McAdam: Signature win to sweep Yankees suggests a special season for Red Sox

Down to their last strike in the ninth, the Red Sox would have to be satisfied with taking three out of four from the Yankees and, despite the disappointment of having allowed a one-run lead in the seventh turn into a three-run deficit, it was going to be, still, a pretty good weekend for the home team.

They had bludgeoned the Yankees into submission in the opener, then artfully pitched themselves past the visitors in the next two games. The goal, as Alex Cora noted pre-game, is to win series, and they had already accomplished that.

The series finale? Sure, it would have been nice to get one more, to demoralize the Yankees further, and drop them 9.5 games out of first.

Then, the seventh inning happened, when everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Heath Hembree, who had stranded his previous 19 inherited baserunners, allowed two to score, then two more of his own, too. Xander Bogaerts, who hadn't committed a fielding error all season, made a big one, leading to two runs crossing the plate.

These things happen. But even with a loss, the Sox had picked up two games in the standings for their troubles and hey, you can't win them all.

Apparently, however, you can. Or least this one, anyway. With three runs in the ninth, the Red Sox earned themselves a tie. And with one more in the 10th -- with the winning run scored by someone who wasn't even on the organization's 40-man roster 48 hours earlier and hadn't played in the big leagues for two seasons -- the sweep was complete with a 5-4 thriller.

The Red Sox were not satisfied. So going into the ninth against closer Aroldis Chapman, they did not see the Yankees' three-run lead as some imposing mountain that could not be climbed. No, they saw it as an opportunity.

J.D. Martinez, who hammered the first pitch he saw with the bases loaded for a two-run single, sagely noted that Chapman's triple-digit fastball isn't the awe-inspiring weapon it once was. Not long ago, he was the lone pitcher who could hit 100 mph with his fastball. Now, it may not be commonplace, but it's hardly rare, either. Heck, Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi was touching the century mark on the radar gun in the eighth inning Saturday.

Now, Chapman is just another hard-thrower, stripped of his previous invincibility. Imposing? Hardly.

Impossible task at hand for the Red Sox? Try again.

"At no point,'' said Mookie Betts, whose solo homer in the fifth represented the only run of the game until the seventh, "did we think we were going to lose.''

And why should they? They are now a smidgen under .700 (.699) for the season.  They've won eight of nine, 23 of 28 and 49 of 68. They're 18-3 in the last 21 home games, and they're one of five teams in Expansion Era to win as many as 79 of their first 113 games.

They're not cocky. They're just accustomed to getting the result they want.

The narrative that they had built their gaudy record on the backs of lousy teams and folded at the sight of good ones never registered inside the Red Sox clubhouse.

Perhaps that explains why they were almost nonchalant in the aftermath of their most exciting, improbable, and yes, significant win of the season.

Not even the bulletin board comment by Yankee GM Brian Cashman ("You wonder what their record would be if they weren't playing us. Because when we go head-to-head, we do some damage against them.'') riled them. Betts confirmed that the Red Sox were aware of the remarks, but weren't using it as motivation.

"We weren't paying it attention,'' shrugged Betts. "We know who we are, what we can do, and we just went out and showed it.''

Someone asked Betts where that confidence sprang from. Was it the first three wins against the Yankees? Was it the backing of Fenway's biggest crowd of the season as the comeback unfolded?

No, Betts responded. It's been everything that has happened to date, from the best record in the Grapefruit League, to the 17-2 spring out of the starting gate, to the wins that keep getting deposited, like a kid saving for something big at the end of the year.

"It's just the season,'' summarized Betts. "We go out and play. I mean, we don't have to have a whole lot of people believing in us, other than us. We root for each other and we know we can do it. It doesn't matter what the deficit is.''

Down four runs in the second inning Thursday. Down three runs with a strike to go Sunday.

It's just the season.

Haven't you been watching?