Wreckage from this series leaves a sweeping sense of devastation

August 22, 2006|Jackie MacMullan, Globe columnist

This mercifully completed series has been like a horrific house fire burning out of control, the flames licking higher and higher, inflicting more and more damage as the games raged on and the losses piled up. Each day, the Red Sox trudged to their park in hopes of containing the blaze, of dousing the white-hot momentum of their most bitter rival, yet each day the Yankees turned up the heat and discovered another method to smoke out the battered local nine.

After yesterday's excruciating 2-1 loss, the Red Sox' push for the American League East title officially has been reduced to ashes. Five losses in four days. A 6 1/2-game deficit, 7 in the loss column. Four-game sweeps are demoralizing enough, but a five-game broom job? It's inconceivable. Five days ago, it would have been absurd to suggest it. Asked if he ever envisioned such a scenario, Yankees manager Joe Torre deadpanned, ``Well, managers have visions of sugarplums."

So now the Sox head west with the leaders of the team, both on the field and off, searching amid the rubble for some glimmer of hope.

There were actually some bright spots yesterday, but to highlight them would be akin to pulling that gaudy lamp that Aunt Gladys left you in her will from under the scorched remains of the Red Sox' playoff dreams. The lamp is old, worn, and broken down, but when you plug it in, to your amazement, you discover, ``Hey! This thing still works!"

David Wells, yesterday's Sox starter, still works. He almost retired three times this season because of a troubled knee, and when he retreated to San Diego to ``rehab" it this spring, many (including me) felt certain he never would be seen again. But Wells, determined not to end his career on the disabled list, returned to the rotation July 31 and had won three of his last four starts.

Like Curt Schilling's before him. Wells's performance was deserving of a pick-me-up win. He pitched 7 1/3 innings and mixed his changeup, his curveball, and his fastball like a 43-year-old pro who has seen and done it all.

``You feel bad, man," said David Ortiz in the quiet of the Sox clubhouse. ``He pitched his [butt] off. But you know how things are going for us. It might help to get out of the house, I guess.

``This whole series has been a nightmare."

Yesterday's angst came in the form of a pitching duel between Wells and Cory Lidle, a trading-deadline acquisition by New York.

Lidle departed after six innings, having held Boston scoreless. Wells battled on into the eighth, aided in part by a diluted Yankees lineup that did not include Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, or Johnny Damon.