Boston's late rally fizzles as it drops three out of four to New York, which is now just a half game behind the Sox in the A.L. East.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 18, 2005

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- For a few wild and crazy moments, the clock was turned back to last July 24.

That was the day when, among other things -- such as the Alex Rodriguez-Jason Varitek shoving match -- Boston rallied against New York's Hall-of-Fame-bound closer Mariano Rivera, winning on a walkoff homer by Bill Mueller, a victory the Sox pointed to as the turning point in their World Championship season.

It was just as wild and crazy at Fenway Park last night.

Boston had Rivera on the ropes in the ninth, the bases loaded and no outs, down by two runs after already having pushed home two runners, to the delight of the sellout crowd of 34,802, which was rocking the old ballpark.

But this time the rally fizzled, and the Sox were forced to swallow a 5-3 defeat.

Alex Cora, in the lineup because regular second baseman Mark Bellhorn had suffered a jammed left thumb while making a dazzling defensive play earlier, bounced into a home-to-first double play, started by Rodriguez, the Yanks' third baseman. It appeared as if Cora had beaten the relay throw from catcher Jorge Posada, but first-base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt called him out, prompting a mild protest from Boston manager Terry Francona.

The Sox still had the tying runs in scoring position, but Johnny Damon, who earlier had extended his hitting streak to 29 games, bounced out to second on the first pitch he saw, ending the game.

So Boston wound up losing three of four to the resurgent Yankees, winners of 10 of their last 12 and now a mere one-half game behind the first-place Red Sox in the American League League East. The teams are even in the loss column.

And this loss came against scrap-heap left-hander Al Leiter, who was designated for assignment last Thursday by Florida after going 3-7 with an ugly 6.64 earned-run average in 17 games.

The injury-plagued Yankees traded for the 39-year-old out of desperation. They had no good options and their hopes of catching lightning in a bottle panned out last night, with Leiter allowing one run on three hits in 6 1/3 innings.

"You wonder why the Marlins let that guy go," said the Sox' Trot Nixon. "That was a good pickup for them. He did what he needed to do and then turned it over to the bullpen."

How could a struggling pitcher such as Leiter hold down the potent Sox?

"This game is baseball. It's not a video game," said Nixon. "Things didn't go our way."

The Sox, meanwhile, have turned into a mediocre team at home. They have lost their last three series at Fenway, going 3-7 against Cleveland, Toronto and New York. Overall, Boston has lost 11 of its last 17 games, including three out of four to the third-place Orioles (one game out) in Baltimore just before the break.

Despite Leiter's unexpected masterpiece, and even though all five hits surrendered by Tim Wakefield accounted for runs (doubles by Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano, two-run homers by Posada and Gary Sheffield and a solo blast by A-Rod), Boston still had a shot to at least pull even in the ninth.

Manny Ramirez began the surge with a homer to left-center off Tom Gordon. And when he was done throwing down the bat, throwing his arms in the air in triumph and trotting around the bases, the Yanks' lead had been cut to 5-2.

After a walk to Kevin Millar, Yankees manager Joe Torre summoned Rivera, who had been a buzz-saw in saving the first two games of the series. Cano's wild throw on a tailor-made double-play ball gave the Sox momentum, which pinch hitter Jason Varitek (RBI single off the handle) and Mueller (bloop single) contributed to, filling the bases.

But it just didn't work out for the Sox.

"He made a good pitch to me," said Cora, who was facing Rivera for the first time. "I busted my tail to get to first. It was very close, but I haven't seen it (on replays)."

Replays seemed to indicate Cora had beaten the throw, but that didn't matter much.

"It was bang-bang," said Francona. "He made a great pitch and they made a great play right when they had to have it, or they would have been in trouble."

The Sox were in trouble because they had no extra middle infielders. Had Bellhorn still been in the game, Francona likely would have sent up John Olerud to bat for him. But Francona said he didn't have any option, dismissing the possibility that Millar could have gone to third, Mueller to second and Olerud to first had the game been tied after nine innings.

"I talked to Billy (a while ago) and told him he's not going to play second base anymore. We put that to rest," said Francona of Mueller, who has been used at second in the past.

"Basically, we talked, and third base is my position," said Mueller.

The Sox still were in position to tie, but Damon couldn't come through. And Boston will try to turn the page when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays arrive tonight.

"We're still in first," said Damon. "Hopefully we can play better baseball."

Added catcher Doug Mirabelli: "That's baseball. It didn't happen tonight. We didn't expect to lose three out of four, but we're not going to sit here and just blow our noses the rest of the year. We feel good about our team. We just got beat. You can't read too much into it."