I’ve gotten behind on my reading lately, and today I came across an October 16 column from ESPN Insider Jerry Crasnick, an excellent writer. The article is from after game 3 of the ALCS, which the Red Sox lost 19-8 against the Yankees. Crasnick, along with everyone else in the world, wrote off the Red Sox as dead in the water. It’s hard to believe this is from less than two weeks ago:

The Red Sox, fresh off a 19-8 loss Saturday, trail the Yankees 3-0 in the ALCS and are in a bind that no team has managed to escape in major-league history. Of the previous 25 teams to lose the first three games in a best-of-seven series, none have come back to win the series, and only five have been able to avoid a sweep.

And the Red Sox are suffering from a staff infection. Sunday night, for want of an alternative, they’ll start Derek Lowe, who gave up 224 hits in 182 2/3 innings this year and was so suspect he couldn’t beat out the inexperienced Bronson Arroyo for a spot in the October rotation.

Judging from pitching coach Dave Wallace’s reaction after the game, expectations for Lowe aren’t particularly high. When a reporter asked Wallace if the team has any options other than Lowe, Wallace replied, “I wish there were. There are no other options.”

Of 25 previous teams to trail 3-0 in a seven game series, 20 got swept, 3 lost game 5, and only 2 managed to force a game 6 before losing. None of the 25 had even forced a game 7, let alone won it. Let alone in the other team’s park. Let alone when that team is the Yankees, that park is The Stadium, this team is the Red Sox, and the game 3 score belonged in a football game, not a baseball game.

Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui forced Red Sox manager Terry Francona to invent options on the fly Saturday night. After the Yankees banged around Arroyo, Ramiro Mendoza and Curtis Leskanic in the first three innings, Tim Wakefield emerged from the bullpen to try and eat some innings. Wakefield had been scheduled to start Game 4, but volunteered to come out of the pen simply because someone had to pitch.

“I tried to stop the bleeding as much as I could,” Wakefield said. “But it was one of those nights where no matter what you threw up there, they found holes and got hits.”

It was wall-to-wall hemophilia at Fenway. Alan Embree lasted one-third of an inning, and Mike Myers got dinged for five hits and two runs as Boston’s final human sacrifice out of the pen. If there was a silver lining — and this is really a reach — at least Francona didn’t have to use Mike Timlin or Keith Foulke, so they’ll be ready to throw multiple innings in Game 4.

Wakefield’s willingness (it was his idea to go in) to forego his game 4 start to chew up innings in game 3 and save the bullpen doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves, so I’ll say it here: Tim Wakefield is a hero, a gentleman, and a true team player. He gave up his spot on the national stage (the game 4 start) for mop-up innings in a game most people had already turned off. For the record, games 4 and 5 went a combined 26 innings and Timlin & Foulke, saved from pitching in game 3 by Wakefield’s selflessness, combined for 6 2/3 innings of 1-run ball in those games.

Realistically, this is Lowe’s final start in a Red Sox uniform. Martinez and Jason Varitek are Boston’s top free-agent priorities, which means that Lowe’s agent, Scott Boras, will have to shop him to Baltimore, Detroit and other clubs looking for a veteran starter. Lowe can only hope that a decent outing will prompt clubs to overlook his 5.42 ERA and reputation as an uptight guy who folds when the going gets tough.

Lowe is the first pitcher in history to pitch the clinching game of all 3 playoff series in the same year. He got the win in relief as the Sox swept the Angels, and he started game 7 in New York in the ALCS and game 4 in St. Louis in the World Series. His combined line in those two starts: 13 innings and one earned run.

The Yankees are feasting on Boston’s pitching, which has been generous enough to qualify as appetizer, main course and dessert. Right now this series belongs to New York, and the Red Sox can only hope to prolong the inevitable.

The Red Sox can only hope to prolong the inevitable. And when people read those words on October 16 nobody thought a thing about it. Everyone agreed. Another year down the john for the Sox. Beat by the Yankees again, except this year instead of a knife to the heart in the bottom of the 11th inning in game 7 it was a kick in the teeth that lasted 4 games long.

Amazing.