THURSDAY night was soft- pitch softball. Last night was the playoffs.
A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett brought a touch of late October to early August. If this were, say, Game 1 of the ALCS, this would even now be an Instant Classic. Instead, we will have to settle for a darn entertaining — and long — night in the history of The Rivalry.
The former Marlins teammates exchanged frames throwing zeroes and playing hero. After the unbecoming events of the previous evening, Burnett and Beckett served as overpowering erasers to the lingering bad memories. Neither earned a decision in the game while authoring decisive works of art.
But both starters stayed in the dugouts to watch another Red Sox-Yankees marathon, and for Burnett that meant sticking around long enough to deliver a shaving cream pie to Alex Rodriguez’s face. A-Rod ended a goose-egg orgy by crushing a two-out, two-run homer in the 15th inning off of Junichi Tazawa to finalize a 2-0 Yankees triumph.
The way Boston is going now, it must win when Beckett pitches, especially when he pitches at such a genius level. But the Red Sox didn’t win. They have now lost two in a row in The Bronx after winning the first eight games of 2009 against the Yankees. They are now 7-13 since the All-Star break. They are now 4½ games behind the Yankees.
“Both of those guys pitched great,” manager Joe Girardi said of the starters.
For Burnett, this was meaningful because he has never pitched in a postseason game, and that made this, arguably, the biggest outing of his career.
Nevertheless, the pressure clearly was greater on Beckett. The previous night Red Sox pitching had allowed 13 runs on 18 hits and seven walks. The two main culprits, John Smoltz and Billy Traber, were designated for assignment before the game — and Tazawa was summoned. It possibly ended the great career of Smoltz. He had been brought to Boston to provide a big-game sidekick to Beckett. That plan never materialized.
Instead, Boston had to settle for Beckett pitching like Smoltz almost always did in October; and for that matter how Beckett has pitched in October, as well. Beckett was facing a lineup that had historically hit him well. Six of the nine Yankees starters had .300 or better averages against Beckett (all with a minimum of 19 plate appearances) and Johnny Damon was at .293. Yet he generated seven shutout innings.
That forced Burnett to be masterful, and he responded. One reason the Yankees had signed Burnett was his historic success against Boston (5-0, 2.56 ERA). But in two starts this year, Burnett had lasted a total of 7 2/3 innings surrendering 11 runs and 13 hits. His 7 2/3 innings yesterday were completely different. He allowed Jacoby Ellsbury to dunk a hit in front of a diving Nick Swisher to open the game, and then not another after that.
Like Joba Chamberlain the night before, Burnett was behind too often and walked (six) too many. But his 95-mph fastball and hammer curve were the equalizer. He departed to a hearty ovation and responded with a tip of his hat as he crossed the first-base line.
He would say afterward, “It was the loudest thing I have ever heard. It gave me goose bumps.”
He was being thanked for a job well done, the kind of performance that encourages that Burnett can handle big games still to come this year. Because it hardly gets bigger at this time of year than matching Beckett one scoreless frame after another within a tense Rivalry game.
“It was important because this was like a playoff game,” Girardi said. “There are going be games like this down the stretch.”
