NEW YORK -- We are here, and the Bronx is not burning, and the only thing we know for sure is that this once "crucial" three-game series is all about the Yankees.
Fear not, gentle readers. The Red Sox have won the American League East. They are going to finish ahead of the Yankees. It's been a while. Think of it this way: If you were in the first grade the last time the Sox finished ahead of the Yankees (1995), then you have already graduated from high school.
There are 30 games to play and the Sox lead the Yankees by seven after last night's 5-3 loss to the Bronx Bombers. It's a bizarro season. The Sox are the secure team. It is the once-dominant Yanks who are scrambling, scuffling for a wild card, spitting up pieces of their broken luck.
"It's all about what you do, not about what other people do," Yankee manager Joe Torre said.
"I feel real good about our team's chances," said Johnny Damon (remember him?), who hit the game-winning home run. "I don't think it matters how you get there, just get in."
The Sox are in. They have a chance to bury the Yanks, and New York scribes are trying to get Terry Francona to admit he's already thinking about his playoff rotation. The skipper won't bite.
"If I did what you guys do for a living, I'd be asking the same questions," said Tito.
"But it doesn't do any good to think about what might happen down the road."
Francona hates it here. He loathes the interview room down the corridor from the Sox clubhouse. His pet peeve is cellphones going off in the middle of media sessions, and it happens here more than anywhere else. He was in an especially good mood before last night's game and made a joke when the first cellphone interrupted his pregame press conference. Let's see how he's doing by the end of the set tomorrow.
Even though the drama has been sucked out of the series, there's still plenty to watch. Sox fans would be wise to abstain from mocking the Yankees -- which is tempting because when the Yanks are bad, they are Superbad (in their last 19 games, they have lost by scores of 15-4, 12-0, 18-9, and 16-0).
Chest-thumping BoSox Nationals need to be mindful that the Yankees could still make the playoffs and emerge as an AL Championship Series opponent. The New Yorkers have a cake schedule after this week and last night they reminded us that Damon lives while giving Boston its first look at Joba (no relation to Wilt, Wes, or Neville) Chamberlain, who has yet to surrender a run in eight big league outings. Let's not forget that the 2004 Red Sox finished behind the Yankees but managed to do some postseason damage, at New York's expense.
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