I was falling asleep on the floor last night as the Red Sox and Yankees dragged out another classic hard fought game. The score was tied at 5 as they went into the ninth inning. With 2 outs, A-Rod was up. Francona went to the bullpen. ESPN went to commercials. I went back to sleep.
I woke up, struggling to blink my eyes and see it was a 3-1 count on Rodriguez. Papelbom was pitching. ARod leaned in and twirled his bat without taking his eyes off the pitcher. After about ten minutes, he fired a curveball, an unexpected pitch for that count. ARod swung and missed. Varitek threw the ball back and papelbom walked off the mound and proceeded to pace around and rub his hands. When the camera closed on the pitcher, he looked pale and frightened. The camera switched on ARod who was calm, except that under the dark eyelids his eyes were burning. He looked like a tiger. Then I realized, and said to myself, “he’s about to go yard.” Next pitch, Rodriguez hit it into the bullpen. Fenway went silent as he jogged around the base. New York had just taken the lead.
Boston got the next out and as they went to the bottom of the ninth, ESPN showed who was up next: Big Papi, Manny, and Youkalis. I made myself stay awake. The Yankees brought in their closer. Then I watched with a hopeless feeling, as Mariano Rivera blew through the heart of the Red Sox order. As I watched, unmoving, my reaction was produced by a genetic code, hard-wired from past seasons (particularly since 1998), and recurrent familiarity — as if circadiem cycles — of losing games to New York.
It was the great Rivera of old, picking his spots with a defined cutter, slicing up corners. He remains a master, just as ARod remains one of the three best hitters in the game. There must have been satisfaction in that win for New York, on the road in Boston, struggling, the real possibility that Torre’s job is on the line, the long wait for some kind of comeback, a resurgence, and now the possibility of winning the next 7 out of 10. Beating Boston is emotional. Petite got knocked out early, so I don’t know how they did it. Boston bats weren’t terribly cool. The Yankees just stayed in there, and ARod came through with the dinger.