A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
No mercy to the Yankees

July 15, 2005 ... If one moment could encapsulate the 17-1 demolition of the Yankees, Trot Nixon's inside-the-park homer, his first in approximately two decades, was it. Nixon put a nice swing on the ball, with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in scoring position. The ball "took a hard right," Cabrera flailed, and failed. The ball trickled to the Wall and Nixon scored standing up, stretching a 5-0 lead to 8-0 in the second inning.

Yankee pitchers yes, plural had recorded only four outs and the game was effectively over, the Red Sox on their way to replicating their awesome offensive performance of May 28 this season, when they walloped the Yankees at the Stadium by an identical 17-1 count in the most lopsided win in 1,928 meetings between the clubs.

The Sox pounded out 15 hits, 10 for extra bases (eight doubles, two home runs), and enjoyed nine walks. Thirteen of those hits, and nine of those walks, came in the first six innings.

Tim Redding, 0-5 with a 9.10 ERA with San Diego this season, worked one inning plus three batters and threw 41 pitches, only 16 for strikes. And, by the second inning, he probably felt uncertain about whether he'd be putting the uniform on again. The Sox pounded him for six earned runs on four hits and four walks.

Johnny Damon lined Redding's first offering of the night into right field for a single, extending his hitting streak to 27 games, tied for fifth longest in club history. Edgar Renteria then walked, but Redding whiffed Ortiz swinging and Ramirez looking. But Nixon (2 for 5, 5 RBIs) doubled in two runs, Kevin Millar walked, and Jason Varitek followed with an RBI double, staking the Sox to a 3-0 first-inning lead.

Boston sent eight men to the plate in the five-run second. Mark Bellhorn and Damon led with walks Damon reached four times in four innings and Renteria singled, loading the bases. At that point, Torre lifted Redding for Darrell May, but it got no better. An Ortiz fielder's choice plated the fourth run, and Ramirez roped a double off the Wall for a 5-0 lead.

The pitch before Ramirez laced his double, Yankees catcher Jorge Posada had stood, signaling Melky Cabrera to shade Ramirez to right-center. Cabrera never saw Posada, perhaps because he was playing so deep, nearly on the warning track. That may have cost him when the next batter, Nixon, hit a slicing liner to medium-center field. Cabrera stumbled at the last minute and the ball grazed off his.

The Sox expanded the lead to 9-0 after the third inning, 12-1 after the fourth, and 17-1 after the sixth, when Ortiz launched Buddy Groom's second pitch of the evening for a grand slam. With that, Ortiz knocked in his fifth run of the night, the most he's knocked in (he also drove in five at Coors Field in June 2004). The slam was the Sox' ninth of the season, equaling a team record set in 1941 and matched in 1950, 1987, and 2001.

Wells, who learned pregame that he'd been suspended six games for his behavior toward umpires July 2 vs. Toronto, and was forced to file some quick appeal paperwork, pitched seven economical innings. He allowed a single run on five hits. He struck out five, including Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano to begin the game.

Since his subpar performance at Yankee Stadium opening night (4 1/ 3 IP, 10 H, 4 ER), Wells has faced the Yankees twice with a satisfying combined line: 2-0, 15 1/3 IP, 11 H, 3 ER.