01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 17, 2004

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- The note on the message board in the Boston Red Sox' clubhouse aptly alluded to the team's precarious standing in the American League Championship Series.

"We can make history! Believe it!"

If the Red Sox are going to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1986, they are going to have to do just that -- make history.

After getting thoroughly thumped and embarrassed last night in an ugly, inglorious 19-8 whupping at the hands of their bitter rivals, the New York Yankees, the Red Sox find themselves in a 3-0 hole in the best-of-seven series.

The Sox looked much closer to being history than being in position to become the first team ever in the Major Leagues to rebound from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

Only twice in professional sports has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit, and both times it happened in the National Hockey League.

The Yankees last night terrorized the Red Sox' embattled pitching corps, which included volunteer Tim Wakefield, who threw aside his personal plan of being tonight's Game 4 starter to try and go out last night and stop the bleeding.

New York established several records in the romp, with Gary Sheffield (4 for 5, 4 RBI, 3 runs), Hideki Matsui (5 for 6, 5 RBI, 5 runs) and Alex Rodriguez (3 for 5, 3 RBI, 5 runs) leading the way in the 22-hit explosion at the expense of six Boston pitchers, none of whom was effective.

Boston's hitters broke out of their slump, with Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon each launching a homer and Orlando Cabrera contributing a pair of doubles and a single to their 15-hit outburst.

But while the Sox were scoring early, the Yankees were scoring just as often off starter Bronson Arroyo and the relievers. New York, whose starter, Kevin Brown, lasted only two innings, pulled away with a five-run fourth and kept piling it on, emptying the stands of most of the Red Sox fans in the sellout crowd of 35,126 by the seventh inning with the score 17-6.

So now the Sox will turn to Derek Lowe, the right-hander who wasn't good enough to make the playoff rotation, who was reluctantly named the Game 5 starter for injured Curt Schilling, and who now will be moved up to start tonight because Wakefield took one for the team last night.

"It was disappointing for everybody, but we're not done," said Boston manager Terry Francona. "I fully expect we'll come out (tonight) and play our (rear ends) off."

Certainly the Sox will be trying to extend the series, but they know that they have a tough task ahead of them.

"It's like they've got a certain gear, like they turned on a switch or something," said Johnny Damon. "They're playing the best we've seen them play this year. It was definitely a butt-whupping. It wasn't fun."

Arroyo sure didn't have any fun. The right-hander, who had pitched so well against Anaheim in the clinching game of the A.L. Division Series eight days earlier, was rocked from the outset.

In the opening inning, A-Rod crushed a run-scoring double and Matsui clubbed a two-run homer. The Sox extracted four runs off Brown in the second, including a two-run homer by Nixon, in taking a 4-3 lead, Boston's first lead of the series.

But it lasted only four pitches. On Arroyo's fourth pitch of the third, A-Rod rocketed a homer over the Green Monster in left-center, tying the game. After a walk and a double to Matsui, Arroyo was gone.

The Sox eventually pulled into a 6-6 tie, but the pitching tone had been set. And it was the ugly sound of solid contact of the Yankees' bats striking the Red Sox' pitches.

"It's definitely embarrassing," said Arroyo, bravely meeting the media after the 4-hour, 20-minute game, the longest nine-inning game in postseason history.

"You try to forget about something like this during the regular season, but at crunch time like this, to have a football score up there (on the scoreboard) is definitely embarrassing," he said.

The ineffectiveness of staff, which included Ramiro Mendoza, Curtis Leskanic, Wakefield, Alan Embree and Mike Myers, has left the Sox' staff in tatters. Wakefield's effort, though, was applauded by general manager Theo Epstein.

"Thanks for doing that," said Epstein, reaching past the media crowded around Wakefield to shake his hand.

"I'm sorry the results weren't better," said Wakefield, who was charged with five runs in 3 1.3 innings.

"No, the results were fine," said Epstein.

But the final result, whether it was was by 12 runs or by only one run, plunged Boston to the brink of elimination.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Embree in the very quiet clubhouse, a stark contrast to the usual frat-party-like atmopshere.

"But it's the playoffs. you can't sit and pout about it. You have to play the game," said Embree.

Still, the Sox may be "idiots," as Damon has called them. But they know the3 odds are long for them overtaking the Yankees and getting into the Series.

"It's definitely not good," said Damon. "We thought we'd be the ones up 3-0. We had a great series with Anaheim and we thought with Schilling and Pedro (Martinez) going in the first two games that we'd be the ones up 3-0 right now."

That, obviously, has not happened.

"Now the only way we can go on is to make history," said Damon.

That's the truth, and history says that task will be difficult to accomplish.