还不错，值得看看。 http://www.milforddailynews.com/homepage/x1185658475 How quickly things change Lenny Megliola Hear footsteps? Just asking. Monday night the New York Yankees were totally embarrassed on national TV. It's safe to say not many viewers were watching when the last out of the game was made in the Tigers' 16-0 laugher. A friend asked me the next morning how the Yankees did. I told him they lost. The score, he asked? "Sixteen-nothing." "Liar," he said. Those pathetic Yankees had fallen eight games behind the Red Sox. Forget catching 'em. New York fans weren't even sure about their team's wild-card chances. Funny how three days in the Bronx can turn life upside down. OK, the Yankees winning the first game 5-3 wasn't a sky-is-falling loss for the Red Sox. But it was huge for the Yankees. First off all, it allowed them to spit out the taste of the Detroit debacle in a hurry. And shaving a game off Boston's lead wasn't a bad thing either. The next night, the Red Sox were without Manny Ramirez, a Yankee killer. Manny may be out for a while. Bad timing. The Yankees won again, 4-3, and it was extra painful for Boston fans since Roger Clemens got the win and Johnny Damon knocked in two runs. Of the nine Yankees runs in the first two games, Damon had driven in four. The lead was six games. Some Boston pundits, after the Yankees fell eight games behind, cackled that, ha-ha, even if the Yankees sweep, the Sox will still be five up. That's exactly what happened, after New York's 5-0 win yesterday. Monday the Yankees were road kill; today they could be four games out by the 10 o'clock news. That they couldn't take at least one game in the Stadium could haunt the Red Sox. This time of year, if you're the Yankees, it's a big deal being five games out instead of seven. That's the impact of the sweep. Here's my question: Who were those clowns wearing Yankee uniforms in April, May and June? It figured that they'd come around and hit - that lineup was too potent - but their pitching was fragile. Pitching gave Boston the edge. That was the thought. The Yankees fell way behind the Red Sox, fell even out of wild-card consideration. Now they have a shot at passing Boston. What, you don't think so? The Yankees did everything better in the series. Hit, field, run the bases, pitch. Except for Mike Mussina, the pitchers have gotten their act together. It was all well and good for Boston to beat up on the Chicago Shame Sox. Against Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Chien-Ming Wang, the Red Sox were basically helpless. Let me throw this at you. If it were Game 7 of the ALCS, who would you want starting for you, Wang or Daisuke Matsuzaka? Who'd you want to pitch the eighth inning, Hideki Okajima or Joba Chamberlain? Again, just asking. Let's call the closers, Mariano Rivera and Jonathan Papelbon, even. The Yankees offense is absolutely surreal. No gimmes. Yesterday, Curt Schilling surrendered two homers to Robinson Cano. Those were the only two runs he gave up. But you could see the strain on Schilling, who knew he had to be near-perfect as Wang was working on a no-hitter into the seventh inning. The Red Sox and Yankees meet three more times, Sept. 14-16 at Fenway. No telling how close the two teams will be in the standings then. It took New York's offense about a half a season to get rolling. Boston could never match it. The Sox need Ramirez's bat (have you already seen enough of Eric Hinske?). The Red Sox have asked Mike Lowell to hit sixth, where he was productive, and then fifth, when J.D. Drew swung and missed his way out of the spot. Can Lowell get it done hitting cleanup? Might be asking too much, although Lowell was back hitting fifth yesterday with Kevin Youkilis in the cleanup spot. Whoever the fifth hitter is, he'll have to get hot because teams will just pitch around the cleanup guy. The Red Sox are back at Fenway tonight against the Orioles. When they take the field, the applause might be light, suggesting the fans' worried minds more than anything. It also means that the gloves are off. It was a lot easier for fans to be forgiving of a Red Sox error here, a strikeout in the clutch there, when the lead was double digits. Now screwing up in key spots will provoke booing. This might not be a good month to be J.D. Drew. The Optimist: Five games up with September a day away shouldn't be a time to panic. The pessimist: But look who we're talking about. -- 大底特律地区全力支持活塞队 --

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