Lessons from school of hard knocks

By the end of yesterday's game, with pitching changes and defensive replacements dragging the pace down, it had become closer in appearance to Pawtucket-Scranton than Boston-New York. It was a game - won by the Red Sox, 10-1 - that had tested and tried the patience of even the purist of baseball fans. It had made you long for the end of the season and yearn for playoff baseball.

This was a strange series to begin with because mathematically, as Johnny Damon would point out, the Yankees are still in the hunt for the division title. But, in reality, you could handicap their chances as fat chance. There would have to be a Sox choke of 1978 proportions to ruin the party for their first division crown since 1995.

This series has been rather melodramatic in that the Yankees have a decent lead in the wild-card race. Once October hits, they'll likely be the wild-card qualifier - barring a great collapse and a Detroit surge. There's little urgency for either team to croak the other. The Yankees likely needed a sweep to make this a true divisional race, but they're not going to get it now.

The Yankees pulled a game out of the hat Friday, coming back from a 7-2 deficit to win, 8-7, against Boston's best relievers - Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon - which was alarming to the Sox and a testament to the Yankees' firepower.

It was a pretty good game yesterday for five innings with the marquee pitching matchup - Josh Beckett vs. Chien-Ming Wang - living up to its hype.

Wang, the Yankees' top starter, was elevating his pitches and didn't have great movement on his fastball, which normally pounds the lower part of the strike zone.

A potential playoff problem for the Yankees arose, as they have no top lefthander in their bullpen to offset the better lefthanded hitters.

Yankees manager Joe Torre used five, count 'em five, pitchers in the seventh inning. Insert scream here. They walked five, allowed two hits, and threw 45 pitches. Good thing for the Yankees that Messrs. Ramirez, Villone, Bruney, Henn, and Ohlendorf won't be leading men on their postseason roster.

Other than those big-picture issues, there were two instances of potential drama that created some promise of excitement, although neither escalated into anything of substance yesterday because the game became so one-sided.

Jorge Posada impersonated Thurman Munson in the sixth, blocking the plate and taking a hellacious hit from Eric Hinske, although he held on to the ball to get the out.

Just two batters later, Posada found himself blocking the plate again with Jacoby Ellsbury barreling in. But this time Posada blocked the dish but didn't apply a tag (likely trying to protect himself from further injury) and the Sox scored.

After the game, Posada was taken to Mass. General Hospital for a precautionary examination after complaining of a headache. Still, the Yankees were expecting him to play tonight when Roger Clemens takes the mound against Curt Schilling.

Damon and other Yankees had great admiration for Posada's toughness.

"He's great," Damon said. "I keep trying to get his attention. He's taken his hits before and he knows what to expect with close plays at the plate."

Torre, a former catcher, has managed Posada for many years and marveled at how far his backstop has come defensively. Torre said Posada might be a better defensive catcher now, at 36 years old, than he's ever been.

Torre, Damon, and Jason Giambi believed Hinske, who was trying to score from third on a grounder to second, made a good, clean play in trying to knock the ball free from Posada.

"The guy was playing the game hard," Giambi said. "That's the way the game should be played. Hinske got him pretty good, but Jorge held on to the ball. At the time [a 2-1 Sox lead], it was a big situation. It was a great play and hopefully he's OK."

There was also the potential drama of hit batsmen - a recurring theme this season. Yankees rookie Joba Chamberlain was suspended for two games for throwing successive pitches behind Kevin Youkilis's head Aug. 30 at Yankee Stadium. Yesterday, Youkilis had to leave the game when he was struck by a Wang fastball off the right wrist.

Beckett, as is his nature, retaliated by hitting Giambi with a pitch in the seventh. Warnings were issued to the benches by home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom, but there was no escalation.

"I don't want to comment on that. I really don't," Torre said.

"I don't like it," said Damon, when asked about Beckett throwing at Giambi. "But what are you going to do? I thought Youkilis actually swung [at the pitch that hit him]. We actually helped them out in getting a run. But in no way are we trying to hit him in that situation with Big Papi [David Ortiz] coming up there at the plate. They see things a certain way. We see it the way we want to see it."

Giambi didn't appear bothered by his plunking, acting indifferent, as if he knew it was coming. "You know what, we didn't hit Youkilis on purpose," Giambi said. "Big Papi has done enough damage against us. We don't want to bring him to the plate in that situation, but that's the way I play the game and I'm not worried about it."

Did Beckett purposely throw at him? "Ask him," Giambi said. "He's looking out for his guys. That's the way the game should be played."

Damon did some fuzzy math with the few number of games left, but he wasn't ready to give the Yankee concession speech yet.

"We play each other a lot of times and, if all goes well, we'll see each other a lot more times," he said. "I just think everything gets blown out of proportion. Both teams are hungry and both teams want to win the division. Unfortunately, we're back at 5 1/2.

"Mathematically, we're still in it. Obviously, [tonight] is crucial to us. We need to play well and we need other teams to play well. It's going to be tough, but we just need to go out there and keep winning ballgames."