Yankee Clubbers

At least the Boston Red Sox got to experience the thrill of having a lead over the New York Yankees in the American League championship series.

For one-third of an inning.

Shortstop Alex Rodriguez’s prodigious third-inning home run, which looked as if it could have cleared two Green Monsters in left field, erased a one-run deficit Saturday night, and the Yankees went on to bury the Red Sox, 19-8, in a Game 3 slugfest before 35,126 in Fenway Park to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Yankee left fielder Hideki Matsui, nicknamed “Godzilla” in Japan, had a monster night, crushing a pair of two-run home runs, two doubles and a run-scoring single, and he and Rodriguez tied a league championship series record with five runs each to pace the Yankees’ LCS record-tying 22-hit attack.

Gary Sheffield broke a 6-6 tie with a three-run home run in the fourth inning, Ruben Sierra followed an intentional walk to Jorge Posada with a two-run triple in the fourth, and the Yankees went on to set LCS records for runs and tie an LCS record with eight doubles.

The Yankees’ three-four-five hitters, Rodriguez, Sheffield and Matsui, went 12 for 16 with 12 runs batted in and 13 runs Saturday night and have now combined to hit .571 (24 for 42) with 18 RBIs and 21 runs in the series.

While the Yankees moved within one victory of their 40th AL pennant and seventh World Series berth in the last nine years, the Red Sox are in a hole of Big Dig proportions -- 25 teams in baseball history have lost the first three games of a seven-game series, and none have come back to win.

“It’s as big a hole as you can dig, but we have to keep fighting,” said Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo, who was rocked for six runs in two innings. “This was not good. It was horrible, actually. ... It was definitely embarrassing to get destroyed like that and have a football score up there.”

With a pair of aces in Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez and a lethal offense led by sluggers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, this was the Red Sox team that was built to beat the Yankees, to propel the franchise to its first World Series championship since 1918, to Reverse the Curse.

But the Yankees are making a mockery of a series many predicted the Red Sox to win, and their dismantling of the Red Sox on Saturday night was so thorough that it left the Fenway faithful and most of New England feeling like Schilling’s injured right ankle after a shot of anesthetic: numb.

“Wait till next year?” At this rate, the new rallying cry for Red Sox fans will be “Wait till next century.”

“They’re doing exactly what we thought we would do in this series,” Boston center fielder Johnny Damon said. “Coming off a great series against Anaheim, we felt this series would be ours for the taking. We thought we would be up, 3-0, right now. But that team over there just flipped a switch. It was like they had a second gear.”

Damon did see a silver lining in the dark clouds that have hovered over the Red Sox this entire series.

“The good thing is this score, these runs, don’t count for [today],” Damon said. “The Yankees were on. Everything they swung at was hit hard. Now, we have to do what’s never been done in major league history, win four games in a row.... We have to forget about this and play our very best baseball of the year starting [today].”

On the flip side of Saturday night’s offensive barrage was some shoddy pitching by both teams -- 10 pitchers combined to throw 412 pitches in the 4-hour 20-minute game, the longest nine-inning game in postseason history.

Arroyo put his team in a 3-0 hole in the first when he walked Derek Jeter, Rodriguez smacked a run-scoring double to left and Matsui ripped a two-run homer into the Yankee bullpen in right.

The Red Sox offense, dead for the first six innings of the first two games, came to life in the second when Boston scored four runs off Yankee starter Kevin Brown, two coming on Trot Nixon’s home run and one on Damon’s RBI single, which ended his 0-for-9 drought in the series.

The go-ahead run scored when Jeter, the Yankee shortstop, couldn’t handle Ramirez’s one-hop smash. Ortiz grounded out to end the second, and Rodriguez crushed Arroyo’s fourth pitch of the third inning high over the Green Monster, beyond Lansdowne Street, making it 4-4.

Arroyo walked Sheffield, Matsui doubled to right, and Red Sox Manager Terry Francona yanked Arroyo in favor of Ramiro Mendoza, who gave up a run-scoring single to Bernie Williams and balked in a run, as the Yankees took a 6-4 lead.

Orlando Cabrera’s two-run double off Yankee reliever Javier Vazquez pulled the Red Sox even, 6-6, in the bottom of the third, but the Yankees plastered Mendoza, Curtis Leskanic and Tim Wakefield, who was scheduled to start Game 4 tonight, for five runs in the fourth. They scored two more in the fifth and added four for good measure in the seventh to take a 17-6 lead.

As if the score wasn’t demoralizing enough for the Red Sox, Matsui capped the evening with a two-run homer in the ninth to make it 19-8.

About the only blemish for the Yankees was the bruised left instep suffered by first baseman John Olerud, who left the game in the seventh. Precautionary X-rays were negative, but Olerud might sit out tonight.

“I’m not surprised the way our club is playing, but no question, you can’t expect to go in against the Red Sox and do what we did tonight,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “We scored 19 runs, and I know the Cleveland Indians scored 22 runs against us [this season], so it doesn’t mean you’re a bad club when that happens to you.”

Francona said he believes the Red Sox must focus not on the 3-0 deficit but on putting together one good baseball game tonight.

“It starts looking a little daunting if you look at too big of a picture,” Francona said. “[Today] is going to come real quick, and we’ve got to try to win one [today]. ... You have to sit through a night like [Saturday night]. I won’t bail on those guys. We’ll show up tomorrow and play.”

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CURSE OF THE BAMBINO TIMELINE

About a year after winning their last World Series title, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees -- a transgression, some say, that has cursed the Red Sox since. Curse or no curse, Boston history is littered with unfathomably cruel twists that have prevented the Red Sox from winning a World Series title since 1918.

1920 The Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

1946 Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio return from wartime service and the Red Sox win 104 games, and their first American League pennant since 1918. Oddsmakers have Boston as a 2-1 favorite to win the 1946 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

A 6-3 victory in Game 5 puts Boston up, three games to two, one win from the title. But the Red Sox lose Game 6, 4-1. In Game 7, shortstop Pesky hesitates on a relay throw to home plate and Enos Slaughter scores ahead of Pesky’s wide throw. St. Louis wins the game, 4-3, and the World Series. Williams, one of the best hitters of all time, bats .200 in the Series.

1948 Boston wins its final four games of the season, tying Cleveland for the best record in the AL. The Red Sox choose not to start their best pitcher, Mel Parnell, and lose a one-game playoff to the Indians and with it the chance for the first cross-town World Series against the Boston Braves.

1949 Boston holds a one-game lead over the second-place New York Yankees with two games left in the season. The Yankees overcome a four-run deficit to defeat the Red Sox, 5-4, in the first game, then beat the Red Sox the next day, 5-3, to win the AL pennant.

1951-1966 During this period, the Red Sox finish the season an average of 22 1/2 games out of first place. They never win more than 87 games or finish higher than third.

1967 Carl Yastrzemski and the Red Sox win the “impossible dream” pennant on the last day of the regular season. But they lose the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Gibson, who is 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA in the Series.

1975 The Red Sox win the AL East title and sweep the Oakland Athletics in the championship series, setting up a World Series against the Cincinnati Reds that is highlighted by a memorable Game 6.

In that game, pinch-hitter (and ex-Red) Bernie Carbo hits a three-run homer in the eighth inning to tie the score. But that dramatic blast is relegated to the back pages by one of sports’ most replayed moments -- Carlton Fisk’s twisting, twirling, body-English-aided home run off the left-field foul pole in the bottom of the 12th inning that sends the series to Game 7.

In Game 7, the Red Sox take a 3-0 lead into the sixth inning. But they lose the game, 4-3, and the World Series.

1978 In mid-July, the Red Sox lead the second-place Milwaukee Brewers by nine games and the fourth-place Yankees by 14 games.

In what has become known as the Boston Massacre, the Yankees go to Fenway Park in September and sweep four games by a total score of 42-9, moving into a first-place tie with the Red Sox in the AL East. The Red Sox later fall 3 1/2 games behind New York but rally to forge a tie for first by the end of the regular season, to be settled by a one-game playoff at Fenway.

In the playoff game, the Red Sox take a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning. With two on and two out, light-hitting Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent hits what appears to be a routine fly ball to left field. But the wind carries Dent’s ball into the net above the Green Monster to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. They go on to win, 5-4.

1986 In Game 5 of the AL championship series, the Red Sox make the Angels feel what it’s like to be, well, the Red Sox. Storming back from a 5-2 deficit in the ninth inning, the Red Sox score four runs to take the lead, Dave Henderson’s two-run homer off Donnie Moore putting them ahead, 6-5. The Angels tie the score in the bottom of the ninth, but Boston wins in the 11th, 7-6. The Red Sox easily win Games 6 and 7 in Boston, reaching the World Series.

With a three-games-to-two lead over the New York Mets in the World Series, the Red Sox send young ace Roger Clemens to the mound to nail down the most elusive prize in Boston sports history. What transpires is perhaps the most infamous moment in that long history. The Red Sox, leading, 5-3, in the bottom of the 10th inning, retire the first two Mets and are one out away from the championship. As even Met fans anticipate the final out, the Shea Stadium scoreboard reads: “Congratulations Boston Red Sox, 1986 World Champions.”

Then it happens: Three hits, a wild pitch and Mookie Wilson’s famous ground ball through first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs. Mets win, 6-5.

In Game 7, the Red Sox start Bruce Hurst, who already has won two games in the Series, and lead, 3-0, after five innings. But the Mets tie the score in the sixth and go on to win, 8-5.

1988, 1990 Red Sox win the AL East but are swept, 4-0, by the Oakland Athletics in the AL championship series both years.

1995 Red Sox win the AL East and lose to Cleveland in the division series.

1998 Red Sox win the AL wild-card spot and lose to Cleveland in the division series.

1999 Red Sox win the AL wild-card spot, defeat Cleveland in the division series but lose to the Yankees in the AL championship series.

2003 Red Sox win the AL wild-card spot and defeat Oakland in the first round after losing the first two games of the best-of-five series, advancing to the AL championship series against the Yankees.

The Red Sox win Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, sending the series to a deciding Game 7. Riding ace Pedro Martinez’s gutty performance, the Red Sox take a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning. But rather than replacing an obviously tired Martinez with a fresh bullpen arm, Manager Grady Little leaves Martinez in the game. With one out, he gives up four consecutive hits and the Yankees tie the score. Aaron Boone hits Tim Wakefield’s first pitch in the 11th inning for a home run, sending the Yankees to the World Series.

-- Compiled by Joel Greenberg