Ironically, Sox fans can look to the 2000 Yankees for some measure of comfort. After taking two of three games against the Blue Jays on Sept. 12-14, the 84-60 Yankees proceeded to go 3-14 down the stretch, losing series to the still-powerful Indians as well as the far less impressive Jays, Rays and O's. They hit .240 with a .671 OPS over their final 21 games, the pitching staff had a 7.24 ERA, and they put up a minus-84 run differential during that stretch (72-156). As many of us remember, the Red Sox utterly failed to capitalize on this, playing out the string at a perfectly mediocre 9-9 and finishing 2.5 games back (6 games back of the wild-card Mariners). Once in the postseason, the Yankees survived a tough five-game series against the A's (hmmm ... prophetic?) before regaining their swagger in the ALCS, dropping the opener before pasting the Mariners four games to two to win the AL pennant and then prevailing in the hard-fought Subway Series in five games against the Mets. Last I checked, Yankees fans don't dock the 2000 team style points or put an asterisk next to that year on their 'Got Rings?' t-shirts.