Last updated: 7:29 am
July 4, 2008
Posted: 4:37 am
July 4, 2008
IN A little more than a week, Terry Francona will be back at Yankee Stadium. To sit in the home manager's office. To work the home dugout. To have many of his Red Sox players dress in the Yankee clubhouse as All-Stars.
It will be quite an indignity perpetuated in the closing year of Yankee Stadium: The Red Sox manager and plenty of his players taking over for a few days; another honor for a second championship in four years.
But what should chill the Yanks most is this: Had Francona been in the home dugout last night the Red Sox's 7-0 dismantling could not have gone any smoother.
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"You saw the game and it looked like we didn't have a chance," Johnny Damon said.
Boston's victory was methodical and total. The Yanks seemed out of their weight class, and that was with their hottest starter, Andy Pettitte, going. Today it is Josh Beckett vs. Darrell Rasner. So potentially this wasn't just a long night in the Bronx, it was yet another symbol of a potentially long season.
The Red Sox reached their hotel at 4 a.m. yesterday after being swept in Tampa, yet made the Yanks' look tired. The Yanks are now nine behind the Rays in the loss column, four behind the Sox=.
Joe Girardi closed his clubhouse for 32 minutes after the game. Wanting to protect either his genius or state secrets, he refused to divulge details. His message, however, seemed clear: This is not good enough.
Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter walked to open the first inning, and yet Jon Lester still worked a five-hit, complete game because the Yankees at-bats were impatient. It felt like aimless surrender rather than an actual attempt to get back into the game.
"We are not where we should be and I am not happy," Girardi said.
