BOSTON — Maybe the best way to tackle this is to start with a guy who saw both endings from the same vantage point.
When Aaron Boone cracked the 11th-inning home run off Tim Wakefield to win 2003 American League Championship Series Game 7 and send the Yankees over the Red Sox and into the World Series, Bronson Arroyo was warming up in the visitors’ bullpen at Yankee Stadium.
When Alan Embree retired Ruben Sierra on a groundout to second base 369 days later, vaulting the Red Sox over the Yankees in 2004 ALCS Game 7 and into the Fall Classic, Arroyo was … warming up in the visitors’ bullpen at Yankee Stadium.