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MARC TOPKINYANKS 19, RED SOX 8: A record outburst gets New York within a game of extending Boston's title drought.
BOSTON - This was going to be their year. Since being cruelly eliminated by Aaron Bleepin' Boone last Oct. 16, the Red Sox have been on an obsessed mission, blowing their budget and blowing up their roster for one reason. They were going to vanquish the Yankees on their way to winning the World Series and erasing 85 years of failure.
Now they're going to need a comeback of historic proportions to avoid the harshest chapter yet.
A 19-8 loss to the Yankees on Saturday night left the Red Sox in a hole no major-league team has ever escaped, down 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series. Of the 25 teams that have been down 3-0, only five managed even to win one game.
"It was disappointing for everybody, but we're not done," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "I fully expect we'll show up tomorrow and play our (butts) off."
The Red Sox aren't the only ones surprised at the way the series has gone.
"I'm not surprised the way our ballclub is playing, but you can't go in against the Red Sox and expect to do what we did," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "To be up 3-0, I think we're surprised at the fact we've done that."
The Red Sox had hoped returning to cozy Fenway Park would resuscitate their stunningly ineffective offense, and it did. What they didn't expect was such a dismal performance from their pitchers, starting with starter Bronson Arroyo, the Brooksville resident who didn't make it out of the third. They will start Derek Lowe tonight.
"We swung the bats very well tonight, just not quite like they did," Francona said. "We had a night when none of our pitchers located."
By the end of the long night - at 4:20, it was the longest nine-inning postseason game in history - the Red Sox had to be wondering what else could go wrong.
The 19 Yankee runs were an LCS record and their 22 hits an ALCS record, and they were team efforts, including a postseason record-tying eight doubles.
Hideki Matsui had two homers and two doubles in an ALCS record-tying five-hit, postseason record-tying five-run night. Alex Rodriguez had a homer and two doubles and also scored five. Gary Sheffield, 9-for-13 with five RBIs in the series, broke it open with a three-run homer in the fifth, the first of his four hits.
"They had a lot of determination tonight," Torre said. "They played all nine innings. They got the most out of every at-bat. I couldn't be more proud."
The game was more than 21/2 hours old, though not yet an official game, when the 19th run scored in the top of the fifth inning, a record for a nine-inning LCS game. It became an overall LCS record with the 20th run in the top of the seventh.
As much as the Yankees did right, the Sox did plenty wrong, dampening what should have been a festive night at the old ballpark and leaving the diehard members of Red Sox Nation one loss from an 86th early winter.
Arroyo never got comfortable and couldn't get out of the third, allowing eight of 13 men he faced to reach base while throwing 60 pitches. The procession of pitchers after him - Ramiro Mendoza, Curtis Leskanic, Tim Wakefield, Alan Embree and Mike Myers - wasn't much better. Outfielders let several balls drop. Two runners were thrown out on the bases, thanks to some more curious decisions by third-base coach Dale Sveum, and a third was doubled off first.
Yankees starter Kevin Brown, who has had several physical problems, wasn't much better. The Yankees weren't sure what Brown could do for them, and it turned out to not be much. Brown lasted two innings, throwing 57 pitches, but Javier Vazquez, who had been bumped from the postseason rotation, gave them 41/3 innings of solid relief.
The two days off between games didn't disrupt the Yankees, who scored in the first inning for the third straight game, taking a 3-0 lead. The Sox came back with four runs in the second, and the 4-3 advantage marked the first time they'd led in the series. The teams traded volleys and got through the third with a 6-6 tie, but the Yankees broke the game open with a five-run fourth.