ERIC HINSKE

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
The Red Sox bring out the heavy lumber

September 15, 2007 ... The Sox, who have 13 games left to play, hold a 5 1/2-game lead in the American League East over the Yankees, who have 14 left. The Sox' magic number to win their first division title since the Sons of Kevin Kennedy won in 1995 is down to nine. The Sox, with a 10-1 demolition of the Yankees, are much closer to being in as winners of their first division title in 12 years.

Josh Beckett was nails, giving up a bases-empty home run to Derek Jeter in the first, then allowing just two more singles over the next six innings. Beckett (19-6) struck out seven, including a run of four in a row that began when he whiffed Alex Rodriguez with a 94-mile-an-hour fastball on the outside black to end the third.

David Ortiz, who said he'd slept little after what he called the "nightmare" of Friday night's 8-7 loss, reached base five times on two singles, a two-run double, and two walks.

Jacoby Ellsbury, inserted as a pinch runner after Kevin Youkilis was hit by a pitch and left the game with a bruised right wrist in the fifth, scored the go-ahead run on a single by J.D. Drew. The rookie singled home a run in the sixth, then came around to score, sliding under Posada just two batters after Hinske had flattened him. He singled home two more runs in the seventh. Ellsbury has now hit safely in all 13 games since being called up from Pawtucket and has driven in four runs and scored three in his first two games against the Yankees. X-rays were negative on Youkilis, but he was "very sore," according to Francona, which would make Hinske a logical candidate to start at first tonight when the Sox face the Yankees and Roger Clemens in the teams' final regular-season meeting.

Hinske started in left field because of his superior numbers against Wang (10 for 22, .455), although he was hitless against Wang in six at-bats this season. He struck out and flied out in his first two at-bats today, but, with the Sox clinging to a 2-1 lead, doubled to the wall in center to open the sixth. Hinske moved up on a single to left by Coco Crisp, but held at third when Julio Lugo flied to shallow left. The Yankee infield was playing in when Dustin Pedroia hit a ground ball to second.

Hinske, who gained more than 1,000 yards as a running back at Menasha his junior year, once dreamed of playing football for the University of Wisconsin. But when his Badgers didn't recruit him, he went to the University of Arkansas on a baseball scholarship. Years later, the football mentality has never left. To his everlasting credit, Jorge Posada somehow held onto the ball. But as a symbol of the Red Sox' ferocious response to their late-inning meltdown the night before, nothing yesterday afternoon can eclipse the sixth-inning play of Eric Hinske, the former running back, let his football instincts take over when he lowered his left shoulder and leveled the Yankees catcher while trying to score on a grounder. The 6-foot-2-inch, 235-pound Hinske was out on the play.

Pedroia subsequently stole second, and Ellsbury followed with a base hit that scored Crisp to make it 3-1. The Yankees had a base open but elected to pitch to Ortiz, who hit a gapper, with Pedroia scoring and Ellsbury flying around the bases and sliding under Posada, who may have been braced for another collision.

Wang was finished, as for the second straight game, the Sox gave little quarter to the Yankees' starting pitcher. For all the talk about the number the Yankees did on the Sox' bullpen Friday, and the potential postseason implications that held, the Sox in successive games ended Andy Pettitte's night after four innings and bounced Wang with two outs in the sixth. The Yankees bullpen hardly covered itself in glory in the seventh inning yesterday, manager Joe Torre going through five pitchers while the Sox scored four times on two hits and five walks to take a 9-1 lead.

After reliever Mike Timlin struck out Rodriguez to end the Yankee eighth, Torre emptied his bench, inserting five subs, including right fielder Bronson Sardinha, who was making his major league debut. But no one interpreted that as the equivalent of a concession speech by the Bombers.

Kevin Youkilis, hit by a Chien-Ming Wang pitch (the team said X-rays were negative and he has a bruised right wrist) has been plunked six times by the Yankees since coming to the Sox, by six different pitchers. Wang, Mariano Rivera, Scott Proctor, and Andy Pettitte have hit him this season, while Scott Erickson and Aaron Small got him in 2006. Today was the 15th time Youkilis has been hit this season, most on the team. Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees, who has been hit 20 times, leads the league. Rodriguez's teammate, Derek Jeter, has been hit 14 times.

With Manny Ramirez still reduced to role of spectator, Eric Hinske drew the start in left field and you don't have to look far for an explanation. Hinske had great numbers against Wang - 10 for 22, .455 average, including three doubles in his first game for the Red Sox last Aug. 18. But look a little closer, and the numbers weren't as dazzling. Hinske was 0 for 6 against Wang this season, with four ground ball outs (including one double play) and two whiffs, both coming in his only at-bats against Wang Aug. 30. Hinske doubled in the sixth today, the prelude to a hellacious collision at the plate with Yankees catcher Jorge Posada.