The day of baseball started at 1:07 p.m. yesterday and ended at 12:52 a.m. today, with the Sox 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees. Nine Sox pitchers combined to throw a staggering 431 pitches in the losses.
It was still the seventh inning of Game 2 when the center-field scoreboard flashed the news that the last T would be pulling out of the Kenmore Square station at 12:35 a.m. At 12:19, with the game still in the top of the eighth, it already had become the longest nine-inning regular-season game in major league history. The nine innings took 4 hours 45 minutes.
Whether the express train to October already has departed with the Sox left standing on the platform remains to be seen -- Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling are on call in the next two days. But the Yankees have their aces, Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina, on deck as well as they seek to extend their biggest lead of the summer against the Sox.
``We're in trouble," said David Ortiz, whose 43d home run of the season, off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 2, was of little consequence on a day the Bombers collected 34 hits. ``Any time you score 11 runs and lose, you're in trouble. But what are you going to do? Keep playing. That's all you can do. I feel like I just got my butt kicked. And I did."
The prevailing sentiment in the visitors' clubhouse, of course, was one of satisfaction.
``Well, two is a bonus for us," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``Now we have Randy and Moose going for us in the next two games. Certainly our confidence is sky high. We'll be a little exhausted, but so will they later on today."
The roll call of victims began with Jason Johnson, the Game 1 starter who was shipped out after the game, and ended with Mike Timlin, who gave up the bases-loaded double to Derek Jeter that chased three runs across the plate to give the Yankees an 11-10 lead. Three more runs would score before Timlin walked slowly off the mound, boos dogging his every step.
