OH, SO HE DOES KNOW THAT

Thrown aside: Pettitte, Yankees strong-arm Sox as Martinez falters (Bob Hohler, Boston Globe, 8/31/03).

Running baseball teams for nearly a quarter-century has convinced Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino to emblazon one overriding principle in his formula for success.

'You need pitching, pitching, and more pitching,' Lucchino has said from Day 1 of spring training.

What he got yesterday was something else altogether. While his widely feared offense continued to rip apart opposing pitchers like so much confetti, several of Lucchino's hurlers, including the pep-less Pedro Martinez, served as little more than party favors for the Yankees, who romped to a 10-7 victory before 34,350 at Fenway Park.

Despite the triumph of evil, this was a great game to be at. Being at the Park was as much fun as ever, my son gets more and more from the game with each one he attends and the Sox kept it close until the end. This was a particularly good game for Boston's favorite sport, second guessing the manager. Arroyo looked good and should have been kept in. Pedro should have been yanked earlier. Embree makes you nervous just walking to the mound.

Grady Little has two bad habits. First, he makes things too complicated, pinch hitting and trying for tactical pitching changes. These don't work that well at the best of times and are dangerous when facing Joe Torre. Second, and a little contradictorily, he always waits a little too long -- one or two batters too long -- before yanking a tiring pitcher. Having said that, Pedro was pitching nicely in the first three innings, but the Yankees (they really are a great team, damn them) chipped away at him, fouling off as many pitches as they could and running up the pitch count. By the 4th, he had thrown almost 100 pitches and was in trouble. That's the sort of small thing that adds up to a championship. The Sox, on the other hand, rarely start a rally before having two outs, the sort of small thing that adds up to 85 years of frustration. Posted by David Cohen at August 31, 2003 10:44 AM