox, though it took a leaping catch at the wall by Coco Crisp, who took a home run away from Jorge Posada, to keep the Yankees from forging ahead.

``It was nice to come into their place and beat them after they killed us at our place," said Sox manager Terry Francona, alluding to last month's five-game sweep in Fenway Park by the Yankees that all but decided the division race.

One more Blue Jay loss, and officially they'll be toast, too, though the Sons of J.P. Ricciardi remain just a game behind the Sox for second place in the AL East, a division that weirdly has finished in exactly the same order every year since 1998. Toronto will try to keep Canada dry the next three nights, as the Yankees head north of the border next.

Last season, Fenway Park played host to parties on successive days, the Yankees clinching the division on the next-to-last day of the season, the Sox celebrating the clinching of a wild-card spot the next afternoon. Was there a small measure of satisfaction yesterday in not having to serve as a piñata to another Yankee fiesta?

``No, because there's no glory here," said Kevin Youkilis, who hit a three-run double in Boston's four-run seventh, then absorbed an unwelcome shot to the shoulder from Bernie Williams's knee while stretching for a throw on a double play to end the eighth.

``They're still in the driver's seat to win it, and that doesn't make us happy at all. Our goal this year was to win the division, and we didn't accomplish it, barring a miracle.

``Celebrating here, celebrating next week, it's definitely better they're not celebrating in front of us . . . but second place, that's not good. Right now, we're flirting with third."

Yesterday's game, played in front of more than 20,000 no-shows, probably will qualify as a lasting memory only for David Murphy, the rookie center fielder who led off the game with his first major league home run, a line drive off Jaret Wright that cleared the right-field wall. According to home run historian David Vincent, Murphy became the first Sox player to hit his first homer in the House That Ruth Built since Carlos Rodriguez and Rich Rowland hit home runs on back-to-back days in 1994, May 7 and 8.

Murphy was so caught up in the moment that after crossing home plate, he ran past David Ortiz, who was in the on-deck circle and preparing to show him some love.

Ortiz later hit his 49th home run, off Wright leading off the sixth, drawing him within one of Jimmie Foxx's club record.

Meanwhile, back in Houston, a certain financial planner -- Murphy's father, Mike -- had cause to regret a last-minute change of plans.

``He's probably kicking himself, because he was planning on coming, but at the last second he just had too much business going on and everything," said Murphy, who turns 25 in a month (Oct. 18) but is sufficiently aware of the past to appreciate the former occupants of the precious piece of real estate he was patrolling, DiMaggio and Mantle, to name two.

``I know it's incredible to think about all the great guys who played here," Murphy said.

``Obviously, the Yankees are our rivals, but at the same time you respect all the players who stepped on this field before you."