Relentless Yanks beat odds in sweep
New York takes doubleheader despite unfavorable matchup
By Mike Bauman / MLB.com
BOSTON -- The New York Yankees won the game they were supposed to win.
And then they won the game they weren't supposed to win. This turned
out to be a very good day-night.
Actually, it was more of a day-night-day doubleheader, the second game
against the Boston Red Sox stretching from Friday night well into Saturday
morning. It took the Yankees a while to take two from the Red Sox, but
you cannot argue with turning a 1 1/2-game division lead into a 3 1/2-game
lead, even if nearly 12 hours elapsed in the process.
The second game set a record for the longest nine-inning game ever played
in the Major Leagues, at four hours, 45 minutes, far surpassing the record
of 4:27, set by the Dodgers and the Giants in San Francisco in 2001. For
the Yankees, it was worth the wait. For the Red Sox, it was just painfully
long.
Conventional wisdom for this matchup was easy and prevalent at Fenway Park.
The Yankees would win the opener because the Red Sox were starting Jason
Johnson, who had been bad. The Red Sox would win the second game because
the Yankees were starting Sidney Ponson, who had been worse.
The first half of this expectation was solidly met. Johnson had a meltdown
in the fifth inning of Game 1, the Yankees got to him and his successors
and emerged with a 12-4 victory. Johnson left the game 3-11 with a 6.35 ERA.
And then he left the roster, the Red Sox designating him for assignment
following the game.
After New York's victory in the opener of the day-night doubleheader,
Yankees manager Joe Torre was asked if this result would build momentum
for the remainder of this five-game series. He basically said no.
"Every time we play this team, it takes on a life of its own, each game,"
Torre said.
This is an accurate summary of how this rivalry goes, although it could
be argued that the second game, as opposed to having a life of its own,
borrowed a life from Methuselah. But it is also true that Torre knew that
his Game 2 starter was Ponson, who has been, by the numbers, even worse
than Johnson.
The expectations for Ponson's performance were correct. But even that didn't
lead to a defeat. Ponson couldn't hold a 5-1 lead, so the 7-5 lead the
Yankees subsequently took couldn't be counted upon, either. Ponson left
after surrendering three straight hits to open the fourth inning. He has
a 10.49 ERA in his five appearances for New York, three of which have
been starts.
On the plus side for the Yanks, Ponson is not actually in the Yankees'
rotation, but the combination of no days off and this doubleheader pressed
him into service. On the minus side for the Yanks, Ponson is still on the
roster, so they might be tempted to use him again in some capacity.
The Yankees eventually trailed by three runs before staging a late-night
revival. By mid-game, this event was dragging just a bit.
"Their lead didn't bother me, it was the fact that the innings would never
go by," Torre said. "The clock kept moving, but the innings never went
anywhere. It was weird."
But the Yankees soon moved from weird to winning. They won this second game
for two reasons: They are relentless on offense, and Boston's bullpen is
vulnerable.
"[The Yankees have] such a good lineup, but if you walk them they become
devastating," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
Boston was devastated by a seven-run seventh inning that turned a 10-7
Yankees deficit into a 14-10 Yankees lead.
The Yankees were able to overcome Ponson's inadequate starting performance
because they were able to manhandle Craig Hansen and Mike Timlin in the
seventh, with the biggest single blow being Derek Jeter's three-run double.
The Yankees' bullpen, on the other hand, limited the Sox to one run over the
last four innings, leading to the 14-11 final score.
"I feel like I spend 99 percent of my day thinking about pitching," Francona
had said before the festivities started.
There wasn't anything that happened here that would reduce that emphasis.
Maybe even 99 percent isn't enough.
The Yankees, tired but victorious, had clinched something with this hard
day's night of labor. Even in their worst-case scenario, the Red Sox winning
the next three, the Yankees would still leave Boston with the AL East lead.
And with the way Boston's bullpen was used up in these first two games, the
Red Sox winning those three seems like a truly distant possibility.
"We'll be a little exhausted, but so will they, later on today," Torre said,
as the clock moved past 1 a.m. ET.
"This won't mean anything if we don't continue to play well," Jeter said.
That's the essential Yankees after baseball's longest day: tired, triumphant,
determined.
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