The Yankees were playing for so much — a division title, a chance to avoid wild-card scenarios. The Red Sox? Well, they just were playing. For most of Boston, this calamity of a season can’t end quickly enough.
“I haven’t really reflected [on the season] yet,” embattled Boston manager Bobby Valentine said before his Red Sox were hammered by the Yankees, who ended all drama quickly with a four-home run, nine-run second inning. “I could real quickly, but that would probably be incomplete. I’d have to really think about it. We’d play better, if I had to do it differently. Playing better would be key.”
Might be hard with the lineup the Red Sox tossed at the Yankees. Ciriaco, Nava, Ross, Gomez, Lavarnway, Saltalamacchia, Valencia, Lin, Iglesias. Area fans got a little excited until they realized the center fielder was Che-Hsuan Lin, not Jeremy. Then the Yankees routed injury-ravaged Pawtucket, 10-2.
“You just play the cards you have,” said Valentine, whose chances of returning as Red Sox manager probably rate with the Mets overcoming a 23-game deficit in the final two games and winning the NL East. “That’s what we have right now.”
Valentine said he hoped to have Dustin Pedroia (left ring finger) back for the final two games. Valentine beforehand only that Pedroia was “ailing” and that lefty-hitting Jacoby Ellsbury, recently returned from an undisclosed injury, was resting against lefty CC Sabathia, who had little difficulty with the Boston lineup.
“My guys give their all every time,” said Valentine who quickly realized this was one of those nights as starter Clay Buchholz could not survive the second inning. “They didn’t miss any of his mistakes.”
So the misery continued.
“It just hasn’t been a standard year everybody expects from us,” Buchholz said. “Hopefully, it leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”
Kind of hard not to. And the hardest part may be facing the Yankees with nothing to play for.
“It is a little strange but you still want to win. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. It’s the Yankees. You know how they are. You’re going to try to win, no matter what,” said David Ortiz who has been limited to just 90 games (Achilles strain) — one since July 16. “But the Yankees start the adrenaline and it’s just different.
“It doesn’t matter the situation you’re in. Even if we’re not in the position of going to the playoffs and we’re going home Wednesday, our job is to come in put on a good show and make sure if they beat us, it’s fighting. It’s not just giving them the game,” Ortiz added.
Boston’s plight even seemed strange to the Yankees.
“That team has been good for a very long time,” Mark Teixeira said. “I guess it’s three years in a row now where they won’t make the playoffs. You don’t see that very often and you probably won’t see it again. I have a feeling they’re gonna come back pretty quickly.”-
fred.kerber@nypost.com