The rain is falling. The clock is ticking toward midnight.

Alex Rodriguez stuns the sellout crowd of 36,793 at Fenway Park and a national television audience by crushing a Jonathan Papelbon fastball through the rain and wind and out of the ballpark to right-center, snapping a tie and giving the Yankees a thrilling (for them) 6-5 win.

Oh, big deal, right? The Yanks still are in fourth place in the division, 12 ½ games behind the Red Sox and only one game ahead of the last-place Devil Rays.

The worst part of the loss, and the game itself? After the four-hour, four-minute grinder, the Sox have to fly across country for a series that begins in Oakland the next night. They arrive around 5:30 a.m., Oakland time. They lose the first three games of the series for a season-high four-game losing streak.