CHICAGO -- This is not ideal, not easy, and most definitely not healthy -- for them or you -- but this is what the Red Sox know, and that, it seems, is where their hope and faith lie.
Down two games to none to Cleveland in the 1999 Division Series. Down two games to none to Oakland in the 2003 Division Series. Down three games to none to the Yankees in the 2004 Championship Series. Revived, and resplendent, in all three.
''We've been down this road," the composed spokesman, Johnny Damon, said last night in the visiting clubhouse at US Cellular Field, where his teammates quietly ate after allowing five unanswered runs in a demoralizing 5-4 Game 2 loss to Chicago in this American League Division Series. ''There will be no finger pointing. We go to bat for each other. We know how hard it is."
The task, again, is enormous: Beat the AL's best regular-season team, on three consecutive days, twice at Fenway, then once back here, where Chicago has clubbed a team record six home runs (in just two games) in the postseason and have outscored the Red Sox, 19-6.
Rookie Tadahito Iguchi delivered the only homer last night, with two outs in the fifth, uncoiling on a 1-and-1 David Wells curveball that sailed high and deep into the Chicago night. And that made for one lonely second baseman.
Already, there should have been three outs. The Red Sox should have finished that inning ahead, 4-2. Tony Graffanino should have caught the ball. That slow roller that slipped, yes, between his legs.
''He didn't hit it that well," Graffanino said. ''I didn't get a good read on it. I rushed it to try to get [a double play]. I just missed it."
Wells entered the fifth inning ahead, 4-0, but allowed Chicago to halve the gap on an Aaron Rowand no-out, run-scoring double, and a Joe Crede RBI single up the middle.
Juan Uribe then locked into a lengthy battle with Wells. Weak knubber foul. Strike looking. Smoked foul ball. Foul back. Ball up and in. Foul off to the side. And then, a snapping Wells curveball that Uribe weakly grounded at Graffanino. The second baseman moved in position to field the ball and shuffle it to Edgar Renteria all in one motion, for a sure force play at second, and a possible, but unlikely double play.
Instead, he attempted to flip to Renteria before picking up the ball. It skipped through his legs into the outfield. Graffanino walked to the mound.
''I told him [Wells], 'My bad,' " Graffanino said. ''And I asked him to get me out of the inning."
Wells recorded another out but couldn't handle Iguchi, the 30-year-old rookie whom the Sox worked out in January in San Diego before he signed with the White Sox. (Boston passed because they envisioned Iguchi at shortstop, and he showed limited range at the position).
