Bosox skipper becomes face of failure

Bosox skipper becomes face of failure

CJ GUNTHER/EPA

Red Sox left fielder Darnell McDonald doesn’t want to turn around because the scoreboard isn’t pretty as the Yankees pile on the runs in the seventh and eighth innings at Fenway.

BOSTON There came a point in the eighth inning when you wondered if the Yankees would ever make another out. Or, more to the point, whether Bobby Valentine wished hed never been asked to manage the Red Sox.

In the end, yes, the day belonged to the Yankees and their remarkable comeback. And yet, much like the most horrific accident youve ever seen on a highway somewhere, you couldnt take your eyes off the beleaguered Bobby V.

What does a manager say when his team blows a 9-0 lead and loses 15-9? What does he do to deal with the hated Yankees scoring 14 runs in the seventh and eighth innings alone?

LUPICA: BOBBY V'S NOT TO BLAME FOR BOSOX WOES

BOSOX BEATDOWN: YANKS RALLY FROM NINE RUNS DOWN TO SCORE 15-9 WIN

In the interview room Valentine looked a bit dazed by it all, and considerably older than I could ever remember seeing him.

It all happened pretty quickly, he said. And its all pretty confusing.

Conf using is probably the best word to describe Valentine these days. He no doubt thought hed be embraced in this town as the new sheriff hired to clean up a clubhouse that had turned into Animal House under Terry Francona.

Instead he finds himself portrayed as the bad guy, vilified for the type of comments about Kevin Youkilis that Francona never would have made, and helpless to keep an injury-riddled ballclub from unraveling just two weeks into the season.

As such you could almost see Valentine searching for words that made some sense of it all.

I think weve hit bottom, he said, finally. Thats what I just said to the guys. If this isnt the bottom, then well find some new ends to the earth.

Hard to argue with that. The Red Sox, cursed by the Bambino for all those decades, have had far more heartbreaking losses in their history. But surely they have never had one quite so humiliating as this, seemingly boys vs. men in those couple of innings when the Yankees refused to make outs.

Who knows how long it might have gone on, in fact, had Raul Ibanez not hit a screaming liner that Adrian Gonzalez stabbed and turned into a double play for the first two outs of the endless eighth inning.

It wasnt Valentines fault, unless you want to blame him for taking out starter Felix Dubront after six innings with a 9-1 lead. But the lefty was at the 100-pitch limit, and Valentine said his velocity was down significantly in the sixth.

I thought it was a no-brainer, he said.

Then the Yankees started hitting. And hitting. And hitting. Nick Swisher hit a grand slam and a bases-loaded double. Mark Teixeira hit two home runs.