My Sweet Lord | TakeHimDowntown.com

Bronx, N.Y., September 4, 2002 — It was going to be different this year. The Red Sox weren’t only going to put a scare into the Yanks this time. Ever since they inhaled that heady and almost unprecedented five-games-up air early in the year, the demons of yesteryear were banished, and the Yankees were going down. As intoxicated with the sound of a hit record (certainly a hit in Boston, and in much of the country too) as the late George Harrison was on this day in 1970 when he released the song that shares this column’s title, Red Sox players, fans and new ownership and management were as fooled as Harrison was.

They were fully convinced they were playing a brand-new tune, but the song behind the song proved to be as old, trite and predictable as the “He’s So Fine” that Harrison had inadvertently appropriated from the Shirelles from more than a decade earlier.

There are other analogies that fit the situation equally well. Ford Motor Company thought they had a winner on their hands 45 years ago today when they released a turkey of mythic proportions in their Edsel model. The 2002 Red Sox may have been up to a test drive around the block, but they were certainly not built to withstand the pressures of day-to-day driving, and just didn’t fulfill their guarantee, unless of course the guarantee was that they would deliver an AL East race like so many we have seen over the years.

And Red Sox fans might want to thank me for poking those two metaphors with a stick rather than choosing the obvious one — the beloved “Curse of the Bambino.” I decided to take the high road and give them a moment’s peace from that rap from Boston baseball hell ever since Pedro felt shooting pains in his shoulder almost immediately after taunting the Babe last year. But I could easily have made a “Curse” case too, claiming it was key in our 10-9 victory in the regular season series, when you consider the fact that Dick York, the original Darren Stevens from the seventies sit-com “Bewitched,” was born on this day in 1928.

Andy Pettitte and Derek Lowe put on a pretty good show this evening in the Bronx, though a mildly interested TV watcher with an active remote might have been surprised to find runs scored early in this one, billed as it was as a pitchers’ duel. Andy was not hit hard in the first, but the wily Damon’s push bunt was cashed in when Nomar and Manny followed it up with soft singles to right and left field, respectively. Pettitte used his ground ball pill to escape from further damage, and when Soriano’s hard single off Lowe to start the bottom half of the first was immediately followed by Jeter’s bunt base hit, it appeared the Yanks would notch the equalizer quickly. And though disappointed that Jason took a third strike without advancing the runners, few realized the huge significance the Lowe/Giambi confrontation would later have, as we fully expected runs with Bernie and Jorge to follow anyway.

Andy maintained the command he had marshaled to escape the first inning and held the Sox scoreless through the next three despite surrendering a base hit an inning. And Derek Lowe routinely retired the rest of the familiar Yankee line up, though Mondesi went down via a failed stolen base only after working out a seven-pitch walk. Lowe had thrown a first-pitch strike to the first four Yanks, and five of eight. And when rookie Juan Rivera led off the third by falling behind in the count 0-2 (the third Yank in nine to do so), Lowe did what he had done to Giambi, throwing a pitch within a whisker of the outside corner, one way or the other. Jason took the pitch and walked to the dugout. Juan took it too, took it the other way into the right field corner, that is. Misplayed by Manny, some felt Juan could have made third, but this kid seems to have a baseball sense, and he did not risk making the first out of the inning at third.

Lowe then plunked Soriano (twice in three days, very suspicious), but when Jeter failed to bunt and bounced into a 6-4-3, we appeared to have another stillborn rally on our hands. But, perhaps taking a page from Juan Rivera’s at bat, Giambi took strike two, but refused to watch anything else close, and fouled off a third and fourth outside pitch until Lowe got one a little up. He swung. He did not miss. It cleared the left field wall in the corner easily. We danced, we sang. We were up 2-1, and we weren’t done. Ironically, ahead 0-2 pitch (again) to Bernie, Lowe hit him with his third pitch, and our second hit-by-pitch victim of the inning trotted down to first. Andy had hit Hillenbrand in the top of the third, and this was getting interesting. Lowe bounced the first pitch to Posada, and Jorge reaped his 90th rbi on a single to left center on a 2-1 pitch. The score (both runs and hit-by-pitches) was final. Yanks 3-1/Sox 2-1 (though Steve Karsay started his two-inning save in the eighth by firing his first pitch right under Nomar’s chin, as if to say, “Game’s Over!”).

There was a clever sign on the Section 11 Tier facade just to the home plate side of the French’s Mustard board, in ornate, old-style, classic letters in four lines, alternating red, black, red, black:

And on the “You Don’t See that Every Day” list: a marriage proposal in Row E of Box 618, and it wasn’t even mentioned on the Fan Marquee. It attracted a lot of attention around our seats, and it started with onlookers calling out “Oohs” and “Aahs”; apparently successful, the last yell I heard was, “Hey. Get a room!”

September 4 is a very good day in Yankee history too. On September 4, 1923, Yankee hurler Sad Sam Jones no-hit the Philadelphia A’s 2-0 (the same score as Doc Gooden’s no-no in ’96, btw). And the earliest clinching among the 38 AL Championships the Yanks have amassed in 100 years occurred today in 1941, when the Yanks beat the Red Sox 6-3. Finally, Ron Guidry notched the 20th win of his Cy-Young-Award-winning, 25-3, 1978 season on September 4 of that year.

The timely offensive contributions of Johhny Damon, Manny Ramirez, Juan Rivera and Jorge Posada notwithstanding, and with special praise for Jason Giambi, this game was about Lowe vs. Pettitte. Andy belonged here, as he beat the Red Sox in the last game between the rivals last year by giving them only one run then too, though it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Besting Hideo Nomo 7-2 (Witasik gave up the second run) on September 9, our last scheduled game was rained out September 10. The Yanks wouldn’t play in the Stadium again until September 25 vs. the Devil Rays.

Although my top-of-the first numbers are a bit spotty as I worked my way to my seat, the two hurlers could hardly have thrown more similar games. They both faced 29 batters though seven complete innings, and both achieved a 17-12, first-pitch strike to ball ratio. Lowe threw 98 pitches, with 38 balls; Pettitte (about?) 99, with 36 balls. Derek walked one, struck out three and hit two. Andy walked one, struck out four and hit one. Andy’s six hits were one less than the seven Derek surrendered. And it came down to the one factor at which they have both excelled all season. Pettitte had surrendered five homers in just over 100 innings, as he was injured for two months. In almost 200 innings, Lowe had given up eight. Derek led the battle going in, allowing .0428 homers per inning to Andy’s .0488. But Jason’s homer turned it all around, and now Andy’s .04574 is lower than Derek’s .04646.

My Sweet Lord. Beat him by a country mile.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!