"We're definitely upset," said Johnny Damon, who capped a stirring comeback attempt by homering in the seventh inning to force a 5-5 tie before the effort went for naught. "We know they're a good team over there, but we felt we should have won the game."
The loss dropped the Sox seven games behind the Yankees in the American League East, their largest deficit at the break since they faced an 11-game gap in 1998. But just as the '98 Sox went on to win the wild-card berth, the '04 crew entered the break feeling pretty good about itself, despite the unfortunate first-half finale. The Sox lead the A's by one game in the wild-card race.
"We didn't dig ourselves a hole too deep to climb out of," Epstein said. "We're very well positioned to get in [the playoffs] if we play good baseball. That's all you can do. We withstood some adversity and ended on a positive note, besides today."
After playing much of the first half without a third of their regular lineup because of injuries to Nomar Garciaparra, Trot Nixon, and Bill Mueller, the Sox entered the break at 48-38, their worst mark through 86 games since they went 44-42 in 2000. They were 50-36 last year, 53-33 in '02, and 51-35 in '01.
But the '04 Sox have flourished since they began playing with their full lineup Tuesday for the first team this season, running off five straight wins before yesterday's disappointment.
"I like the way our team is set up right now," said Tim Wakefield, who went six innings and surrendered the first five runs. "Everybody's healthy, we played some great baseball this homestand, and I think we still have a lot of momentum. We've just got to keep it rolling."
That should be easy if they continue leading the league in ERA (3.89) and hitting like they did in batting .310 over the final 23 games before the break. They have two of the top MVP candidates in All-Stars Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, though the Sox played without Ramirez in the starting lineup for the third straight year in the final game before the All-Star break, this time after he cited sore hamstrings (he popped to shallow right in the ninth inning as a pinch hitter).
