Sports

BECKETT BOSTON’S ACE IN THE HOLE

BOSTON – The rea son the Red Sox are in the World Series and the Yankees are not is Boston has the top-of-the-rotation pitcher the Yanks don’t.

Josh Beckett didn’t have to pitch Game 7 for him to have proven the MVP and essential difference in the AL Championship Series. If Beckett hadn’t badly outperformed C.C. Sabathia in Games 1 and 5, the series would have been over before Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka and bats that walloped Cleveland 30-5 over the last three games could ride to a dramatic rescue.

That’s what aces do, give you two games in every series to at least match the other team’s ace, two games to save a bullpen that, as a bonus, also can include a Beckett or a Randy Johnson for an inning or three of Game 7.

The Yankees dynasty ended in 2001 not only on a fluky blown save by Mariano Rivera, but also on 11/3 innings of Game 7 relief by Randy Johnson when he really was Randy Johnson, not the cranky old man who came to the Bronx too late to make an ultimate difference.

It’s not hard to trace the two World Series losses and first-round defeats that convicted Joe Torre in Steinbrenner Court to the lack of a monster in the rotation. Roger Clemens’ last lights-out postseason start was Game 3 of the 2000 ALCS at Seattle. If Mike Mussina was terrific leading off some of the series since, he wasn’t in his second start and neither was Mr. Game 2, Andy Pettite.

The Yankees haven’t had a bona fide, fuhgeddaboutit-if-he’s-on guy since the parades stopped. Pettitte has pitched a lot of outstanding postseason games for the Yankees, including one this year, but he was in Houston three of the Octobers they have gone down.

Clemens was hit around both in Game 2 of the 2002 AL Division Series against the Angels after Mussina had won the opener and in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, the Aaron Boone game. Johnson bombed in Games 3 against the Angels in the 2005 ALDS and the Tigers in the 2006 ALDS and Boomer Wells bailed after an inning in the pivotal World Series Game 5 in 2003.

Jon Lieber was outpitched by the pink-stockinged Schilling in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS and unable to save Joe Torre from having to use a broken-down Kevin Brown in Game 7.

We could go on, like six years have without a Yankee having a series like Beckett did in this one (2-0, 1.93).

“He’s the best pitcher I’ve ever seen,” Boston pitching coach John Farrell said. “When you look at that power, command, composure, and that combination of attributes, he’s very deserving, not foreign to that territory, a special, special pitcher.”

Like Pettitte in his salad days, Chien-Ming Wang is a fine No. 2, capable of pitching like a No. 1, but needs another pitch to win on days like the two when he killed the Yankees’ chances against the Indians.

Joba Chamberlain dominated in relief using only half of his repertoire, engendering great hopes for him as a starter. But he’s still a kid, putting a premium on a Yankees trade package to get Johan Santana if he goes on the market next summer or spending whatever they must for him next November.

The Red Sox paid that premium for Beckett: Hanley Ramirez, a burgeoning star shortstop. There are a few of those around though, and a lot fewer Becketts. And because the Red Sox have one and the Rockies don’t, Boston is going to have a second parade in four years.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com