Rubber Game

However grudgingly I may do it, I have to give John Lackey some credit. Last night, I caught part of the game while sitting at a bar in Great Barrington, Mass., technically still in New England, but more a part of the Hudson River Valley, meaning I was surrounded by highly vocal Yankees fans. I came in just in time to watch Lackey surrender the Red Sox' two-run lead in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of that inning, two unlikely heroes batted in first one run (Carl Crawford), and then another (Marco Scutaro). To the curses of the Yanks fans around me (music to my ears), Jacoby Ellsbury would add to his case for MVP with a three-run homer that, in retrospect, pretty much put things away. But at the time, as Lackey took the ball again for the top of the fifth, that still seemed a dangerous conclusion to reach, even with a five-run lead, as Lackey surrendered a single and then hit a batter, before surrendering an RBI single to Derek Jeter. Once again, applause rang out around ...