Hardball Hyperbole: Chapter 25

In today’s edition, by winning 10 consecutive series, the Red Sox, seemingly dead in the AL East race a month earlier, were hot on the Yankees heels when they arrived in the Bronx for a huge three-game set in mid-September.

On the afternoon of Aug. 15, 2004, having just lost 5-4 to the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park, the Red Sox were seemingly cooked as far as the AL East division title was concerned.

In the three weeks following their voluble series victory over the Yankees on the second-to-last weekend in July, the one that they believed was going to propel them forward in their never-ending quest to overtake New York, the Red Sox had middled along with a 10-8 record and they actually fell further behind their rivals.

With 46 games remaining, they were 10.5 out after their loss to Chicago, and their more pressing concern was the AL wild-card race because they were ensnared in a three-way tie with the Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers for that one spot.

“The last two weeks this team has been playing good,” said ever upbeat Boston first baseman Kevin Millar. “We have a lot of confidence. Early on, we probably didn’t. Now we have that feeling that it doesn’t matter how much we’re down, we just have to keep plugging away. We’re in a dogfight right now. That’s what it’s all about.”

Still, as they left the clubhouse that day, their situation was perilous and deep down they knew it. They had played mostly mediocre baseball since Jason Varitek and Alex Rodriguez scuffled and the benches emptied, and there was way too much talent on the team for it to have stumbled into this mess.

But then the sun rose on Aug. 16, later that night the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays, and it was as if something clicked into place for Terry Francona’s unkempt band of self-proclaimed idiots. Boston won six in a row, lost a game in Toronto, then won another 10 straight and suddenly, when the sun set on Sept. 3, the Red Sox were just 2.5 games behind the slumping Yankees, the closest they had been in nearly three months.

They kept rolling over the next two weeks, but the Yankees did just enough to stay in front, so when the Red Sox pulled into Yankee Stadium to start yet another massive series on Sept. 17, they were 3.5 out and carrying some serious momentum, having won 10 consecutive series and 24 of their last 29 games.

“We have played ourselves into a situation where this is a huge series,” Francona said. “I know the Yankees-Red Sox tradition and all this stuff that goes with it, but we’re actually within striking distance if we go in and do what we are capable of doing. It’s an opportunity for us.”

Johnny Damon, who had become the poster child for the club with his bushy beard and long hair, said, “This is why we’ve been playing hard all year, to get to this situation and see what we’re made of. We want to go in and show them what we have.”

And on the first night, they showed quite a lot. Down 2-1 entering the ninth inning and Mariano Rivera looking to record his 50th save in 53 chances, the Red Sox once again got the game’s greatest closer and pulled out a stunning 3-2 victory.

“If I made my pitches, I wouldn’t have had a problem,’’ Rivera said. “The guys gave me a tremendous opportunity, but I blew it. I didn’t do my job. A one-run lead ought to be enough. They beat me tonight but I will be back.”

Rivera walked leadoff hitter Trot Nixon and while striking out Varitek, pinch-runner Dave Roberts - unknowingly providing a telling glimpse into the future - stole second. Rivera then hit Millar with a pitch, and Gabe Kapler went in to pinch run.

Next, Orlando Cabrera - the shortstop who had been acquired to replace the departed Nomar Garciaparra - grounded a single through the right side to chase home Roberts with the tying run. And after Kevin Youkilis struck out, Damon came through with a bloop single that landed just out of the reach of center fielder Kenny Lofton as Kapler raced home with the go-ahead run.

“He is the greatest closer in baseball history,” Damon acknowledged. “You’re not gonna do that every day. You have to get him when you can.” Now, the Red Sox had done it to Rivera the last two times they had faced him, and that would be a prelude of what was to come in October.

When Red Sox closer Keith Foulke mowed down Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi and John Olerud in order, the Yankees lead was down to 2.5 games, and maybe for the first time all season they began to worry about the Red Sox. At least that’s what the Red Sox thought.

“Without question, it was definitely a blow to their ego,’’ said Bronson Arroyo, who started the game for Boston and despite an 86-minute rain delay in the third inning was able to return and get through six. “We start getting a little closer, they start doubting themselves a little bit more.’’

The Red Sox struck first when Damon led off the third with a home run off Orlando Hernandez, the Yankees starter who made his season debut July 11 and since then had won eight straight decisions and pitched to a 2.49 ERA. When the rain came, El Duque was done, but Tanyon Sturtze gave the Yankees 3.2 stellar innings and during that time, they took the lead as A-Rod led off the fourth with a double and came home on a Posada grounder, and Olerud - who was released by the Mariners and signed by the Yankees on Aug. 3 - homered off Arroyo leading off the fifth.

However, the Yankees managed just one more hit - a fifth-inning single by Lofton - the rest of the way, and that gave the Red Sox the chance they ultimately capitalized on.

“The last time they saw us, we were a completely different team and were playing a completely different brand of ball,” Damon said. “We’re playing baseball now. A couple months ago, we couldn’t run to first. Now they’ve seen what everybody else has seen the last couple months. I think this definitely sets a tone for us. But just setting a tone isn’t enough. Now we have to follow through the next two days.”

But here’s how that went.

The next afternoon, the Yankees jumped on Derek Lowe for five runs in the first inning, added four more in the second and cruised to a 14-4 slaughter. And then it was more of the same Sunday as they scored twice in the first off Pedro Martinez, eventually tagged him for eight runs, and laughed their way to an 11-1 victory.

The Saturday game was undoubtedly the biggest one of the season to date for New York, and none other than George Steinbrenner agreed, saying. “It was a great win.”

The night before, Joe Torre had said of the heartbreaking loss,“Because of where we are in the schedule and the need to play well, it was a downer.” Saturday, he sang a different tune. “I couldn’t be more proud of this club in the first and second inning.”

Gary Sheffield, nearing the end of his first season in the Bronx, said he noticed an atmospheric change in the clubhouse before the game. He had come to learn that the Yankees always had a business-like approach, but this was different.

’’It was real quiet in the locker room,” he said, a nod to the situation at hand and the need to have a big answer. “Once we got on the field, it seemed like the bats started making noise. To come back and win this game was very important.”

It was over in a hurry. Derek Jeter walked, A-Rod and Hideki Matsui singled, and Bernie Williams - who had been benched Friday night - drew a bases-loaded walk. Posada followed with a two-run single and two more runs scored on a Ruben Sierra grounder which included an error by Cabrera.

In the second, the first five batters reached and four of them scored and for the rest of the misty, windy day, the Yankees watched Jon Lieber lock down the potent Boston offense for eight-plus innings before needing relief from Scott Proctor.

’’It’s pretty much one of those days,’’ Mientkiewicz said. ‘’We haven’t had one of those days in a long time.’’

And then they had another.

With Pedro on the mound, the Red Sox were feeling pretty good about their chances of winning a series against the Yankees for the fourth time in five tries. But just like the Red Sox often gave Rivera problems, the Yankees did the same to Martinez, and this was certainly one of those days.

They shellacked him for eight runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings and upped their lead in the division to 4.5 games with 13 games remaining including three more big ones the following weekend at Fenway.

The barrage began when A-Rod singled in the first and Sheffield launched his 35th homer of the season. Jeter hit a solo homer to start the third, and after Damon’s RBI single in the fifth off an otherwise very sharp Mike Mussina cut Boston’s deficit to 3-1, the Yankees erupted for five runs in the sixth.

Williams walked, Posada hit a two-run homer, Olerud walked, Sierra doubled, and Miguel Cairo hit a two-run single. That knocked Pedro out and as he left the crowd of more than 55,000 serenaded his name, after which Mike Timlin came on and gave up another run that made it 8-1.

“Yes, I heard them,’’ Martinez said afterward of the fans. “I know what they were doing, and I know why they were doing it. They are what they are.’’

A-Rod’s two-run homer in the eighth, which kept him tied with Sheffield for the team lead, put a capper on the rout.

“We came through this all right, so we feel pretty good about ourselves,” Torre said. “But they’ve still beaten us more times than we’ve beaten them (Boston was 9-7 at this point). By no stretch of the imagination does this do anything other than make us feel pretty good.”

“We’re feeling good right now, we have to keep going,” Sheffield said. “We’re going to try to extend it even further now. We’ve always liked our chances, regardless of what people think. We’ve always thought we’re the best team in baseball. We knew it was going to be a tough series, but we’re right where we want to be.”

As for the Red Sox who had been playing so well before the final two games, nothing changed in their cocksure, loosey-goosey clubhouse.

“When a lot of you (media) guys gave up on us, we somehow worked it out,” Pedro said. “And hopefully we’ll do that again. We still have another series back home, and hopefully we’ll return the favor. If we get to the playoffs, believe me, we’re not going to be the ones who are scared.’’

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Pedro Martinez gets shelled by the Yankees once again, and his response was: “What can I say? I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy.”