Then the scoreboard showed New York and Toronto engaged in a pitchers' duel between Andy Pettitte and Roy Halladay, which was won by the Yankees in 10 innings. The Yankees' next 12 games are against Toronto, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Baltimore, and you wonder if they just might make a run, as they tried to do in early June when they won nine straight.
Nights like last night reveal the flaws on a Red Sox team that has spent 94 days in first place. Where is the offense? Where is the pitching? You wonder if the Red Sox can stretch the lead to double digits again.
What if the lead continues to dwindle? What if the loss of Curt Schilling takes its toll? You can't help but wonder what is ahead.
It is mid-July and the Sox' record over their last 40 games is dead even.
"We feel inconsistent lately," said third baseman Mike Lowell. "We're still a team with the best record or one of the best records in baseball, but if that's our record, you're talking about over a month playing that way and we have to pick it up and do better than that.
"There's no doubt we've had some missing pieces that have affected us. Losing some of Curt's starts are definitely a factor because he's such a quality pitcher, though it's hard to beat what Kason gave us the other night. And believe me, there are signs. Julio Lugo is a completely different hitter now than he was earlier in the year. Manny [Ramírez] is really stroking the ball well. So there are signs, but we've got to start doing it. We've got to start stringing together some wins."
As Lowell said, there are good things going for the Sox.
They have the second-best record in baseball.
They have a favorable schedule the rest of the way.
The news on Schilling gets more encouraging by the day, with a rehab stint Saturday in Pawtucket.
They have a terrific bullpen -- perhaps the best 1-2 punch in the league in Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima. They have added Manny Delcarmen as their righthanded setup man. They have two terrific starters in Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka and two terrific prospects in Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester.
Then there are glaring weaknesses:
