OUT FOR BLOOD
It's time to Sox it to 'em
Yanks out to finish business & Boston
BY SAM BORDEN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
BALTIMORE - It had to end like this.
The Yankees and the Red Sox. The Red Sox and the Yankees. One has eliminated the other in each of the past two seasons and this weekend it could happen again. It is the purest of pennant races, a battle begun in spring, carried through summer and concluded in fall with one final three- (or even four-) game sprint to the finish.
The winner gets the division title. The loser might get the wild card - or nothing at all.
"It doesn't get any better than this," Alex Rodriguez said. "It's is the best time in my life and the most fun time in my baseball career. I don't remember a race like this."
Few do. The Sox have finished second to the Yanks every year since 1997 and the last time the race went down to the wire was in 1978, when Bucky Dent earned a profane middle name in New England with his historic home run in a one-game playoff that lifted the Yankees to the postseason.
Another one-game playoff is a possibility. After last night, the Yanks held a one-game edge over Boston while Cleveland was level with the Red Sox in the wild card race. Depending on what the Indians do in their final series with the White Sox, the Yanks and Red Sox could be playing for only one playoff spot.
In a rivalry that has seen brawls, blowouts and what many consider the biggest comeback in sports, this weekend could take the matchup to a new peak. Joe Torre said he does not have any big speech planned before tonight's game because none is necessary.
Everyone knows the situation.
"It's going to be intense," Mike Mussina said. "I don't know if could be any more than before because, really, what level could you take it to?"
Mussina will pitch Sunday's finale against Curt Schilling, but the swing game of the series - and what could be the clincher - will come a day earlier, when Randy Johnson takes the mound against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Ever since the Big Unit came to the Bronx last winter there has been talk about a particular game being the "type of game the Yanks got him for," but it has never been more appropriate than this time; this is the game the Yankees got him for.
Johnson already seemed to be in game mode yesterday, as he deliberately packed his carry-on suitcase and stared, steely-eyed, on his way out of the clubhouse. He joined tonight's starter, Chien-Ming Wang, on an early flight to Boston last night to ensure two good nights of sleep before his biggest start of the season.
His teammates weren't as fortunate. They played the Orioles last night and tried to deflect one more round of questions about the rivalry before arriving in Boston early this morning.
"This isn't football," Jason Giambi said. "It's not like a 'We hate you and want to run over your face' sort of thing. We feel like we've been playing playoff games for the past few weeks anyway and now this is the next series."
That sort of sentiment seemed representative of most Yanks. The pressure has been on all season. Yes, the Red Sox overcame a 3-0 deficit in last year's ALCS and yes, that still hurts. But that is not the primary motivation for the Bombers - proving themselves right is.
"We have believed we're good enough to be there," Gary Sheffield said. "Even when things didn't look that way. Last year we learned something. We learned we don't want that feeling again."
Sheffield said he'll probably wake up each morning of this series with a chip already lingering on his shoulder, though it won't be because of his run-in with an overzealous Sox fan during the April series at Fenway.
Rather, it's just how he is when the tension is ratcheted up.
"The bigger the situation, the more I make it about winning," Sheffield said. "Everything I do. I get up out of bed feeling like I want to be at the park and making something happen."
There are numerous subplots to the weekend bubbling beneath the surface of Yanks-Sox: Will Red Sox-turned-Yankee reliever Alan Embree shut down David Ortiz in a big spot? Will Yankee-and-yesterday-turned-Red Sox reliever Mike Stanton shut down Giambi in one? And how will the final three rounds of A-Rod vs. Big Papi for AL MVP turn out?
Now it is only certain that Fenway will be jammed. Pulses will be quickened. Sweats will be cold.
Could it finish any other way?
