YANKEES 6
Red Sox 4
BOSTON – This was a clincher, of sorts, for the Red Sox. Now, there’s virtually no chance of them overtaking the Yankees and winning the AL East.
The Yankees beat Pedro Martinez and the Sox, 6-4, at Fenway last night – pulling ahead with two runs in the eighth inning when half of New England was asking itself what the heck Pedro was still doing on the mound that late in the game.
But more important, the Yankees also crushed Martinez’ usually combative spirit – a huge factor if the Bombers and Bosox collide in the ALCS next month.
“What can I say?” a downtrodden Martinez said afterward. “Just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddies.”
Thanks to the Yanks’ win in front of 35,022, the Bombers hiked their lead over the second-place Bosox to 5½ games, with eight remaining for New York.
The Yanks also lowered their Magic Number for clinching the division to four. Any combination of Yankee victories and Red Sox losses totaling four gives the Yanks their seventh straight divisional title – possibly as early as tomorrow right here at Fenway.
Martinez suffered his second loss to the Yankees in a week, and now sports a career record of 10-10 versus the Bombers, who are 19-11 against the Red Sox in games started by Martinez.
“They beat me, not my team,” Martinez admitted. “Let it go. They are that good. They are that hot right now, at least against me.”
When asked about seeing the Yankees in the postseason, Martinez uttered words that will have Red Sox fans everywhere shudder.
“I want them to [bleeping] disappear and never come back,” Martinez said. “I’d like to face any other team right now.”
Martinez gave up five runs and nine hits in 71/3 innings and turned his back on manager Terry Francona when Francona came to get Martinez in the eighth.
Francona was booed on his way to get Martinez and on his route back to the dugout for letting Martinez start the eighth.
Martinez was protecting a 4-3 lead in the frame when Hideki Matsui hit the biggest homer of his brief Yankee career leading off to tie the score, 4-4.
Bernie Williams’ second double of the game and 401st of his career followed, and Williams scored on Ruben Sierra’s one-out single to right to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. Matsui added an RBI double in the ninth to give Mariano Rivera a two-run bulge.
Rivera, who flushed a one-run lead against the Bosox in The Bronx last Friday, posted his career-high 51st save and stretched the Yankees’ winning streak against the Red Sox to three.
While Yankee manager Joe Torre agreed with others that Matsui’s 27th homer, a shot to right-center, was his biggest as a Yankee, Matsui refused to gloat.
“I don’t look at it that way,” said Matsui, who also contributed by playing Kevin Millar’s line drive off the Green Monster perfectly and throwing out Millar at second to start the sixth. “But this is a very important game and series.”
Torre is the master at taking it one game at a time. But when he decided to use Tom Gordon in the seventh, he sent a message to his club and the Red Sox.
“When you are in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, it becomes a must win,” Torre said. “We invested Tom Gordon in the seventh. We made a commitment not to have Tom Gordon [today].”