It really doesn't matter what David Wells does today. The humiliation is complete. The Red Sox are now six games behind the Yankees in the loss column, so you can forget about the American League East. And if you're thinking wild card, be advised that the Red Sox are three behind the Twins and four behind the White Sox in that same loss column.
Curt Schilling did his job, but I'll get back to you when I have new news in that department. Schilling worked seven solid innings, wobbling only during a three-run fourth that was highlighted by Giambi's first home run, a majestic clout into the right-field bleachers.
Schilling did his job, and Big Papi did his part with a go-ahead solo homer in the fifth. It was No. 44, and it landed pretty much in the same spot where Carl Yastrzemski hit his 44th home run in the penultimate game of the 1967 season. Hey, you've got to find the happy news wherever you can around here these days.
But the biggest performance of the night belonged to Giambi, who hit the three-run homer in the fourth, brought the Yankees back within one at 5-4 with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Jonathan Papelbon in the eighth and then smashed that ball into the Sox pen off Hansen in the 10th.
It came down to a battle of the closers after Mike Timlin's latest shaky outing put the Red Sox in a bad way. Schilling had thrown seven gutty innings, starting with the need to throw 41 pitches just to record two scoreless innings at the outset of the game. Johnny Damon started the game off with a seven-pitch at-bat that culminated in a shattered-bat roller to first, while Jeter made Schilling throw 10 pitches just to earn a called third strike. But that's the certified Yankee way.
Schilling did have his good stuff, however, and with the exception of the fourth he was in charge. His only other real scare came in the sixth, when his own wild throw on a pickoff attempt of Bobby Abreu put a runner on third base with no one out. But Schilling fanned Giambi and retired Alex Rodriguez (popout) and Robinson Cano (soft liner to short) to extricate himself from that jam.
