No franchise should better understand the value of killing off the chances of another like the Yankees should when it comes to the Red Sox.
Most famously, of course, the Yanks blew a three-games-to-none lead in the 2004 ALCS against Boston.
But you might remember that during that season, the Red Sox fell to the Yankees on a Friday night in late July at Fenway, their seventh loss in 11 games. They were reeling. Way behind the Yankees in the AL East, still just a half-game back in the wild-card race, but with horrible mojo — earlier in the month, Nomar Garciaparra hadn’t played a game that perhaps he could have, and Derek Jeter went flying into the stands at Yankee Stadium.
The next game in late July, however, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek got into a fight and Bill Mueller hit a ninth-inning, walk-off homer against the Yanks’ best pitcher, Mariano Rivera, and then Boston bombed a Yankees starter (Jose Contreras) on a Sunday night. The Red Sox had won two out of three. Boston launched from there, producing the majors’ best record, winning the wild card and eventually delivering the stunning ALCS comeback against the Yanks. Curse over.
This past weekend, the Yankees beat the Red Sox 6-0. Boston had lost eight of 13 and the magic from last year’s championship seemed far away. But then on Saturday, Boston got a ninth-inning homer from Mike Napoli against the Yanks’ best pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, and bombed a starter (Chase Whitley) on Sunday night. The Red Sox won two of three.
Can they take off again? They are 6.5 games out in the A.L. East, seven out of a wild card and seven under .500. But considering how ready to be killed off they looked after Friday, the Red Sox were given a shot of adrenaline by the last team that wanted to provide that.
Before Tanaka had delivered a pitch Saturday, Boston general manager Ben Cherington told me: “We look at the deficit we have in the standings and we look at the talent we have here and we believe that is a deficit we can manage. But we need to get going.”
The two wins against the Yankees, at the least, stemmed the doom, changed the subject. Boston is at a crossroads on what to do about this year. Cherington dismissed the traditional notion of being buyers or sellers because there are probably ways for the franchise to do both — particularly because it could trade a starter such as Felix Doubront (recently moved to the pen) or Jake Peavy and have the internal assets to keep trying to win.
Plus pitching is not the problem. You know all those complaints (if you are a Yankees fan) about New York’s offense. Well, the Yanks have more runs and homers, and a higher OPS than the Red Sox, which is amazing considering the 2013 Red Sox had 47 more runs than any team. Cherington said the Red Sox’s internal stat system showed just one player (Brock Holt) outperforming expectations.
So, Cherington reasoned, the Red Sox could believe there was greater production to come from players such as Dustin Pedroia, Jonny Gomes and Xander Bogaerts. Cherington wants to augment the group with power, but executives throughout the game are bemoaning the lack of impact hitters in the market. So Cherington called up Mookie Betts, more a speed/on-base player than power hitter.
Cherington said the club could not ignore players who could hit. And, if there is no pennant race this season, there still could be valuable major league time for well-regarded youngsters such as Bogaerts, Betts, Garin Cecchini, Jackie Bradley Jr., Brandon Workman, Rubby De La Rosa and perhaps others.
“But I am focused on 2014,” Cherington said. “We are looking realistically and being honest where we are. This is not the deficit we want. But it is a deficit we believe we can overcome.”
Will the 2014 Yankees — like their 2004 brethren — regret not finishing off the Red Sox when they could?