FIGHT OR FRIGHT
After rolling over, time for Yanks to find backbone before Oct. bout
BOSTON — Forget t he depressing aspects of the weekend to date. Forget the 0-3 start to this four-game series, and the fact that the Red Sox have mostly turned this into an exhibition of the varsity schooling the JV
Forget the reality that, but for a brief surge against an elite closer (Craig Kimbrel) who always seems to struggle in non-save situations, the Yankees offense looked bleak and punchless for a second straight game in falling 4-1.
Forget t hat t he Sox have mostly t aken Brian Cashman’s words from last week — about how “we do some damage against them” — and in order 1) laughed at them; 2) scoffed at them; and 3) tossed them in an incinerator.
Forget all of that. It’s all background music at this point. It’s all white noise. There are only two solid realities to take away from this weekend, no matter how Sunday night’s finale turns out, and more important a third reality still to be determined.
1) The Yankees aren’t catching the Red Sox.
Boston didn’t clinch anything this weekend, but it is fair to state now, after watching the teams share a field for three days, that Boston doesn’t have an 8 ½-game lead due to some weird bounces and some odd luck. It’s not an accident. The Red Sox are the better team right now. There is no shame in that, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
2) The Yankees aren’t going to collapse out of the wild-card game.
Yes, there is some panic afoot. The losing streak is now four, the A’s seem to win every day. But again: If you believe enough in the eye test to admit the Yanks will have a hard time catching the Sox, those same eyes have to insist that there is little chance they’ll be caught and passed by both the A’s and the Mariners. The odds are still enormous they’ll host that game. And win it. Which leads us to …
3) Between now and the first week of October, the Yankees have to figure a few things out about themselves, and specifically about how they perform when they’re on the same field as the Red Sox. Which means there is very little of substance that will change between now and then: The only thing that matters is winning three out of five when it counts.
How to do that? Well, for starters, the Yankees could stop looking so passive. The Sox are playing with far more joy, more fire, more energy, and that’s necessarily translated to a crisper, cleaner and more successful performance in this series. The Yankees are missing Aaron Judge? Fine. The Sox have been without their engine, Dustin Pedroia, most of the year. They are without Rafael Devers and Chris Sale now. You know what would be nice? (And we are going to tread lightly here …)
An incident would be nice. No, we are not calling for a head-hunt. We are not calling for anyone to spike anyone else onto the DL. We’re not looking for blood and guts, for Billy Martin to punch out Jimmy Piersall, for Thurman Mun- son to barrel into Carlton Fisk, for Graig Netttles to cold-cock Bill Lee, for Pedro Martinez to turn Don Zimmer into a bowling ball.
But would it hurt anyone i f, say, there was a hard, clean slide at the plate — either team sliding, either team blocking — and if some hard words were exchanged, and if some guys came running out of the dugout and flying in from the bullpen, mostly to pose, mostly to point, while all around them 37,000 or so Fenway Park denizens broke into song — profane or otherwise?
Would it be so terrible for the Yankees to remember how much they are supposed to detest the Red Sox?
Right now, that is the biggest Yankee takeaway from the weekend. It’s amazing to say this, but it’s downright depressing to see these games march by so briskly, 2 hours and 15 minutes on Friday, 2:33 Saturday, the Sox managing to tame the Yankees and barely breaking a sweat in the process.
Everyone likes to kill the slow death marches of vintage Sox-Yanks, but the fact is, when every pitch matters, when every out comes down to a battle of pride and wits, that’s when the Yankees have done their best work in this rivalry.
They have time to figure this out. They have two months. It really doesn’t matter if they go 0-for-4 this weekend, as long as they pick up a little intelligence on how to best ensure they can go 3-for-5 in October.