Bronx, N.Y., June 8, 2006 — I think it’s fair to say that most Yankee fans were unhappy with Wednesday’s rainout because the team had been playing so well. It was no time to stop. Tuesday’s 2-1 victory was the first game in more than a week in which they failed to amass double-digit hits (they got nine). They managed just four in Thursday’s 9-3 loss, even if three of them (all four actually) were loud ones.

The credit for that certainly goes more to the crafty Boston starter Curt Schilling than to the dreary weather that continues to hover over the country’s east coast. The veteran righty has a reputation for being a fly ball pitcher, but he gave the lie to that in this one, even if the hometown Yanks did stroke four big flies.

Boston used three quick singles and a walk to jump out to a 1-0 lead against Yankee starter Jaret Wright in the first, but he pulled off a nifty escape by turning Jason Varitek’s two hopper back to the box into an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play. Six pitches later, ex-Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon smacked a leadoff home run high off the right field foul pole, and the Yanks and Sox were tied, 1-1.

Things looked good when in the second veteran Bernie Williams stroked his fourth homer of the year, and second of this series, a liner that thumped off the bleacher wall (over the home run wall) in right center before the Boston outfielders even had much of a chance to react. Damon doubled to the wall in right center in the third, and Robby Cano homered to right two frames later to up the Yankee lead to 3-1.

Baseball fans are used to the “Bombers” clearing fences, but that aspect of the game has not played a big part in their recent resurgence. On this night the unaccustomed power show blinded many to a few things that were not working in the home team’s favor. Although Wright recovered well from his troubles in the first, both he and Schilling were suffering from a mounting pitch count, 75 for Jaret through five, which was two more than the number Schilling had thrown.

And while Curt was down 3-1 due to the four long drives, they were the only baserunners he had allowed (or would, as it turned out). The Yanks came close in the third but Damon was erased after his double on a dp when Melky Cabrera’s bid for a following rbi base hit hung up long enough for Coco Crisp to run under it. Wright allowed six hits and a walk through five, and the first four Boston batters reached in the sixth, ending his night. After a Ramirez walk, two singles pared the lead to one, and when Jaret plunked Varitek, he left with the bases loaded and none out and a precarious one-run lead. He had allowed 11 baserunners to Curt’s four.

Reliever Scott Proctor allowed a tie on a sac fly by Kevin Youkilis, and he almost escaped when Alex Gonzalez smoked a hot shot down third after fouling five straight pitches. But with the go-ahead run at third, Alex Rodriguez was in tight. The hard hopper got by, and Boston had a 4-3 lead. Initially scored an error, Gonzalez was later (correctly) credited with a double. Be that as it may though, A-Rod is not right, and he hasn’t been since he was felled by a bug over the weekend in Baltimore. With Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield out for most (if not all) of the year, Alex needs to recover, and fast.

The sudden lead had an immediate effect on Schilling. Around a telling fourth frame in which he coaxed three straight bouncers to second on eight tosses, his early inning pitch counts were 20, 17, 13, and 15, but with a lead he retired nine straight Yankees on just seven, nine, and then seven pitches, respectively. And he used ground balls to do it, almost all of them to the right side. A quick box score glance shows that Boston second baseman Mark Loretta was the only visitor not to score. He went 0-for-5. But Mark recorded eight assists and a putout, so it’s not like he let hitting woes get to him.

While Schilling kept the Yankee bats quiet, Boston finished them off in the seventh. On June 8 in 1999, the Philadelphia Phillies pounced on the Yanks for a nine-run seventh in an 11-2 win. Boston reached Yankee pitching for eight runs in the sixth and seventh this day. Continuing that onslaught, David Ortiz led off the seventh with a double, and two batters later Varitek blasted a three-run bomb. Scott Erickson came on and allowed two more on a couple of singles and a hit by pitch, and Boston had their final 9-3 lead.

Baseball is famously known as a game that is all about failure, a sport where even good hitters fail seven times in 10 chances. Being a fan of a good team can bring an entusiast a lot of joy, but it’s a sobering thought that every winning steak inevitably ends with a loss. Good, crisp play eventually ends in less stellar performances. This series began four days ago with Boston and New York 1-2 in the AL East. The positions are reversed, so it’s been a good week, the Thursday loss notwithstanding.

Late musical theater star Robert Preston would have celebrated his 88th birthday Thursday. In the hit play and film “The Music Man,” he played con man Professor Harold Hill, who convinced an Iowa town they needed a youth band to counter the effects of the town’s pool hall. He advised the townfolk that they had,

Trouble with a capital “T”
And that rhymes with “P” and that stands for pool!

Well, “T” rhymes with “B” too, and that stands for baseball! On Thursday we had trouble all right.

Trouble right here on River Avenue!

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!