That Yankee ... thing

Whatever you call it, New York finds a way to win -- again

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This is what makes the Yankees the Yankees. This is what makes the Yankees the @#!&%@# New York Yankees.

Two times in two days, against a pretty good Boston team, the Yankees blew big leads, bounced back in the late innings and somehow scraped together a way to win.

The Yankees could have lost both of those games, really. Maybe should have. But they won, both times by 9-8 scores, and now lead the American League East by four games over the Red Sox.

Is this beginning to look a little too familiar?

Boston won the opener of the three-game set in Yankee Stadium, a 4-2 thriller of a pitching duel Friday between Pedro Martinez and the Yankees' Mike Mussina And that was as good as things got for Boston.

From then on, the Yankees' magic -- Aura, Mystique, whatever -- took over in a seesaw series full of strange feats and freak plays.

Consider:

• In Game 2, the Red Sox were down 6-2 after six innings but rallied to take an 8-6 lead into the bottom of the eighth. They finally lost in 11.
• In Game 3, they were down 5-1 after three innings but rallied to take a 8-7 lead into the bottom of the ninth. They lost in the bottom of the ninth. "Deja blew," read the headline in the Boston Globe.
• Boston lost Saturday on a slow roller to second base in the bottom of the 11th. 
• The Red Sox lost Sunday on a check-swing single down the third base line, an error that allowed the tying run to score and a bases-loaded walk that forced in the winning run. 
• The Yankees won Saturday night despite the fact their closer, Mariano Rivera, had to leave after only six pitches in the eighth with tightness in his shoulder.
• New York won on Sunday despite newcomer Jeff Weaver allowing five home runs.  The five homers were the most allowed by a Yankees pitcher ever at Yankee Stadium.  
• When he pitched for the Tigers in 1999, Weaver also gave up five home runs in a game -- against the Red Sox.
• Yankees catcher Jorge Posada struck out four times Saturday night -- and the Yankees still won. Sunday, after an 0-for-12 series, he came up with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the ninth -- and walked, forcing in the winning run.

The Red Sox still lead the season series between these two teams, 8-6, and there are still five more games to play (two in Boston in late August and three more in the Bronx in early September). But the Red Sox, who have a league-leading 3.71 ERA, have an alarming 5.09 ERA against the Yanks. And they're behind by four games. Maybe that whole weekend was just another example of Yankee magic, as slugger Jason Giambi suggested Sunday. Or maybe, after all that, it's not the Yankees at all. Maybe it's just the Red Sox being the @#!&%@# Boston Red Sox.

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

Posted: Monday July 22, 2002 12:08 PM