Penthouse to Pavement.

Boston 7, Yankees 6

Last night's game took me from the almost giddy heights to the crushing numb depths. A-Rod takes Curt "Celebrity Fit Club" Schilling deep, twice. The drunks stuffing Fenway are practically silent. Life is good.

Then it all goes wrong. Immediately I blamed Joe. I was so mad I could hardly see straight.

But I've had a night to sleep on it, to mull it over, to rationally consider all the angles.

And I blame Joe.

1. Pettitte didn't have his best, but got through 6.1 innings only giving up two runs and using 100 pitches in the process. OK, Joe takes him out at that point. I can't quibble too much . . . personally I'd have given Andy another 10-15 pitches and see if maybe he might get a couple of quick outs. But all right. Three run lead. 8 outs to get.

2. Proctor comes in and gets the last two outs in the seventh. OK.

3. Top 8, we tack on a run. Excellent.

Now the fish starts to rot from the head, and rapidly.

4. Mike Meyers comes out to start the eighth. Mike Meyers? Our supposed "matchup lefty" is starting an inning with a four-run lead? Against David Oritz, who I can't ever remember Meyers actually getting out. Amazing, truly. I don't even need to have the TV on to know that Oritz gets a hit off of Meyers. The only surprise is that it stayed in the park.

But OK, four run lead, one man on, with six outs to get . . . no biggie, jeez. I calm Myself down.

5. Enter Luis Vizcaino. I do a double take. We have two pitchers named Luis Vizcaino, and just called up the other one from Scranton? I mean, that has to be it, right? There's no way Joe is bringing in the guy who just yesterday got abused by Cleveland and threw thirty pitches in the process, right?

Ummm . . . wrong. It is the same Vizcaino. I guess Joe is going on the "get back on the horse that trampled and horribly maimed you" theory.

6. Well, shucks, it doesn't start out too well. He walks Manny. I'm not sure but I think Meyers could've done that. Drew grounds out, moving up the runners. One out.

Whew, OK, sanity is restored. Two on, four run lead, five outs to get. Cake.

7. But then Lowell singles. Ortiz scores. Still, I'm not too upset. That was Meyers' run, it was richly deserved, and we're still up by three with a nice slow guy on first. Get Varitek to hit a ground ball and the inning's over.

Yankees are stalling and Mariano is warming up. Rut roh.

8. Mariano comes in for the "five-out save" (would that it ended up that way).

Now, I thought we weren't doing this this year, using Mariano for more than one inning. But OK, hmm . . . he hasn't pitched since Sunday when Marco Scutaro (yes the Marco Scutaro) took him deep for a walk-off loss. Maybe he needs the work.

9. Varitek and his 1-something average up. Mariano gets ahead but can't put him away and Varitek gets a hit. Manny scores, Lowell makes it to second without falling.

I'm starting to get a bad feeling, but then I calm myself. We're still up by two. And Crisp is up for goodness sakes. That was Vizcaino's run and it was richly deserved. Mariano will knock the bat out of Cereal Boy's hands, then strike out the next guy, and that's that.

10. Except I didn't figure on one thing: Mariano throwing a pitch the ONE PLACE where Crisp could hit it hard -- down and in with nothing on it. Crisp grounds to where Mank should have been playing and it's a game-tying triple. I had moved anything handy to throw through the TV screen. Smart move on my part.

Now I know what happens. Red Sox will get this run in, bring in Paperboy, and that's the game.

11. Sure enough the feared Joey Cora singles in the go-ahead run. Cora is thrown out stealing and Lugo strikes out. But it doesn't matter. Might as well be a 12-run lead.

12. But the dagger does need to be twisted one final time. Paperboy is not available, since he's pitched two days in a row.

Enter Okajima who does a perfectly fine job.

Red Sox win 7-6 in a game they had no business ever getting close in. Joe's brutal handling of pitchers and complete lack of game feel strikes again.

And while Mariano's location had been crappy, something about these two losses bothers me more: They say the stuff is there, but if Mariano's stuff was really there, couldn't he make mistakes to Marco Scutaro and Coco Crisp inside and get away with it?

iris said to me last night, more than once, "it's going to be a long year." I believe the sweet girl is correct.