BOSTON -- Don't worry, Yankees fans, your suffering is almost over. One more game, and we can close the book on this disappointing 2014 season, in which the Yankees will wind up winning fewer games than the 2013 Yankees did, which is quite an indictment in itself.
Whether they will be one game or two games worse than the Vernon Wells/Travis Hafner/Lyle Overbay Yankees rides on the outcome of Sunday's season finale. Saturday's 10-4 loss, which was essentially over before the second inning was complete, insures they will finish with no more than 84 victories at best -- which, with a payroll of over $197 million, translates to roughly $2,347,983 per victory. And no postseason. Not very good value for the money, was it?
Anti-Hiro: The Yankees were hoping this game would set their minds at ease regarding the health of Masahiro Tanaka. Instead, they got another dose of worry when Tanaka turned in by far his worst outing of the season, failing to get out of the second inning before the Red Sox had scored seven times (five earned) on seven hits, all of them hit hard and many of them on Tanaka's money pitch, his splitter. That pitch had very little bite to it Saturday, and when Tanaka was forced to go to his 92-mph fastball, the Red Sox teed off on that, too. We'll have to wait until the postgame media session to find out if this was just a clunker, or whether Tanaka's right elbow is troubling him again.
Captain Cameo: Derek Jeter returned to the lineup, hitting second as the designated hitter, much to the delight of the Fenway Park crowd. But he was out of the game by the fifth inning, much to the crowd's displeasure, which vented at Francisco Cervelli, who was sent up to hit for Jeter with one on and one out. Jeter struck out in his first at-bat, and legged out an infield hit in his second. What did Cervelli do? He grounded into an inning-ending double play (which some might say was fitting). No word on why Jeter was removed so early, but he did appear to be moving with some difficulty as he returned to the dugout after beating out that third-inning hit.
Eury-ka!: In his second start in center field, Eury Perez made an egregious second-inning error, actually running past a fly ball that glanced off his glove -- an out that would have ended the inning. Instead it became a two-base error, allowed two unearned runs to score, and led to two more unearned Red Sox runs before the inning finally ended with the Yankees trailing 9-0. Perez also overthrew a cutoff man for a throwing error in the seventh inning on the play that gave Boston its 10th run of the game. Perez did make a fine running catch on Daniel Nava's eighth-inning drive, crashing into the wall as he caught the ball in dead center.
Late rally: The Yankees got their first run of the day on a sacrifice fly by Brendan Ryan in the seventh, when they were down 10-0, and added three more runs in the eighth on a Chris Young RBI single and a two-run double by Stephen Drew.
What's next: The Yankees' disappointing 2014 season comes to a merciful end Sunday afternoon, with Michael Pineda (4-5, 1.93) facing fellow righty Clay Buchholz (8-10, 5.31) in a 1:35 p.m. start. The game will be notable only for being the final game in the momentous career of Jeter, who is expected to be the DH again. Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira are expected to return to the lineup for the season finale as well. And just think: Only 146 days until pitchers and catchers report.