The New York Daily NewsFriday, September 14th 2007, 4:00 AM
BOSTON - The Yankees and Red Sox have not given us the show we expected this season, because never in this world was a team as loaded as the Yankees supposed to be 14 1/2 games off the lead at the end of May. The Yankees and Red Sox have still given us a banging show, one not over yet. The Red Sox have done that from the lead and the Yankees have done that from behind. And even though the two teams might have one more ALCS in them before they are through this time, these three games at Fenway Park this weekend will still get us to stop and watch.
A race in the AL East that was declared over at the end of May when the Yankees were 14 1/2 games behind Boston, arrives at the corner of Brookline Ave. and Yawkey Way at a little after 7 tonight. The Red Sox try to hold on, after being the best team and having the best record for most of this baseball year. The Yankees try to come all the way back and not have to play the Angels in the first round of the playoffs, because if they do, they could be one round and out for a third year in a row.
The Yankees can get another sweep and move to within two games of the Red Sox in the loss column. The Red Sox can turn things around and sweep the Yankees and make the Yankees fight for the wild card to the very end. The Yankees have overcome a lot. The Red Sox have overcome more, are 9-3 in September without Manny Ramirez.
The Yankees? They are playing the way they were supposed to play all along, especially with a team full of stars, and another payroll pushing $200 million. For the last time, this Yankee team isn't a "Rocky" movie.
The other night, the Yankees went up against the Blue Jays with Alex Rodriguez, the MVP of everything, and Jorge Posada, an MVP candidate himself in any other season except A-Rod's. They had Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon. They had Derek Jeter, who still has the numbers, even though they seem pretty soft this time.
At the same time, the Red Sox went up against the Devil Rays with the following lineup: The great Papi Ortiz, Jason Varitek, Eric Hinske, Dustin Pedroia, Julio Lugo, Kevin Youkilis, Brandon Moss, Coco Crisp, J.D. Drew. With Mike Lowell sick, Ortiz was the only .300 hitter on the field for Boston. He hit two home runs, one of them a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, knocked in all his team's runs, and the Red Sox came from behind again.
The Yankees never should have fallen behind the way they did, never should have looked as inconsistent as they did until September. Give them all the credit in the world for being tough. But then Joe Torre's Yankees have often displayed tremendous toughness in the years since they last won the World Series, even if it hasn't really extended to the playoffs since they came back in Game 7 to beat the Red Sox four years ago. Hung tough, hung around.
Now comes this last chance to extend a streak of winning the AL East that extends back to 1998. You say it doesn't matter in the whole grand scheme of things, and it doesn't, because wild-card teams make the World Series now and win the World Series now. But it matters to the Yankees, who never want to finish second to the Red Sox, who are managed by Torre to finish first, you see it more and more, you see it by the way he treats an amazing number of regular-season games like the Super Bowl.
The Red Sox have been vulnerable for awhile. The Red Sox should have added a hitter instead of Eric Gagne at the trade deadline, and paid for it when Gagne came over and blew three games fast. If that doesn't happen, the East is over already. Only it's not. Manny is hurt, Tim Wakefield got hurt and has had two bad starts since coming back, Daisuke Matsuzaka - tonight's Red Sox starter - has looked tired over his last several starts, and as hittable against everybody else as he usually is against the Yankees.
The Yankees should be closer than they are. And yet: When they left here way behind at the end of May, they would have taken the chance they get tonight, and tomorrow afternoon, and Sunday night, when Family Guy Clemens, the bravest guy ever, is supposed to make another return.
It will be a show. It is always a show, in April and September and in between. Yawkey Way waited quietly for it yesterday in the early afternoon, cars lined on both sides of the narrow street that will turn into the best street fair in baseball and maybe all of sports in the late afternoon today, when the turnstiles are set up and the music is played. And from Brookline Ave. to Van Ness there is as much baseball in this one block as there could ever be anywhere - because the Yankees have come to town again.
There was foot traffic, too, yesterday, and a good crowd at the team store, where a young guy stood at 12:30 and announced that the Fenway Park tour was about to begin. The first thing he asked was, "How many have been here before?"
It sometimes seems as if the Yankees are here all the time, almost always in front. Not this time. But not quite done yet. This time the Yankees took the long way here.
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