BOSTON – Duck was on the menu for the Yankees as they arrived at Fenway Park yesterday.
It was only a matter of whom would be ducking and when. Red Sox reliever Kyle Snyder hinted as much when he was asked about possible retaliation this weekend for the two pitches Joba Chamberlain threw over Kevin Youkilis’ head in the last series between these rivals.
“This game hasn’t changed in a hundred-plus years and it’s no secret that everybody on this team looks to protect everyone else,” Snyder said before the Yankees and Red Sox opened a three-game series. “If need be from either organization, I think [retaliation] is going to take place.”
It’s clear the Red Sox haven’t forgotten the successive 98-mph missiles that Chamberlain fired over Youkilis’ head in the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 5-0 victory on Aug. 30 at Yankee Stadium. The rookie was ejected and subsequently served a two-game suspension.
Chamberlain said the pitches were not deliberate. The Red Sox considered that blatant baloney at the time, but have softened that stance somewhat. Nevertheless, the fact that Youkilis was clipped in the helmet by a Scott Proctor fastball earlier this season has raised a suspicion that the Yankees have the Red Sox first baseman targeted. Why Youkilis?
“A lot of us were trying to figure that one out,” Snyder said.
Jorge Posada’s smile yesterday, when asked about the possibility of Red Sox retaliation, seemed to indicate he believed something was brewing. But it wasn’t a matter he wanted to touch.
“We’re going to go out there and play a game, and if they do [retaliate], why talk about it?” Posada said.
Johnny Damon, two years removed from the Red Sox, wasn’t anticipating that his former team would try anything on the Yankees.
“I don’t think so, unless they want to get some of their guys suspended,” Damon said. “Joba was trying to get his first save, trying to throw 100 mph. Unfortunately it happened, but we didn’t hit anyone.”
Behind last night’s starter, Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Red Sox have Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling scheduled to start in the second and third games. The veteran Schilling is the most likely of that group to come with high heat, but considering his mound opponent will be Roger Clemens, any perceived retaliation by the Red Sox could make the game an all-out beanball war.
Clemens already has been suspended once this season, for hitting Toronto’s Alex Rios.So will the Red Sox retaliate?
“These things that happen, they happen and you get a little aggravated at the time and then you move on and play,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “We haven’t spent much time talking about it.”
mpuma@nypost.com