New York ? Yankee fans weren’t kidding themselves. They’d long since accepted the sad truth that Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez weren’t exactly Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, certainly not in October. And yet nobody would believe a Game 7 like this could happen, not on Joe Torre’s watch.

The manager would find his famous golden touch, find a way to hold it together in such an enormous game. One team after another during the Torre era has been defined by its grit, and this was the gut-check game of all time.

So here was the ugliest of reminders, a 10-3 blowout, that grit runs a distant second to pitching. Not even Torre could do anything about that.

Indeed, Torre is the least of the culprits in this colossal collapse, this worst of all possible sins for a Yankee ballclub, losing to the Red Sox and blowing a 3-0 series lead in the process.

His billionaires played like they were scared as soon as the Sox showed a pulse. Even the great Mariano Rivera faltered when he was three outs away from closing out a sweep.

Maybe it just goes to show that there was a lot more than mystique and aura to those Yankee championship teams from 1996 to 2000.

As Gary Sheffield said, “Wearing the Yankee uniform is something special. But you still have to play the game.”

Nobody has been more associated with all of the October magic around here over the last nine years than Torre. But suddenly his moves weren’t working this time around.

He has won championships trusting his veterans over the years, but he managed more cautiously than usual this series, rarely using his bench in search of a spark when the series turned on him, perhaps trusting Tom Gordon to a fault in the bullpen.

Even in Wednesday night’s lopsided loss you could question his decision to bring in Vazquez with the bases loaded in the second inning, considering he has relieved so infrequently during his career, and that he had surrendered 33 home runs this season.

Maybe he should have stopped Brown’s bleeding with a reliever in that inning, perhaps Tanyon Sturtze, before going to Vazquez. Or you can argue that the situation called for El Duque Hernandez’s defiance, even on two days rest.

Chances are it wouldn’t have mattered. Sheffield couldn’t do what David Ortiz did, carry his MVP credentials through the playoffs. And finally, there was Alex Rodriguez, who was supposed to all but guarantee the Yankees a return to the winner’s circle.

Finally, in September and October, he’d begun to show the kind of play that earned him a reputation as best player in the game, but then he ended his season the way he began in April, flailing at Red Sox pitching.

Wednesday night when the Yankees desperately needed someone to lead them, A-Rod didn’t get a ball out of the infield.

“It’s frustrating as hell,” he said afterward. “I’m embarrassed right now. I felt great for most of October, but tonight I didn’t feel it. I was (terrible).”

Torre had no such harsh words for his team. It’s not his style. He was gracious and classy as always, but he couldn’t hide the knot in his stomach. He kept coming back to the idea that in Games 4 and 5 the Yankees had late-inning leads, and couldn’t hold them with a bullpen they thought had overcome their pitching woes.

“I’d take that situation any single day of the week,” he said wistfully.

Rivera and Torre. They used to be automatic at this time of year. Not anymore. The magic has left the Stadium.