2009 Yankees: Early 6-0 Lead Wasted as Red Sox Win a Slugfest

Welcome back to the next chapter of 2009 Yankees: The Last Championship - a week-by-week remembrance of the year in which they gave us their most recent World Series title. Today, the early season pitching woes continued at Fenway Park as ex-Yankee Mike Lowell erupted for six RBI and the Red Sox capped their biggest comeback victory over the Yankees since 1968 with a wild 16-11 victory.

BOSTON (April 25, 2009) - You won’t find anyone in the Yankees organization, or probably anyone in the passionate fan base, who will ever decry Brian Cashman’s decision in November 1998 to re-sign third baseman Scott Brosius to a new three-year contract.

In fact, had he not done it, the general manager - having just completed his first year in that seat - would have been considered a moron after what Brosius did for the Yankees in that greatest season in team history.

Brosius came from Oakland, a mostly nondescript player during parts of seven big league years with the A’s. The Yankees needed a replacement for the third base tandem of Wade Boggs and Charlie Hayes and their pro scouts thought Brosius would be the right fit, a good glove man with a decent bat and a little pop with 76 career home runs.

They were right. All Brosius did on his original one-year deal was drive in a career-best 98 runs, made the All-Star team, and then went on to be named the 1998 World Series MVP when the Yankees swept the Padres.

So yeah, keeping Brosis and signing him to a three-year extension was an easy decision for Cashman. What wasn’t an easy decision was a couple months later trading highly-rated third base prospect Mike Lowell who in 1998 at Triple-A Columbus had slashed .304/.355/.535 with 26 homers and 99 RBI.

With Brosius back and Lowell clearly ready to play in MLB, there simply was no room for the 25-year-old in the Bronx, so Cashman shipped him to the Florida Marlins for three pitchers who never amounted to anything for the Yankees. Years later, Cashman said it was the worst trade he ever made, though as we know, he’s made a few worst since then.

“We had Scott Brosius and we had a lack of pitching depth in the system,” Cashman recalled. “For the right circumstance, we were willing to move Mike Lowell, who was blocked by Brosius. Scott obviously had a lot of success with us and helped us in the ‘98, ‘99, 2000 World Series pushes, and 2001 where we obviously fell short in Game 7. So we secured three high-ceiling starters - Eddie Yarnall, Todd Noel and Mark Johnson, all three high picks, all three with high ability. But all three busted.”

You could say that. They combined for seven career appearances with the Yankees, all by Yarnall in 1999 and 2000.

As Cashman said, Brosius rewarded the Yankees’ faith by helping them win three more AL pennants and two World Series, but then he retired after 2001, just when Lowell was on his way to stardom in Florida, and later with the Red Sox.

Over the next 12 seasons, Lowell went on to win World Series titles with the Marlins in 2003 (when they beat the Yankees), and 2007 with the Red Sox (when he was named the Series MVP). He finished his career with four All-Star appearances, a Gold Glove, 223 homers, 952 RBI and an .805 OPS.

“I know the label on me was that I could hit, but defense was a question mark,” Lowell told The New York Times in 2003. “Getting Brosius was a great answer because they knew his defense would be solid and his offense would be icing on the cake. He turned out some pretty good years. Their upper management made the right decision. I don’t really have this revenge factor inside of me.”

Lowell never spoke sourly about the Yankees, never held a grudge; baseball is a business and he understood that. Still, Lowell certainly enjoyed the success he had against the team that had drafted him in the 20th round in 1995.

In that 2003 World Series he didn’t have a great impact as he hit .200 with two RBI, but across his regular-season career against the Yankees - most of the damage done playing for Boston - Lowell appeared in 76 games and hit .314 with 12 homers, 58 RBI for an OPS of .883.

And one of his biggest days came early in 2009 during a crazy game at Fenway Park when the Red Sox rallied from a 6-0 deficit, took an 8-6 lead in the fifth, fell behind 10-9 in the seventh, then went on to a 16-11 victory.

“It was going back and forth; it seemed like whoever was up last was going to win,” Lowell said. “You’ve got to be mentally prepared for every pitch.”

The Yankees began the day looking primed to blow the Red Sox away. They crushed Boston starter Josh Beckett, Lowell’s teammate in Florida who blew the Yankees away in the clinching Game 6 of the 2003 World Series. New York scored twice in the first on three hits and a walk, twice in the third on Robinson Cano’s home run, and twice in the fourth on Cano’s two-run double.

But then Boston tore into Yankees starter A.J. Burnett - another former member of that champion Marlins squad - with five runs in the fourth, the highlight a three-run homer by Jason Varitek. And then Jason Bay’s two-run double capped a three-run fifth that catapulted the Red Sox into the lead.

Ex-Boston hero Johnny Damon hit a tying two-run homer in the sixth and an error by Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia on a ball hit by Damon allowed two runs to score in the seventh and New York regained a 10-9 lead.

And here is where Lowell entered the fray. He struck out twice and flied out in his first three at bats, all against Burnett, but in the seventh, facing Yankee reliever Jonathan Albaledego - I have absolutely no recollection of this player - Lowell watched as Yankees manager Joe Girardi ordered an intentional walk to Bay. Lowell made him pay as he crushed a three-run homer over the Green Monster that just stayed fair and on his way to first, Lowell raised his fist and waved it.

“The way I started, it was a little extra satisfying finishing the way I did,” said Lowell, whose homer put the Red Sox ahead for good at 12-10. “Especially in a situation where they walk (Bay) in front of you and you’re able to come through, that’s extra special.”

Cano’s second homer of the day in the eighth cut the Yankees’ deficit, but then in the bottom half, Lowell put the game out of reach with a three-run double off rookie David Robertson.

“His RBIs in the last few innings were the difference in the game,” Girardi said. “In the first couple of at-bats, we weren’t able to get Bay out. That combination has really hurt us in this series so far.”

Lowell matched his career high for RBIs with six, originally set with the Marlins in 2003. When asked about that, he smiled and said, “I’m going to have to say the birth of my kids might rank a little above that.”

For the Yankees, it continued a sloppy 9-8 start to the season during which they had allowed double digit runs five times.

No one was more irritated than Burnett who had now made four starts as a Yankee and was sporting an ERA of 5.47. “It’s unacceptable,” Burnett said after he blew the early six-run lead and started the Red Sox on their way to their largest comeback victory over the Yankees since May 16, 1968. “To have the stuff I had out there today and the offense that we had out there today, the bullpen should have never even been in that game.”

Here are the highlights from the game:

Here’s how the rest of Week 3 went for the Yankees:

• April 21: Andy Pettitte was in trouble often as he allowed nine hits, but he gave up only two runs in seven innings as the Yankees beat the A’s 5-3 on the strength of a four-run second inning that featured six hits, the big one a two-run single by Brett Gardner.

• April 22: Melky Cabrera hit a two-run walk-off homer in the 14th inning for a 9-7 victory over the A’s. The unsung hero was reliever Jose Veras, the Yankees seventh pitcher, who pitched 3.1 hitless, scoreless innings. “It would have been a tough one to lose, but Melky came up with the big hit. I think everyone was a little relieved,” said Derek Jeter.

• April 24: The Yankees headed to Boston for their first series against the Red Sox and they dropped the opener 5-4 in stunning fashion. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Mariano Rivera was tagged for a tying two-run homer by Jason Bay. And then in the 11th, Kevin Youkilis hit a walk-off homer against Damaso Marte. “We were definitely expecting to win that game,” said Johnny Damon. “We were down to one out, but in this ballpark, one swing of the bat can get you right back in the game.”

• April 26: The Red Sox completed a three-game sweep as they scored three times in the sixth inning off Pettitte for a 4-1 victory. Boston won its 10th game in a row and Jacoby Ellsbury pulled of the Red Sox first steal of home in 15 years during that rally in the sixth. “Those guys are a good team, man,” Pettitte said. “They battle your tail off, make you throw a ton of pitches. They’ve got speed, they steal bases, and if they’re not able to do things with the long ball or hitting to the gaps, they manufacture runs.”

NEXT SATURDAY: This time it was the Yankees who came up with a big rally as they overcame a five-run deficit and stunned the Angels on Jorge Posada’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning.