Pitcher's duel turns into another heartbreaking loss

Stankees 4, Sox 3
WP: Chamberlain (2-0)
LP: Schilling (8-8)
SV: Rivera (28)
HRs: BOS-Lowell (); NYY-Jeter (11)

SUMMARY
Hall of Fame workhorses Roidger Clemens and Curt Schilling engaged in a tense and exciting pitchers duel, combining to allow one earned run on five total hits through the fist six innings.

But while Clemens exited the game after six, Tito stuck with Schill into the eighth, a move that backfired like Grady/Petey as Curt surrendered three hits including Jeter's three-run Monster shot in the inning, essentially handing the season series--and any postseason momentum--to New York.

#1 STUNNER Jeter 2-4, 1R, 3BI, HR
The Stankee captain has raked Boston pitching in general and Curt Schilling in particular all season long. Coming into the game he was batting .382 with five homers vs. the Sox, and now he can add a game-winning homer to those gaudy stats.

PAN's FAUN Schilling 7.2IP, 6H, 4ER, 0BB, 2K, 2HR
He didn't pitch all that poorly, in fact he was brilliant in stretches, but you can't expect to beat these assclowns by allowing homers to Cano and Jeter all the time. I mean A-Rod I can take, but not those two mighty mites.

RECAP
In the end Boston found themselves in a situation that seemed to be sprawl from the pages of a lyrical baseball novel--bases loaded, home team down by a run, the legendary slugger at the plate facing the opponent's legendary closer on the mound, season series hanging in the balance, final inning of the final regular season game between bitter archrivals.

But this isn't literature and although the mighty Papi did not strike out, his weak popper that was caught by--fittingly--Derek Jeter, put a cap on what was at times an exhilarating, exasperating and totally exhausting 19-game series against the boys from the Bronx.

And who woulda thunk that the two old, injured aces would both turn in stellar performances in a mano-a-mano duel in which neither pitcher wanted to blink, and barely did for the first half of the contest.

Boston would draw blood first when it scored a run in the first inning courtesy of a hit, a walk and an error.

The error came when Judas Demon let Jacoby Ellsbury's (0-4, R, SB) liner to left handcuff him and drop out of his glove to lead off the inning, and after Pedroia flied out and Ellsbury stole second, Clemens walked David Ortiz before surrendering an RBI single to Mike Lowell, the third baseman's team-leading 107th ribbie of the season.

After Clemens got J. D. Drew to fly out to deep left center, Jason Varitek came up with a chance to pad the lead against the veteran righty, but his bid for an extra base hit was stymied on an incredibly lucky snag by first baseman Doug the Ball Stealer Mientkiewicz, who after realizing he had stopped the ball outraced the captain to the bag for the out.

So it was 1-0 Boston on an unearned run after one inning, but it would be the last time the Sox would cross the plate for quite a while.

Both starters would find their grooves over the next three innings when each team only put one runner on base and couldn't even sniff a scoring opportunity.

But this is Sox/Stanks--you know a 1-0 game was out of the friggin question.

That fact hit home hard when official pain-in-the-ass second baseman Robinson Cano took a 1-0 offering from Schilling and deposited it in the Monster seats to tie the game. It was Cano's 6th hit in 12 at bats against Curt this season, and three of those hits have been homers.

In fact if Schilling had just read the ESPN preview before the game, he might have come away from this one with a W:

"Schilling is winless in four starts this year against New York, going 0-2 with a 5.76 ERA. He's had the most trouble with Derek Jeter, who is 7-for-12 against him this year, and Robinson Cano, who's 5-for-11."

Boy would that last little sentence prove prophetic.

Faced with a brand new ballgame both hurlers buckled down again, retiring the next 10 batters before Clemens ran into trouble by walking Papi and allowing a single to Mike Lowell with one out in the fifth. Lowell's hit was just the second the Rocket had allowed on the night, both by the Boston third baseman.

But Clemens got Drew to ground into a forceout to second base (shocker!), and then Cap'n Tek, who is mired in a horrendous 1-21 slump, ended another inning with a fly out to Demon in left, and yet another possible scoring opportunity had gone by the wayside for the sporadic Sox.

Please come back, Manny, please!

That wound up being Clemens' last batter as Torre went to heralded rookie Joba Chamberlain with the game tied and the series in the balance to start the seventh.

The hefty hurler brought a zero ERA into the contest and had only allowed eight hits in 16 innings this season, but he was greeted with a double high off the Monster by battering ram Eric Hinske to start the inning, and when Coco sacrificed him to third on the very next pitch, it looked like that scoreless streak was about to come to an end.

But then Lugo whiffed on a 100 mph heater just off the plate, and when Chamberlain got Ellsbury to ground to first and the Ball Stealer made another fantastic play to beat the speedster to the bag, the momentum was clearly with New York as the game wore on.

Uncle Mo swung full circle in the eighth when a tiring Schilling came out to try and give his beleaguered bullpen as much of a rest as he could, but it turned out that just like Grady should have done four years ago with Pedro Martinez in the Bronx, Tito should have stepped in and said "thanks, but hit the showers" to Schill before the inning even began.

That became apparent as soon as the Ball Stealer laced a one-out single to left center, and by the time Giambi stepped into the on-deck circle to pinch hit for catcher Jose Molina, you could almost sense something disastrous was about to happen.

Schilling made a decent pitch to Giambi, he just reached out and sliced it high off the top of the Monster for a double that missed being a homer by about six inches, but in a few minutes that minor inconvenience would become a forgotten memory.

Jeter came to the plate blistering Boston pitching this season,a nd with the game on the line you have to wonder why Francona didn't pull the plug on the situation right there and bring in Manny D.

After running the count to 2-2, Jeter teed off on a fat Schilling fastball for a mammoth wall shot that nearly left the building, and just like that nearly every television set in the Nation swapped the game over to the Pats shellacking of the Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

But for those who stayed with the game, Boston proved they were not going to let this series get away without a fight.

Lowell would pop the Chamberlain cherry when he uncorked a solo shot to deep left center with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to 4-2, and with Mariano Rivera coming in for the ninth, a man who has blown more saves against Boston (11) than any other team in his illustrious career, there was hope for a miraculous comeback yet.

And when Varitek drew a leadoff walk against the leatherfaced closer, that hope grew to full-fledged possibility.

A pair of groundouts got Tek around to third, but with two outs the hope was fading into doubt. Then Julio Lugo doubled to the left center field gap to score Hinske with run #3, and hope had turned back into all-out belief that the boys could get it done, especially if Papi could get to the plate.

The Faithful got their wish when Rivera nailed Ellsbury with a pitch and then walked Pedroia to load the bases for the most clutch hitter in modern Red Sox history, setting the stage for an improbable comeback that could propel the Sox to the division title and points beyond.

Ortiz got the count in his favor, 2-1, before fouling off a classic Rivera cutter, and then he swung at what was probably ball three and blooped it out to Jeter, who looked up, watched the ball drop into his glove, and then pumped his fist a-la Jonathan Papelbon, a gesture meant to say "see you guys in October".

So New York took the season series 10-8 after Boston had won 6 of the first 8 games, and with the best record in baseball over the last three months and the confidence gained from drilling Boston in 6 of the last 7 meetings, it's safe to say that although the division lead remains in Boston's hands, the post season momentum clearly resides with the pinstripes.

Damn Stankees!