But it was impossible to pass over the top of the eighth inning during New York's 6-4 win Tuesday night in Fenway Park. Essentially, a three-hour, 48-minute affair came down to a string of events in that frame that had the Red Sox kicking themselves in the clubhouse.
"You can't give teams extra opportunities, especially that lineup," Boston manager Terry Francona said of the Yankees, who used a bit of everything in a marathon inning to get one gigantic run across.
Facing new Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima in a 4-4 game, Jorge Posada doubled to lead it off.
Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher was asked to bunt over the runner, but he could not do so on the first offering. When he took a called strike on the next pitch, third-base coach Rob Thomson shot him a look of dismay, knowing the bunt opportunity was out the window with an 0-2 count.
To make up for his mistake, Swisher ended up working an 11-pitch at-bat before finally grounding out to shortstop Marco Scutaro, a ball that forced Posada to hold at second. Although Okajima finally got his man, Swisher had caused him to use up some of his reserves.
"[Swisher] fought hard so I tried to fight back and get the out, but in fighting it kind of affected me," Okajima said through an interpreter.
Francona added: "We were 15 pitches into an inning, we don't have an out yet."
Now toiling, Okajima allowed a single to Brett Gardner — Posada again had to hold as the ball was rapped just past Scutaro's glove — before recording the second out on a fly to left.
Simply needing something playable to get out of the inning, Okajima got it when he forced Derek Jeter to ground to Scutaro. But the newly acquired shortstop with a reputation as a defensive stalwart seemed to rush the throw when he saw Jeter hustling down the line. The ball bounced in the dirt and first baseman Kevin Youkilis was unable to come up with it, handing Scutaro his first Red Sox error and keeping the inning alive for the Yankees with the bases now loaded.
Likely rattled, frustrated and spent, Okajima threw three quick balls to Nick Johnson and forced in the eventual game-winning run with ball four.
While his teammates defended him, Scutaro shouldered the blame.
"If I would've made a good throw, he was out," Scutaro said. "It's always hard when you make an error to cost you the game."
Watching the error give the Yankees new life, Francona's thoughts turned to Okajima.
"He was about 30 pitches in. That's a tough inning," Francona said. "When the ball was hit, he probably took a deep breath and thought he was out of it."
Alas, he wasn't, and when it was all over, New York had used a double, single, error and walk to get the one run it needed.
Scott Atchison came on to get the last out of the inning, but the Sox were unable to get runners in from second in either the eighth or the ninth, part of a 1-for-12 effort with runners in scoring position.
For some reason, that statistic was never brought up in any of the postgame talks. Some things get brushed under the rug after such long nights. What happened in the top of the eighth, however, could not be.
