Dustin Pedroia, the surprise Rookie of the Year for the 2007 season, takes to the air in the arms of David Ortiz. Pedroia became only the second player in World Series history to lead off the first inning of Game 1 with a home run. Big Papi eventually gently returned little Pedroia to earth.
Photo by Brita Meng Outzen
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - O N E
Let’s start with one essential fact about the 2007 regular season: The Boston Red Sox won the American League East. They did not enter the playoffs with the Wild Card the way they did in 2005, 2004, 2003, 1999, and 1998. They were the champions of their division, two solid games ahead of the New York Yankees.
Any way you can get into the playoffs is good, but when you’re in the same division as those guys from New York, it’s a triumph. Boston holds the record for the most Wild Card appearances in major league baseball, with five entries.
But right from the start of the 2007 season, the Red Sox showed they were going to be in the hunt. Boston claimed the top spot two weeks after opening day, on April 18, and did not let go for the remaining 166 days of the season.
New York stumbled out of the gate, and by the end of May, they were competing with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for last place. The Red Sox were winning steadily and put some distance between themselves and Toronto and Baltimore.
On May 29, the Red Sox floated an amazing 14½ games above the Yankees. As bad as they were in the first few months, New York put on an amazing run in the second half. As the teams came down the stretch, a stumble by Boston could have dropped them into second place and completely out of the playoffs.
To add to the sense of dread in Red Sox Nation, manager Terry Francona had to deal with injuries and fatigue that struck key players. Manny Ramírez sat for a few weeks with a muscle strain. Starting warhorse Curt Schilling and stellar setup man Hideki Okajima were shut down for a while with tired arms. Kevin Youkilis had a bruised right wrist and you could see him wince on many swings. And big man David Ortiz played through with a bad knee and shoulder.
But the Red Sox held on and won the division.
Among the magic tricks performed by Francona: ending the season with his starting rotation perfectly aligned for the playoffs. Twenty-game winner Josh Beckett was ready to roll as the starting pitcher for the American League Division Series and his sparkling performance set the tone that would carry Boston all the way through to the Promised Land.
And just for good measure, this time the road to the World Series did not lead through the Bronx; the Cleveland Indians—probably the second best team in baseball in 2007—dispatched the Yankees in the ALDS. The Indians would present the greatest challenge to Boston in October.
ALDS Game 1
at Boston
October 3, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
LA Angels |
000 000 000 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
|
BOSTON |
103 000 00X |
4 |
9 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
LA ANGELS |
||||||||
| Lackey (L 0–1) |
6.0 |
9 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
6.00 |
| Santana |
2.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Beckett (W 1–0) |
9.0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
0.00 |
The line score tells it all: Josh Beckett tossed a four-hit complete game shutout, with eight strikeouts and no walks. He threw 108 pitches, 83 of them for strikes.
After giving up a single to the first batter of the game, Beckett retired the next consecutive nineteen batters, a tie for the third-longest streak in postseason history.
It was the first postseason complete-game shutout for the Red Sox since Luis Tiant baffled the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the 1975 World Series. And for Beckett, it was his second consecutive October shutout; pitching for the Florida Marlins in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series he had closed down . . . the New York Yankees.
At Fenway, Beckett received a standing ovation from the Red Sox faithful when he came out to the mound for the ninth inning.
“It’s a really cool thing to be able to go out there and be the only pitcher that pitches for your team that day,” Beckett told us after the game. “After eight innings, I don’t think they ever really thought about taking me out. I was going back out there.”
The Angels opened with their own ace, 19-game-winner John Lackey. His shutout lasted only one batter; Kevin Youkilis belted a solo home run over the Green Monster in the first inning, which was all the offense Beckett really needed. But just for comfort, in the third inning Big Papi added a two-run shot and Mike Lowell iced the cake with an RBI, driving in Manny Ramírez who had walked and moved to second on a wild pitch.
Youkilis said his wrist was feeling much better. “It’s playoff time and adrenaline helps the most,” he said.
Beckett took a one-hitter into the sixth inning and never faced a serious challenge. All four Angel hits were singles, and no runner reached third with less than two outs.
The whole package was wrapped up in two hours and twenty-seven minutes and Red Sox Nation went to bed relatively early and quite happy.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
LA ANGELS |
|||||||||
|
Figgins |
RF, CF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.250 |
|
Cabrera |
SS |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Guerrero |
DH |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.500 |
|
Anderson |
LF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.000 |
|
Izturis |
3B |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Kotchman |
1B |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Kendrick |
2B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
Napoli |
C |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Aybara |
PH, RF |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Willits |
CF |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Moralesb |
PH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Mathis |
C |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
TOTALS |
31 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
8 |
a- Grounded into force out for Napoli in 8th.
b- Struck out for Willits in 8th.
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.667 |
|
Ramírez |
LF |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.333 |
|
Ellsbury |
LF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Lowell |
3B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.333 |
|
Drew |
RF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.333 |
|
Varitek |
C |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.333 |
|
Crisp |
CF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
.333 |
|
TOTALS |
29 |
4 |
9 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
8 |
2B: Youkilis (1, Lackey).
HR: Youkilis (1, Lackey), Ortiz (1, Lackey).
ALDS Game 2
at Boston
October 5, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
LA Angels |
030 000 000 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
|
BOSTON |
200 010 003 |
6 |
9 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
LA ANGELS |
||||||||
| Escobar |
5.0 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
5.40 |
| Shields |
2.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Speier (L 0–1) |
1.1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6.75 |
| Rodríguez |
0.1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
54.00 |
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Matsuzaka |
4.2 |
7 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
5.79 |
| López |
0.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Delcarmen |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Okajima |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Papelbon (W 1–0) |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
The first game was a piece of cake; the second was tough as nails. It started on a balmy Friday night at Fenway and ended Saturday morning with Manny being Manny in the best possible way.
Walks played a major role in Boston’s victory. Angels pitcher Kelvim Escobar, who averaged less than three bases on balls per nine innings in the regular season, issued five in five frames. There were four more walks by the relievers who followed.
Boston jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the first inning. Kevin Youkilis, a guy who specializes in making pitchers throw strikes, drew a walk. Escobar then gave up a line drive single to David Ortiz. With two outs, Mike Lowell drew another walk to load the bases. Up came J. D. Drew. On the second pitch he saw, he hit a ground ball up the middle to score Youk and Manny.
Daisuke Matsuzaka’s first postseason game, though, was less than stellar. Daisuke gave back three runs on a walk, a single, and a pair of doubles in the second inning. Over all, he yielded seven hits and three runs on 96 pitches and was back on the bench with two outs in the fifth inning.
But Boston’s bull pen came to the rescue and shut down the Angels for the remainder of the game. Javy López ended the fifth inning without allowing two inherited runners to score, and the Red Sox got four outs each from Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, and Jonathan Papelbon.
Dustin Pedroia led off the bottom of the fifth with a double and advanced to third on a groundout. Escobar intentionally walked Ortiz to set up the possibility of a double play, but Manny Ramírez emulated Youk: after fouling off three straight pitches, he took the next four balls to draw a walk to load the bases with one out. And then Mike Lowell lifted a fly ball to center field to bring home Pedroia from third with the tying run.
The game remained knotted all the way through to the bottom of the ninth and it was here that Angels manager Mike Scioscia had to make some very difficult choices as the Sox sent up the heart of their relentless batting order.
Julio Lugo set the table with a leadoff line drive single to left. Pedroia grounded out to first base, allowing Lugo to move into scoring position at second.
Scioscia changed pitchers, bringing in his hard-throwing right-handed closer Francisco Rodríguez. K-Rod tried a pickoff move on Lugo but then concentrated on Youkilis at the plate, striking him out on four pitches.
With two outs Scioscia faced the toughest of choices: pitch to David Ortiz or Manny Ramírez. He instructed K-Rod to intentionally walk Ortiz again.
And up comes Manny. He watched the first pitch come in low and outside. And then he swung at the next pitch, a 96-mile-per-hour fastball on the inside of the plate; he kept his hands inside the ball and launched it over the Coke bottles and onto Landsdowne Street.
The three-run homer gave the Red Sox a 6–3 walkoff victory in four hours and five minutes of tight baseball. And hard as it is to believe, it was the first time Manny had hit a walk-off home run as a member of the Red Sox; he picked a great time to check that particular item off his to-do list.
It was Manny’s first home run since August 28, when he suffered a strain of his left oblique muscle; he sat out twenty-four games while the Red Sox held on to first place by their fingernails.
He was apparently so pleased with himself that he ended his season-long vow of silence and spoke with the press after the game. “In that moment, I’m just trying to see the ball and trust myself,” Ramírez said. “I’m not trying to do too much. I’ve got a lot of confidence in myself. He’s one of the greatest closers in the game and I’m one of the best hitters in the game. You know, he missed his spot and I got good timing on the ball, and that’s it.”
One of the funnier observations came from David Ortiz, who received a record-setting four walks in the game, including two that were officially intentional. “When a guy hits a ball like that, you might want to pitch to the guy in front of him,” Ortiz said.
Mike Lowell, waiting on deck as Ramírez batted, said the swing was unreal. “Oh my God,” said Lowell. “I think I was just in amazement before I really realized the game was over. He crushed that ball. It was one of the best bolts I’ve seen here.”
Angels manager Scioscia explained his thinking. “You really pick your poison,” he said. “We talked about this all week. Both those guys are terrific. I just think in that situation . . . we’re going to take our chances with some matchups. It made sense not to go after David. It didn’t work tonight.”
It was just the fifth time that a Red Sox player ended a postseason game with a walk-off homer. There was Carlton Fisk’s blast against the Reds in the 1975 World Series. Then there was Trot Nixon’s against the Athletics in the 2003 ALDS. En route to the World Series championship in 2004, David Ortiz did it twice: against the Angels in the ALDS and against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
Suddenly talkative Manny continued. “It feels great,” he told reporters. “It’s been a long time since I’ve done something special like that. I haven’t been right all year. But, I guess when you don’t feel good and you still get hits, that’s when you know you are a bad man.”
Bad, as in very good.
“It was a great swing,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “But I think part of the reason he got a chance to swing was because David’s such a good hitter and such a clutch hitter. It’s hard to let David beat you. But Manny’s such a good hitter behind him, he made them pay.”
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
LA ANGELS |
|||||||||
|
Figgins |
CF, RF |
5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
.222 |
|
Cabrera |
SS |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.125 |
|
Guerrero |
DH |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.286 |
|
Napoli |
C |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Anderson |
LF |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.250 |
|
Izturis |
3B |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
.125 |
|
Kotchman |
1B |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Morales |
DH |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
.200 |
|
Kendrick |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.286 |
|
Mathis |
C |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
|
Riveraa |
PH |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Willitsb |
PR, CF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
TOTALS |
35 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
5 |
7 |
20 |
a-Walked for Mathis in 8th.
b-Ran for Rivera in 8th.
2B: Figgins (1, Matsuzaka), Cabrera (1, Matsuzaka), Anderson (1, Matsuzaka).
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.111 |
|
Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
.250 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
.750 |
|
Ramírez |
LF |
3 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
.333 |
|
Lowell |
3B |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
.200 |
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.286 |
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.143 |
|
Crisp |
CF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.167 |
|
Lugo |
SS |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.286 |
|
TOTALS |
30 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
9 |
7 |
15 |
2B: Pedroia (1, Escobar).
HR: Ramírez (1, Rodriguez).
ALDS Game 3
at Anaheim
October 7, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Boston |
000 200 070 |
9 |
10 |
0 |
|
LA ANGELS |
000 000 001 |
1 |
8 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Schilling (W 1–0) |
7.0 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Okajima |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Gagné |
1.0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
9.00 |
|
LA ANGELS |
||||||||
| Weaver (L 0–1) |
5.0 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
3.60 |
| Shields |
2.0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
2.25 |
| Speier |
0.1 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
27.00 |
| Oliver |
0.2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
27.00 |
| Moseley |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
Curt Schilling long ago proved himself to be a Big Game pitcher, and no games are bigger than the ones that come in October. At the age of forty, he no longer relies on heat but instead on guile. And he was about as good as Red Sox Nation could have hoped when he took to the mound in Anaheim.
Schilling tossed seven innings of six-hit ball without giving up a run. On the other side, Jered Weaver was good but not perfect, giving up two runs in five innings.
The Angels threatened in the third inning. With two on and two outs, Vladimir Guerrero walked to load the bases. But Schilling got Reggie Willits to pop out to Jason Varitek in foul territory.
And as often happens in baseball, immediately after the Red Sox wriggled off the hook, they responded with a big inning. David Ortiz led off the fourth inning with a moon shot to right field. And then Manny Ramírez saw eight pitches before he found one he really liked; he hit a long homer onto the artificial mountainside beyond the centerfield fence.
This was the ninth time Ortiz and Ramírez have hit back-to-back home runs since becoming teammates in 2003, and the second time it has happened in the postseason.
After the game Schilling referred to Angels manager Scioscia’s comments after Manny beat his team in Boston two days earlier. “Mike put it great,” said Schilling. “Pick your poison. There is no way to get either one of those guys out when they’re both on.”
The next explosion came in the top of the eighth inning. Julio Lugo led off with a walk, and after Justin Speier replaced Scot Shields on the mound, Dustin Pedroia doubled to left. Lugo scored on the double and Pedroia moved on to third on a throw to home. Kevin Youkilis brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Ortiz singled, Ramírez earned a walk, and Mike Lowell doubled. J. D. brought home a run on a fielder’s choice. Jason Varitek doubled Lowell home. And Coco Crisp drove in two more runs with a single. A close game suddenly became a rout as the Red Sox scored seven runs to go up 9–0.
The lead gave Terry Francona the opportunity to bring in Eric Gagné in the ninth; he gave up a ground-rule double on a line drive to right field and a wild pitch; the Angels’ single run came home on a sacrifice fly. A fly ball to right field ended the game and sent the Red Sox on to the American League Championship with a three-game sweep.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.154 |
|
Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.250 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.714 |
|
Hinskea |
PH, DH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Ramírez |
LF |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
.375 |
|
Ellsburyb |
PR, LF |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Lowell |
3B |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.333 |
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
.182 |
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.182 |
|
Crisp |
CF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.200 |
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.300 |
|
TOTALS |
34 |
9 |
10 |
9 |
5 |
9 |
15 |
a-Struck out for Ortiz in 9th.
b-Ran for Ramírez in 8th.
2B: Lowell 2 (2, Weaver, Speier), Pedroia (2, Speier), Varitek (1, Oliver).
HR: Ortiz (2, Weaver), Ramírez (2,Weaver).
|
LA ANGELS |
|||||||||
|
Figgins |
CF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.231 |
|
Cabrera |
SS |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.250 |
|
Guerrero |
RF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.200 |
|
Anderson |
LF |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.222 |
|
Willits |
LF |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.000 |
|
Morales |
1B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.111 |
|
Izturis |
3B |
4 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
Kendrick |
2B |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.200 |
|
Rivera |
DH |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.333 |
|
Haynesa |
PH, DH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Napoli |
C |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.167 |
|
Quinlanb |
PH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
TOTALS |
33 |
3 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
17 |
a-Struck out for Rivera in 9th.
b-Flied out for Napoli in 9th.
2B: Izturis 2 (2, Schilling, Gagné), Figgins (2, Okajima).
ALCS Game 1
at Boston
October 12, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Cleveland |
100 001 010 |
3 |
8 |
0 |
|
BOSTON |
104 032 00X |
10 |
12 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||
| Sabathia (L 0–1) |
4.1 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
16.62 |
| Lewis |
0.2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
27.00 |
| Fultz |
0.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Mastny |
2.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Borowski |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
Lewis pitched to two batters in the 6th.
Fultz pitched to two batters in the 6th.
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Beckett (W 1-0) |
6.0 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
3.00 |
| Timlin |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
| López |
1.0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
9.00 |
| Gagné |
1.0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0.00 |
While the Red Sox took care of business in Anaheim, the Cleveland Indians disposed of the New York Yankees in four games. That was, for some fans, the good news; the bad news was that Boston had to face a tough Indians team.
But once again, the Red Sox had their pitching rotation perfectly aligned; a four-day break after the end of the ALDS allowed a banged-up squad to rest. And that meant starting off with the right arm of Josh Beckett.
The Indians put forth their own ace, C. C. Sabathia, the 6’ 7” fireballer who wears his hat off-center. The pregame buildup was that a great postseason pitching matchup was in the offing. That turned out to be half right.
With eight days of rest after his mastery of the Angels, Beckett limited the Indians to just 4 hits and 2 runs, striking out 7 and giving up no walks. The Boston offense put the game out of reach in the sixth inning and Terry Francona was able to give Beckett the rest of the night off after just 80 pitches.
The Indians put the first run on the scoreboard in the first inning. Beckett threw a 96-mile-per-hour fastball that came in right over the plate; Travis Hafner pulled it deep into right field for a solo home run.
But the Sox evened the score in the bottom of the inning with consecutive singles by Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramírez.
Although Sabathia had beaten the Yankees in the opening game of their division series (thank you very much) that had not been a masterful performance; he had given up 3 runs on 4 hits and 6 walks in five innings. Against the Red Sox, his outing was even shorter: he was gone after 4⅓ innings in which he yielded 7 hits, 8 runs, and 5 walks.
This time Ortiz and Ramírez set the table for other hitters in the lineup. Ortiz (2 for 2 plus two walks and a hit by pitch) and Ramírez (2 for 2 with two runs scored and three RBIs) each reached base in all five of their plate appearances.
Boston began to pull away in the third inning. Julio Lugo started it off with a ground-rule double to right field; Dustin Pedroia laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved him to third. Youkilis drew a walk to put runners at the corners, bringing up Big Papi.
Okay, do you pitch to Ortiz or wait for Manny? How about both: Sabathia managed to hit Big Papi in his big kitchen, loading the bases. Up comes Ramírez, showing some great patience; the first two pitches were 96-mile-per-hour strikes, but Ramírez managed to hold off on the next four off-speed pitches and drew an RBI walk.
Mike Lowell, getting more confident with each at bat, hit a double into the rightfield stands bringing home Youkilis and Ortiz. Bobby Kielty, in the game because of his good numbers against Sabathia, was intentionally walked to load the bases. And Jason Varitek brought home the fourth run of the inning on a ground out fielded by the third baseman.
By the end of the third inning, Sabathia had thrown 60 pitches and there was stirring in the Indians bull pen.
Boston tacked on three more in the fifth inning: a walk to Ortiz, a single by Ramírez, and walk to Lowell loaded the bases. Kielty proved Francona’s scouts correct when he singled to right field to drive home two runs off Sabathia. Varitek capped off the inning with a run-scoring double.
The ninth and tenth runs of the game came home in the sixth on a bases-loaded walk to eagle-eye Ramírez and a sacrifice fly by Lowell.
Cleveland picked up single runs in the sixth and the eighth. For the ninth inning, with Boston leading 10–3, Francona brought in Eric Gagné to close out the game, which made more than a few Boston fans nervous. And Gagné did not disappoint: he made the last inning very interesting, although in the end did no damage.
With one out the Indians got a line drive single and then a soft line drive double to put runners on second and third. Gagné struck out the fourth batter before walking Casey Blake to load the bases. That brought up Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore, who had hit 24 home runs during the season; Sizemore watched Gagné’s first three pitches sail by outside for balls before finally striking out on the sixth pitch to end the game.
At the conclusion of the game, the Red Sox had won the first four games of the postseason, outscoring their opponents in total by 29–7. Things were about to become a lot more difficult.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
CLEVELAND |
|||||||||
|
Sizemore |
CF |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
.000 |
|
Cabrera |
2B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.333 |
|
Hafner |
DH |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.333 |
|
Martínez |
C |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.000 |
|
Garko |
1B |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
Gomeza |
PH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Peralta |
SS |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.250 |
|
Lofton |
LF |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.500 |
|
Gutiérrez |
RF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
.000 |
|
Blake |
3B |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.667 |
|
TOTALS |
33 |
3 |
8 |
3 |
2 |
11 |
15 |
a-Struck out for Garko in 9th.
2B: Lofton (2, Beckett, Gagné), Blake (2, Beckett, Lopez).
HR: Hafner (1, Beckett).
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
| Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.250 |
| Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.500 |
| Ortiz |
DH |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
| Ramírez |
LF |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
|
Ellsburyb |
PR, LF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Lowell |
3B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
.333 |
| Kielty |
RF |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
|
Drewa |
PH, RF |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
.000 |
| Varitek |
C |
5 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
.200 |
| Crisp |
CF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
.250 |
| Lugo |
SS |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.250 |
| TOTALS |
32 |
10 |
12 |
10 |
8 |
5 |
21 |
a-Flied out for Kielty in 6th.
b-Ran for Ramírez in 8th.
2B: Lugo (1, Sabathia), Lowell (1, Sabathia), Varitek (1, Lewis), Crisp (1, Mastny), Ortiz (1, Borowski).
ALCS Game 2
at Boston
October 13, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Cleveland |
100 311 000 07 |
13 |
17 |
0 |
|
BOSTON |
003 030 000 00 |
6 |
10 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||
| Carmona |
4.0 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
9.00 |
| Pérez |
0.1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
54.00 |
| Lewis |
2.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
6.00 |
| Betancourt |
2.1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Mastny (W 1-0) |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Borowski |
1.0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Schilling |
4.2 |
9 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
9.64 |
| Delcarmen |
0.2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
13.50 |
| Okajima |
1.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Timlin |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Papelbon |
2.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Gagné (L 0–1) |
0.1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
13.50 |
| López |
0.0 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
36.00 |
| Lester |
0.2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
27.00 |
A matchup between Curt Schilling—a proven postseason stud—and twenty-three-year-old phenom Fausto Carmona looked like it had the makings of a tight, well-pitched game. But that’s why they play the games: by the end of the fifth inning both pitchers were gone and the score was knotted at 6–6.
Schilling gave up a three-run homer to Jhonny Peralta in the fourth inning, changing a 3–1 Boston lead to a 4–3 deficit. Grady Sizemore added a solo round-tripper in the top of the fifth to make the score 5–3.
The Sox answered back in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run homer by Manny Ramírez into the Boston bull pen in right field; it was Manny’s 23rd career postseason home run, putting him first on the all-time list, ahead of former Yankee Bernie Williams.
(In fairness, we need to point out that for most of the history of baseball the postseason consisted of just the World Series. Mickey Mantle had 18 home runs in just the World Series; then again, Mantle got to play in many more Fall Classics than Ramírez, at least thus far.)
And then Mike Lowell put the Sox up by a run, 6–5, with a moon shot off the Sports Authority sign above the Green Monster. It was the fifth time in history that the Red Sox cracked back-to-back homers in the postseason.
That lead, alas, did not last. The Indians immediately tied the game against Manny Delcarmen with a walk, a single, and a fielder’s choice.
The Sox came close to winning the game with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Dustin Pedroia slashed a single against Rafael Betancourt. Jacoby Ellsbury replaced him as a pinch runner; like Dave Roberts in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees, everyone in the ballpark knew Ellsbury was in the game to steal second . . . and with Kevin Youkilis at the plate that was exactly what he did.
Youkilis put on a clinic at the plate. The first two pitches were low for balls; with the count at 2–2, Youk fouled off the next six pitches. Finally, on the eleventh pitch of the inning Youk found one he liked and lined it to center but Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore made a nice play to save the game and send it into extra innings.
The Indians went ahead . . . and then piled on the insurance runs . . . in the eleventh inning with the go-ahead run knocked in by an old Fenway favorite now wearing the wrong uniform.
After using Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, Mike Timlin, and Jonathan Papelbon for five scoreless innings of relief, Francona turned to Eric Gagné to start the eleventh. Sizemore singled with one out and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a walk. The Indians sent up as a pinch hitter lefty Trot Nixon, who had patrolled left field for the Red Sox for nine seasons; Francona pulled Gagné and replaced him with left-hander Javier López.
Nixon poked at a 79-mile-per-hour breaking ball and blooped it into center field just in front of Coco Crisp.
“López is not a very comfortable at bat for left-handers, dropping down submarine,” Nixon told reporters. “I was excited to finally get in there at 1:30 in the morning.”
The inning got even uglier, including a wild pitch by López that allowed another run, a couple of hits, and after Jon Lester came in as the third reliever of the inning, a three-run homer by Franklin Gutiérrez. The Indians brought home a total of seven runs in the inning; the game sputtered to an end after five hours and fourteen minutes of play. It was Boston’s first loss in the 2007 postseason.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
CLEVELAND |
|||||||||
|
Sizemore |
CF |
5 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.300 |
|
Cabrera |
2B |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.250 |
|
Hafner |
DH |
5 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
.375 |
|
Barfield |
PR, DH |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Nixona |
PH, DH |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
|
Michaels |
PR, DH |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Martínez |
C |
4 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
.375 |
|
Garko |
1B |
6 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
.375 |
|
Peralta |
SS |
5 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
.444 |
|
Lofton |
LF |
6 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.300 |
|
Gutiérrez |
RF |
6 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.100 |
|
Blake |
3B |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
.222 |
|
TOTALS |
49 |
13 |
17 |
12 |
5 |
9 |
16 |
a-Singled to center for Barfield in the 11th.
2B: Sizemore (1, Schilling), Martínez (1, Schilling), Peralta (1, Lester).
HR: Peralta (1, Schilling), Sizemore (1, Schilling), Gutiérrez (1, Lester).
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
| Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
.250 |
|
Ellsburya |
PR |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Cora |
2B |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.375 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
4 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.500 |
| Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
.500 |
| Lowell |
3B |
5 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.375 |
|
Drew |
RF |
5 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.286 |
| Varitek |
C |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.100 |
| Crisp |
CF |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.333 |
| Lugo |
SS |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
.125 |
| TOTALS |
40 |
6 |
10 |
6 |
5 |
10 |
14 |
a-Ran for Pedroia in 9th.
HR: Ramírez (1, Pérez), Lowell (1, Pérez).
ALCS Game 3
at Cleveland
October 15, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Boston |
000 000 200 |
2 |
7 |
0 |
|
CLEVELAND |
020 020 00X |
4 |
6 |
1 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Matsuzaka (L 0–1) |
4.2 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
1 |
7.71 |
| Timlin |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Okajima |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Delcarmen |
0.2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
6.75 |
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||
| Westbrook (W 1–0) |
6.2 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2.00 |
| Lewis |
0.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
5.40 |
| Betancourt |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Borowski |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
With the league championship knotted at one game apiece, the Red Sox traveled to Cleveland and sent to the mound their “rookie” star Daisuke Matsuzaka to face Jake Westbrook.
Matsuzaka had delivered a solid regular season for Boston but seemed to tire coming down the stretch. His second postseason start turned out to be very similar to his performance in the division series; he threw 101 pitches in just 4⅔ innings, giving up six hits and four runs.
Matsuzaka’s frustration on the mound was matched by the Red Sox’s aggravation at the plate. When Westbrook pitches well, he’s a groundball machine; he induced fourteen outs on the ground and just three in the air, plus two strikeouts in 6⅔ innings. David Ortiz, Coco Crisp, and Manny Ramírez each hit into double plays.
Boston had plenty of chances, including bases loaded with no outs in the second inning; after a shallow fly ball by Jason Varitek, Crisp hit into an inning-ending double play. Boston’s only offense came on a two-run homer by Varitek in the seventh inning.
“We’ve been in worse situations than this and have bounced back and gotten it done,” Ortiz said after the game.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.167 |
|
Youkilis |
1B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.364 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.444 |
|
Ramírez |
LF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.444 |
|
Lowell |
3B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.333 |
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.273 |
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.143 |
|
Crisp |
CF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
.250 |
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.182 |
|
TOTALS |
31 |
2 |
7 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
12 |
2B: Ortiz (2, Westbrook).
HR: Varitek (1, Westbrook).
|
CLEVELAND |
|||||||||
| Sizemore |
CF |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.231 |
| Cabrera |
2B |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.333 |
| Hafner |
DH |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.273 |
| Martínez |
C |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
.364 |
|
Garko |
1B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.333 |
|
Peralta |
SS |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
.308 |
|
Lofton |
LF |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.308 |
|
Nixon |
RF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.250 |
|
Gutiérrez |
RF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.100 |
|
Blake |
3B |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.250 |
|
TOTALS |
30 |
4 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
10 |
8 |
HR: Lofton (1, Matsuzaka).
ALCS Game 4
at Cleveland
October 16, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Boston |
000 003 000 |
3 |
8 |
1 |
|
CLEVELAND |
000 070 00X |
7 |
9 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Wakefield (L 0–1) |
4.2 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
7 |
1 |
9.64 |
| Delcarmen |
0.1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
16.20 |
| Lester |
3.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
4.91 |
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||
| Byrd (W 1–0) |
5.0 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
3.60 |
| Lewis |
2.0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
5.06 |
| Betancourt |
2.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
Tim Wakefield has made a solid career baffling opposing hitters with his knuckleball. That worked just fine for the first four innings of the game, but it all came undone in the fifth. The Indians batted for thirty-five minutes and scored seven runs off Tim Wakefield and Manny Delcarmen and the game was put out of reach.
The Red Sox were up against soft-tossing Paul Byrd, who throws mostly breaking pitches in the mid-70s; he doesn’t throw the knuckleball, but he uses an old-fashioned full windup—sometimes twice—that can throw off the timing of a hitter. In this game Byrd’s funkiness was just enough to keep Boston off-balance; they did not touch him for runs until the sixth inning and they were deep in the hole by then.
The Indians solved Wakefield in the fifth. Casey Blake clobbered a 65-mile-per-hour knuckler over the leftfield wall to make it 1–0. Franklin Gutiérrez singled to left and Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch. Grady Sizemore hit a fielder’s-choice grounder to second, making it first and third with one out. It looked as if Wakefield was going to get a critical second out when he induced a foul pop-up by Asdrubal Cabrera, but sure-handed first baseman Kevin Youkilis bobbled and then dropped it.
“Pop fly to Youk, he kind of slipped, then I slipped and ran into him,” said Dustin Pedroia after the game. “The ball was bouncing everywhere. If he catches that ball and the runner doesn’t go home, maybe we’re out of that inning next batter. A lot of things went on and just didn’t go our way tonight.”
Given an extra out, Cabrera hit a grounder toward the middle that Wakefield got a glove on, only to knock it down for an infield single that made it 2–0; to most eyes it appeared that if Wakefield had gotten to the ball or let it go through to Pedroia it would have been an inning-ending double play.
After striking out Travis Hafner, Wakefield gave up an RBI single to left by Victor Martínez to put Boston down by three. Wakefield went to the bench, replaced by Manny Delcarmen; it was the first time all season that Boston starting pitchers had gone less than five innings in three games in a row.
Delcarmen didn’t get the job done; Jhonny Peralta hit a belt-high 96-mile-per-hour fastball over the wall to right for three runs. Old man Kenny Lofton followed it up with a single and then made history with a steal of second—his thirty-fourth in postseason play, passing Rickey Henderson for first place. Blake, who had started off the inning with a home run brought him home with an RBI single and the Red Sox were down 7–0.
The Red Sox finally put on a show in the top of the sixth, with back-to-back-to-back home runs by Youkilis, Ortiz, and Ramírez. The only other team to do that in postseason history was the 1997 Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS, also against the Indians.
It was impressive, but not enough to win the game, and the Sox went down to defeat 7–3, one game away from elimination in the postseason. In the history of baseball, sixty-five teams have teams have been 1–3 after four games in a best-of-seven series and only ten of those teams have come back to win the series.
That was the bad news. The sorta-good news? The last team to come out of such a deep hole was the 2004 Boston Red Sox who were actually down 0–3 in the ALCS against the Yankees; the miraculous recovery by Boston paved the way for the Red Sox World Championship that year.
“We’ve got a one-pitch playoff every pitch,” said Red Sox captain and catcher Jason Varitek. “We have to go out there with that intensity.”
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.188 |
|
Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.400 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.385 |
|
Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.462 |
|
Lowell |
3B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.250 |
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.267 |
|
Crisp |
CF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.188 |
|
Mirabelli |
C |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.000 |
|
Varitek |
C |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.200 |
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.143 |
|
TOTALS |
34 |
3 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
HR: Youkilis (1, Byrd), Ortiz (1, Byrd), Ramírez (2, Lewis).
|
CLEVELAND |
|||||||||
|
Sizemore |
CF |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
.188 |
|
Cabrera |
2B |
5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
.294 |
|
Hafner |
DH |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
.200 |
|
Martínez |
1B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.333 |
|
Peralta |
SS |
4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.353 |
|
Lofton |
LF |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.294 |
|
Blake |
3B |
4 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.313 |
|
Gutiérrez |
RF |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
.167 |
|
Shoppach |
C |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.333 |
|
TOTALS |
33 |
7 |
9 |
7 |
4 |
12 |
18 |
2B: Peralta (2, Wakefield).
HR: Blake (1, Wakefield), Peralta (2, Delcarmen).
ALCS Game 5
at Cleveland
October 18, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Boston |
101 000 230 |
7 |
12 |
1 |
|
CLEVELAND |
100 000 000 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Beckett (W 2–0) |
8.0 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
0 |
1.93 |
| Papelbon |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||
| Sabathia (L 0–2) |
6.0 |
10 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
1 |
10.45 |
| Betancourt |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Pérez |
0.1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
40.50 |
| Mastny |
1.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
Sabathia pitched to two batters in the 7th.
Their backs up against the wall, one loss away from ending their season, the Red Sox had three not-so-secret weapons in their favor.
First of all, they had Josh Beckett ready to return to the mound. Second, they had Big Papi and other veterans in the clubhouse firing up the troops in a players-only meeting. And third, they knew if they could make it back to the friendly confines of Fenway Park, they could once again enjoy their home field advantage.
The Indians sent out C. C. Sabathia once again, and once again their ace was outdueled. Things started out well when Kevin Youkilis homered to left field in the first inning. With two outs, Manny Ramírez hit a double to left-center and Mike Lowell followed with a single to right, but Ramírez was thrown out at the plate by Indians right fielder Franklin Gutiérrez.
The play at the plate looked large in the bottom of the first after Grady Sizemore led off with a bloop double down the line in left. Asdrubal Cabrera then singled to right, setting up runners at the corners with nobody out. Travis Hafner hit into a 6–3 double play, but Sizemore came in the back door with the tying run. As it turned out, that would be the only run scored by the Indians all night.
For the next seven innings Beckett worked the corners with fastballs in the upper 90s and wicked curveballs that dropped into the strike zone when he needed them.
Boston took back the lead in the third. David Ortiz drew a walk with two outs. Ramírez, the second half of the slugging team, lifted a drive to right-center that landed on the top of the yellow line above the wall before bouncing back into play.
Ortiz came all the way home, but Ramírez was held at first base. Manny and Terry Francona argued that it should have been called a home run, but the umpiring crew held to Jacobs Field ground rules that say a ball must be hit over the yellow line to be a home run.
In the end it was just a footnote, as the Boston offense came back to life. Pedroia led off the sixth with a double to right-center and Youkilis drove him in with a triple that went off the glove of Grady Sizemore. Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to left to make it 4–1. And the Red Sox went on to score three more runs in the eighth. “When we have the little guys getting on base, it’s a totally different situation,” Ortiz said after the game. “We had the little guys on base and the middle of the lineup comes up to hit.”
Beckett delivered the Red Sox back to Boston, notching his third win and lowering his ERA to 1.17 for this postseason. And he told the press he would be ready to come out of the bull pen in Game 7 if Francona needed him. “I felt good,” said Beckett. “Once again, I had great defense and I held them off just long enough for us to put up some runs. It was a team effort. We know what we have to do now: We have to win.”
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
|
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.250 |
|
Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.421 |
|
Ortiz |
DH |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.400 |
|
Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
.471 |
|
Ellsbury |
LF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
Lowell |
3B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.250 |
|
Kielty |
RF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
.400 |
|
Drew |
RF |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.313 |
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.211 |
|
Crisp |
CF |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
.143 |
|
Lugo |
SS |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
.167 |
|
TOTALS |
35 |
7 |
12 |
6 |
5 |
8 |
16 |
2B: Ramírez (1, Sabathia), Pedroia (1, Sabathia), Drew (1, Mastny).
3B: Youkilis (1, Sabathia).
HR: Youkilis (2, Sabathia).
|
CLEVELAND |
|||||||||
|
Sizemore |
CF |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.250 |
|
Cabrera |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.286 |
|
Hafner |
DH |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.158 |
|
Martínez |
C |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.316 |
|
Garko |
1B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.313 |
|
Peralta |
SS |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.286 |
|
Lofton |
LF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.250 |
|
Gutiérrez |
RF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.133 |
|
Blake |
3B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.316 |
|
TOTALS |
33 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
10 |
2B: Sizemore (2, Beckett), Garko (1, Papelbon).
ALCS Game 6
at Boston
October 20, 2007
|
Score by innings |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Cleveland |
010 000 100 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
|
BOSTON |
406 000 02X |
12 |
13 |
0 |
PITCHING
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
|
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||
| Carmona (L 0–2) |
2.0 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
16.50 |
| Pérez |
0.1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
45.00 |
| Laffey |
4.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Borowski |
1.0 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4.50 |
Carmona pitched to three batters in 3rd.
|
BOSTON |
||||||||
| Schilling (W 1–0) |
7.0 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
5.40 |
| López |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
18.00 |
| Gagné |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7.71 |
Nothing is easy or a sure thing in the playoffs, but by the end of the first inning in Boston fans had a pretty good feeling about their chances to sing “Sweet Caroline” in a seventh and deciding game.
Big Game Curt finished off a 1–2–3 first inning by striking out Travis Hafner with a three-pitch strikeout. And then we all sat back and watched.
Schilling has pitched five times in his career when his team has faced elimination in the postseason. His record coming into the sixth game of the ALCS was 4–0 with a 1.37 ERA; by the end of the day it was 5–0. And overall, in the postseason Schilling improved to 10–2 with an ERA of 2.25.
Dustin Pedroia led off the first with an infield single to the second baseman, and Kevin Youkilis followed up with another infield hit, this time to short. Fausto Carmona threw three straight balls at 97, 97, and 96 miles per hour to David Ortiz; the big man took the next two pitches for strikes and then let a fourth fastball sail outside to earn a walk.
Things looked a bit sketchy as Manny Ramírez struck out with the bases loaded and Mike Lowell lifted a shallow fly ball to right fielder Trot Nixon. Up to the plate came J. D. Drew, a player who had an unspectacular regular season but was showing signs of heating up as the playoffs arrived. Carmon’s fifth pitch, a 97-mile-per-hour heater, came in right over the plate and Drew sent it over the camera well above the wall in center field for a grand slam.
Drew’s homer came on the three-year anniversary of Johnny Damon’s grand slam in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS as the Sox completed their historic comeback at Yankee Stadium. “It was a great feeling,” said Drew. “More than anything, I was just trying to hit a ball hard up the middle, get a pitch out over the plate that I could handle.”
Schilling settled in and held the Indians to just six hits and two runs over seven innings, walking none and striking out five.
On the offense, the Sox pounded Carmona out of the game after just two-plus innings; he yielded 7 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks.
Boston put the game out of reach in the bottom of the third inning, scoring six runs. Back-to-back walks to Ramírez and Lowell opened the inning, followed by an RBI single up the middle by Drew. Carmona was lifted for lefty Rafael Pérez, who got one out.
Jacoby Ellsbury, making his first postseason start, blooped an RBI single into center. Julio Lugo slashed a two-run double down the leftfield line. Pedroia drew a walk and then Youkilis hit an RBI single off the wall in left; Youk got caught in a rundown between first and second but second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera’s throw hit him on the helmet and Pedroia came home. The score after three innings was 10–1 and thoughts turned toward Game 7.
“We’re not comfortable, we’re confident,” said Ortiz. “This is it. This is where you want to be. [On Sunday], the best team is going to win.”
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
||
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||||
|
Sizemore |
CF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.208 |
|
|
Cabrera |
2B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.240 |
|
|
Hafner |
DH |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.130 |
|
|
Martínez |
C |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.348 |
|
|
Garko |
1B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.300 |
|
|
Peralta |
SS |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.261 |
|
|
Lofton |
LF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.217 |
|
|
Nixon |
RF |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.429 |
|
|
Blake |
3B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.318 |
|
|
TOTALS |
31 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
11 |
|||
|
3B: Garko (1, Schilling). |
||||||||||
|
HR: Martínez (1, Schilling). |
||||||||||
|
BOSTON |
||||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.292 |
|
|
Youkilis |
1B |
4 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.478 |
|
|
Ortiz |
DH |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.368 |
|
|
Hinske |
PR, DH |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Ramírez |
LF |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
.421 |
|
|
Crisp |
CF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.143 |
|
|
Lowell |
3B |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
.292 |
|
|
Drew |
RF |
5 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.381 |
|
|
Varitek |
C |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
.182 |
|
|
Ellsbury |
CF, LF |
5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
.200 |
|
|
Lugo |
SS |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.182 |
|
|
Cora |
SS |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
35 |
12 |
13 |
11 |
8 |
5 |
18 |
|||
2B: Pedroia (2, Carmona), Lugo (2, Pérez), Ortiz (3, Borowski).
HR: Drew (1, Carmona).
ALCS Game 7
at Boston
October 21, 2007
| Score by innings | R | H | E | |
| Cleveland | 000 110 000 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
| BOSTON | 111 000 26X | 11 | 15 | 1 |
|
PITCHING |
|||||||||
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
||
|
CLEVELAND |
|||||||||
|
Westbrook (L 1–1) |
6.0 |
9 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
3.55 |
|
|
Betancourt |
1.2 |
5 |
7 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6.75 |
|
|
Lewis |
0.1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
6.35 |
|
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Matsuzaka (W 1–1) |
5.0 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
5.59 |
|
|
Okajima (H 1) |
2.0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Papelbon (S 1) |
2.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
Okajima pitched to two batters in 8th.
Consider this: Boston’s 11–2 victory over Cleveland in the seventh game of the ALCS was a lot closer than the final score would indicate, at least until the eighth inning.
Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched well, holding Cleveland to just two runs and six hits over five innings. Jake Westbrook was almost as good, yielding three runs in six frames.
The difference came when each team’s bull pen took the field. For Boston Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon each pitched two scoreless innings. Cleveland’s Betancourt and Lewis gave up eight runs in the seventh and eighth inning.
On offense the Red Sox jumped out of the gate with four singles to score a single run; the inning ended on a J. D. Drew double-play grounder. In the second inning Jason Varitek doubled and moved over to third on Jacoby Ellsbury’s single; the captain came home on Julio Lugo’s double-play grounder. And in the third Youkilis doubled, moved over to third on an infield out, and came home on a sacrifice fly by Mike Lowell. The score after three innings was 3–0, and that lead would hold up for the rest of the game.
As befits a seventh and deciding game of a playoff series, the middle innings were nail-biters; it was Cleveland that folded, and it happened immediately after starting pitcher Westbrook left the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, replaced by Rafael Betancourt.
The Indians almost tied the game on a strange play in the top of the seventh. Kenny Lofton, still speedy at age forty, reached second on a fielding error by Boston shortstop Julio Lugo. The next batter, Franklin Gutierrez knocked a 1–2 pitch from Hideki Okajima down the third-base line just fair; the ball hit a camera well and bounced back onto the field. It appeared that Lofton could have scored, but Indians third-base coach Joel Skinner put up the stop sign and Lofton skidded to a halt.
“Sometimes that ball caroms right to the shortstop,” Boston third baseman Mike Lowell said later. “That’s a tough angle. After the fact, maybe you say he has a chance. But I don’t think you can second-guess that play.”
To the dismay of the Indians, on the very next pitch, Casey Blake hit into a 5–4–3 double play to end the inning.
Boston’s rookie outfielder Ellsbury started a seventh inning rally when he reached on a fielding error by Indians third baseman Casey Blake. Julio Lugo bunted him over to third. And then rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia put one of his big swings on a 95-mile-per-hour fastball and drove the ball into the Monster seats in left field to make it 5–2 Red Sox.
“I hit it good and the wind was kind of blowing it out to center,” said Pedroia. “So I was like, ‘Geez, don’t hit the top of the fence.’ Once it went out, I was so excited, I don’t even remember running around the bases. It was the biggest at bat of my life, and I’ll never forget it.”
Okajima, who had already pitched two innings for Boston, started the eighth but gave up singles to the first two batters; in came Papelbon for three quick outs on eight pitches.
In the bottom of the eighth, Boston allowed their fans to start planning for the World Series. They scored six runs on a double by Lowell, single by Drew, double by Varitek, double by Pedroia, and a two-run homer by Youkilis.
“We were down, 3–1, and still felt that we could win,” said Pedroia. “There’s obviously those three nights you go to bed and you don’t sleep. All you think about is trying to win and trying to figure out how we’re going to turn this around. We figured it out.”
“After our three straight losses, the team kept telling me to get ready to pitch in Game 7,” Matsuzaka told the press, through a translator.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
||
|
CLEVELAND |
||||||||||
|
Sizemore |
CF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.222 |
|
|
Cabrera |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.241 |
|
|
Hafner |
DH |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.148 |
|
|
Martínez |
C |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.296 |
|
|
Garko |
1B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.292 |
|
|
Peralta |
SS |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.259 |
|
|
Lofton |
LF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.222 |
|
|
Gutiérrez |
RF |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.211 |
|
|
Blake |
3B |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.346 |
|
|
TOTALS |
35 |
2 |
10 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
15 |
|||
|
2B: Hafner (1, Matsuzaka), Garko (2, Matsuzaka). |
||||||||||
|
BOSTON |
||||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
5 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.345 |
|
|
Youkilis |
1B |
5 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Ortiz |
DH |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.292 |
|
|
Ramírez |
LF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.409 |
|
|
Crisp |
CF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.143 |
|
|
Lowell |
3B |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
.360 |
|
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.269 |
|
|
Ellsbury |
CF, LF |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.250 |
|
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
.200 |
|
|
TOTALS |
35 |
11 |
15 |
10 |
2 |
7 |
14 |
|||
|
2B: Varitek 2 (3, Westbrook, Betancourt), Youkilis (1, Westbrook), Lowell (2, Betancourt), Pedroia (3, Betancourt). |
||||||||||
World Series Game 1
at Boston
October 24, 2007
| Score by innings | R | H | E | |
| Colorado | 010 000 000 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| BOSTON | 310 270 00X | 13 | 17 | 0 |
|
PITCHING |
|||||||||
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
||
|
COLORADO |
|||||||||
|
Francis (L) |
4.0 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
13.50 |
|
|
Morales |
0.2 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
94.50 |
|
|
Speier |
0.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Herges |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Affeldt |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Hawkins |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Speier pitched to one batter in the 5th. |
|||||||||
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Beckett (W) |
7.0 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
0 |
1.29 |
|
|
Timlin |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Gagné |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
It was the same old story, but it wasn’t boring: the Red Sox dealt their ace, Josh Beckett, and he trumped the Colorado Rockies with ease. Beckett gave up just 1 run and 6 hits striking out 9 over seven innings.
Beckett won all four of his starts in the postseason, finishing with a 1.20 ERA against the Angels, Indians, and Rockies. Lifetime in the playoffs and World Series, he is 6–2 with a 1.73 ERA.
Third baseman Mike Lowell has been with him for every one of those games; they were teammates for the Florida Marlins before coming to Boston. “It’s something special,” said Lowell. “I saw it in ’03 [with the Marlins]. I thought that was the best three-week stretch I had seen by any pitcher. He’s putting a good comparison to that so far this postseason.”
The Rockies came to the World Series having won twenty-one out of their previous twenty-two games, including sweeps of Philadelphia and Arizona in the playoffs. Much was made of the fact that the Rockies had to wait eight days after clinching the National League Championship while the Red Sox duked it out with the Indians. That might or might not have made a difference against a pitcher like Beckett who came to the Series at his peak.
In any case Beckett made a statement in the first inning: He struck out the side on fifteen pitches, all of them in the range of 95 to 97 miles per hour.
And then the Boston bats came to the plate. Dustin Pedroia, who said his home run in the seventh inning of the seventh game of the ALCS had been the biggest at bat in his rookie career, swung at the second pitch he saw from Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis and parked it in leftfield seats for a leadoff round-tripper. The Red Sox never trailed again in the game.
Pedroia became only the second player in World Series history to lead off the first inning of Game 1 with a homer, joining Don Buford of the 1969 Orioles in the record book.
The Sox scored twice more in the first inning on a double by Youkilis, RBI single by Ramírez, single by Varitek, and a run-scoring line drive double by J. D. Drew.
The Rockies got one run back—their only run in the game—in the top of the second, on a pair of doubles by Garrett Atkins and Troy Tulowitski. But Boston took back their three-run lead in the bottom of that inning when David Ortiz hit a two-run double to center field, driving in Youkilis who reached base on a walk.
Two more Boston runs crossed the plate in the fourth inning when Varitek hit a ground-rule double to left, bringing home David Ortiz (single) and Manny Ramírez (double).
And the Red Sox put the game out of reach in the fifth when they scored seven runs. The following all happened with two outs in the inning: double by Youkilis, double by Ortiz, single by Ramírez, double by Lowell, walk by Varitek, single by Drew, and then three consecutive run-scoring walks (Lugo, Ellsbury, and Pedroia). Thirteen batters came to the plate, and the Colorado Rockies learned—if they didn’t know it coming into the game—that the Boston lineup was relentless.
The Sox set a World Series record with nine doubles in the game. Beckett sat down after seven innings and ninety-three pitches and Mike Timlin and Eric Gagné each threw an inning of hitless, scoreless ball to close out the game.
“Maybe twenty years down the road, they’ll be mentioning guys that do good things in October and saying it looks like a Beckett postseason,” said Lowell after the game. “That’s as dominating as he’s been. I’m just really happy that he’s been on my team the last two postseasons, because I’d rather not face him.”
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
||
|
COLORADO |
||||||||||
|
Taveras |
CF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.000 |
|
|
Matsui |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.250 |
|
|
Holliday |
LF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.000 |
|
|
Helton |
1B |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Atkins |
3B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.250 |
|
|
Hawpe |
RF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Tulowitzki |
SS |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.667 |
|
|
Torrealba |
C |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Spilborghs |
DH |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
32 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
9 |
|||
|
2B: Atkins (1, Beckett), Tulowitzki 2 (2, Beckett, Beckett), Helton (1, Beckett). |
||||||||||
|
BOSTON |
||||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
5 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.200 |
|
|
Youkilis |
1B |
5 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.400 |
|
|
Ortiz |
DH |
5 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.600 |
|
|
Hinskea |
PH,DH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.750 |
|
|
Crisp |
CF |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Lowell |
3B |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
.333 |
|
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
.500 |
|
|
Drew |
RF |
5 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.400 |
|
|
Lugo |
SS |
4 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.750 |
|
|
Cora |
SS |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Ellsbury |
CF,LF |
4 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
41 |
13 |
17 |
13 |
8 |
6 |
17 |
|||
a-Struck out for Ortiz in the 8th.
2B: Youkilis 2 (2, Francis, Morales), Drew (1, Francis), Ortiz 2 (2, Francis, Morales), Ramírez (1, Francis), Varitek (1, Francis), Lowell (1, Morales).
HR: Pedroia (1, Francis).
World Series Game 2
at Boston
October 25, 2007
| Score by innings | R | H | E | |
| Colorado | 100 000 000 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| BOSTON | 000 110 00X | 2 | 6 | 1 |
|
PITCHING |
|||||||||
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
||
|
COLORADO |
|||||||||
|
Jiménez (L) |
4.2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3.86 |
|
|
Affeldt |
0.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Herges |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Fuentes |
2.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Corpas |
0.1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Affeldt pitched to one batter in the 5th. |
|||||||||
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Schilling (W) |
5.1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
1.69 |
|
|
Okajima (H 1) |
2.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Papelbon (S 1) |
1.1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Game 2 of the World Series was as tight as a drum, with warhorse Curt Schilling turning over a one-run lead to Boston’s premier bull pen team of Hideki Okajima (2⅓ innings, no hits and no runs) and Jonathan Papelbon (1⅓ innings, one hit, and no runs).
A win is a win is a win, though. The last game of the year played at Boston was one that kept fans awake until the final pitch. And it included a brilliant piece of coaching that eliminated a potential tying run for Colorado.
The game began a bit shaky, as Schilling hit the first batter of the game, Willy Taveras; it was a glancing blow off the hand—if it hit him at all—but Taveras put on an Academy Award–level hand shaking exhibition. After an out Matt Holliday singled to deep third and both runners moved up a base on a rare throwing error by Boston third baseman Mike Lowell. Taveras came home with a run on Todd Helton’s fielder’s-choice grounder to first.
The Rockies hung on to a 1–0 lead into the fourth inning on the strong pitching of rookie Ubaldo Jiménez; his fastball approached 100 miles per hour at times. In the third inning he escaped a jam after walking Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis with two outs; David Ortiz hit a shot down the right-field line that landed just a foot or so on the foul side of Pesky’s Pole.
Boston tied the game in the fourth inning after Lowell walked and showed some aggressive and smart baserunning as he crossed over to third on J. D. Drew’s single. He came home on a sacrifice fly by Jason Varitek.
“Sometimes you get that spin where you stay inside the ball, and I saw it go a little bit towards center and I figured, 1–0, one out, I was going to go,” said Lowell. “I was figuring a perfect throw was what it would take. He made as close to a perfect throw as there was and I was fortunate to get in there.”
And then it was Lowell once again, driving in the second (and ultimately the winning) run in the fifth inning. With two outs David Ortiz drew another walk and then Manny Ramírez moved him to second with a hard groundball single into left. Up came Lowell, and down the leftfield line went an RBI double. The score after five would be the same as it was at the end of the game: 2–1 Boston.
Schilling lasted one out into the sixth inning; after giving up a single and a walk he was replaced by lefty Hideki Okajima who became the first Japanese-born pitcher to appear in a World Series game. “Last year, I pitched in the Japanese World Series, and I have some experience in a big stage like this, so I was confident out there,” Okajima said through a translator. “I felt real good out there.”
After 2⅓ perfect innings, in came Papelbon who gave up a groundball single to Matt Holliday. There were two outs in the inning, the potential tying run on base, and Todd Helton at bat.
From the Red Sox dugout, bench coach Brad Mills flashed a sign to catcher Jason Varitek, who relayed it to Papelbon on the mound. Mills said after the game that Boston’s advance scouting had uncovered the fact that Holliday usually runs on first pitches when he tries to steal a base; instead of throwing home, Papelbon wheeled and fired a strike to Youkilis at first and Holliday was picked off base easily.
It was Papelbon’s first pickoff of a runner in his major league career and one of those elements of inside baseball that wins games and World Series. The inning, and the last threat of the night by the Rockies, was over.
“This was the Pap-ajima Show tonight,” said Schilling. “That was just phenomenal to watch. Okajima was perfect, absolutely perfect every single pitch.”
Schilling got the win and is now 11–2 with a 2.23 ERA for his career in the postseason; in the World Series he is 4–1 with a 2.06 ERA.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
||
|
COLORADO |
||||||||||
|
Taveras |
CF |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.000 |
|
|
Matsui |
2B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.125 |
|
|
Holliday |
LF |
4 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Helton |
1B |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
.286 |
|
|
Atkins |
3B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
.125 |
|
|
Hawpe |
RF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.125 |
|
|
Tulowitzki |
SS |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.400 |
|
|
Torrealba |
C |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
|
|
Spilborghs |
DH |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
29 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
10 |
14 |
|||
|
BOSTON |
||||||||||
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.222 |
|
|
Youkilis |
1B |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
.250 |
|
|
Ortiz |
DH |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
.375 |
|
|
Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Lowell |
3B |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Drew |
RF |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.571 |
|
|
Varitek |
C |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
.286 |
|
|
Ellsbury |
CF |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.143 |
|
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.429 |
|
|
TOTALS |
28 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
7 |
3 |
13 |
2B: Lowell (2, Jiménez).
World Series Game 3 at Colorado
October 27, 2007
| Score by innings | R | H | E | |
| BOSTON | 006 000 031 | 10 | 15 | 1 |
| Colorado | 000 002 300 | 5 | 11 | 0 |
|
PITCHING |
|||||||||
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
||
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Matsuzaka (W) |
5.1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
3.38 |
|
|
López |
0.0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Timlin (H 1) |
0.2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10.80 |
|
|
Okajima (H 2) |
1.0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
2.70 |
|
|
Delcarmen |
0.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Papelbon (S 2) |
1.1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
López pitched to two batters in the 6th. |
|||||||||
|
Timlin pitched to two batters in the 7th. |
|||||||||
|
COLORADO |
|||||||||
|
Fogg (L) |
2.2 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
20.25 |
|
|
Morales |
2.1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
21.00 |
|
|
Affeldt |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Herges |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Fuentes |
1.0 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
9.00 |
|
|
Hawkins |
1.0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4.50 |
|
Three years to the day after they broke their eighty-six-year drought to win the 2004 World Series, the Red Sox moved within one more win of a new set of rings. They scored early, and late; in the middle the Rockies clawed back to within a run.
Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched one of his better games in the second half of his long “rookie” season in the major leagues, giving up just three hits and two runs in 5⅓ innings.
Playing in a National League park for the first time in the postseason, manager Terry Francona had to choose amongst three stars for two positions. It’s an enviable position; Francona gave David Ortiz a glove at first base and kept Mike Lowell in position at third base, sitting Kevin Youkilis for the start of the game.
Removing Youk also resulted in a shuffling of the top of Boston’s lineup; speedy rookie Jacoby Ellsbury was slotted in the leadoff spot, followed by Boston’s other rookie star Dustin Pedroia. It worked pretty well, too—the pair were seven for ten between them, including three doubles for Ellsbury. They set the table all night long.
Boston built up a 6–0 lead in the third inning. Ellsbury led off with a line drive double and moved over to third when Pedroia laid down a safe bunt hit. Rockies manager Clint Hurdle had the same difficult choice faced by teams all year long: pitch to David Ortiz or Manny Ramírez?
Ortiz turned around Josh Fogg’s first pitch, doubling on a line drive to right scoring Ellsbury. With runners now on second and third, Ramírez was intentionally walked; that didn’t work out either, as Mike Lowell singled into left field to score Pedroia and Ortiz. After a pop-up by J. D. Drew, Jason Varitek singled to left fielder Matt Holliday; Ramírez rounded the corner at third base (tossing off his helmet and then kicking it as he ran) and was thrown out at the plate on a very close call.
In a National League game, a manager would very much like to have the number eight batter make the third out of the inning so that a weak-hitting pitcher would lead off the next frame. But Fogg was unable to put away Julio Lugo, walking him on four straight pitches.
And so Matsuzaka came up to the plate with bases loaded and two outs. He had been up to bat just four times in the regular season during interleague play and he was hitless in his brief career as a major leaguer. But he swung at the first pitch he saw, a 78-mile-per-hour breaking ball, hitting a grounder through the left side of the infield for a two-run single.
Ellsbury, the tenth batter, struck his second double of the inning, bringing home Lugo with the sixth run. In doing so he joined Matt Williams of Arizona (Game 6 of the 2001 World Series against the Yankees) as the only players to hold that particular record.
In the bottom of the sixth, Francona gave Ortiz the rest of the night off; Youkilis came in as a defensive (and offensive) replacement at first base. And the manager was also ready with a quick hook for Matsuzaka, which he used after the pitcher yielded back-to-back walks with one out.
Reliever Javier López faced the next two batters and gave up run-scoring singles to each of them. Mike Timlin came in and Ryan Spilborghs cracked a line drive deep into center field but Ellsbury got to it just in front of the wall. Pinch hitter Jeff Baker worked Timlin for six pitches before slashing a liner that looked like it would be a damaging hit. But Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo showed his ups and timed his leap perfectly to grab the ball for the third out. The score after six innings was 6–2.
“That might have saved the game right there, Lugo’s play,” said Lowell. “I didn’t think he had a chance. That ball looked like it kept rising. He got up there, and we were all pumped when he came down with it.”
Timlin stayed in the game to begin the seventh. The first batter, Kazuo Matsui, laid down a safe bunt hit to third and promptly stole second base. Troy Tulowitski followed up with a single to center, putting runners at the corners.
Francona removed Timlin and replaced him with Hideki Okajima who had performed so reliably for most of the season and all of the postseason. But slugger Matt Holliday swung at Okajima’s first pitch, a changeup over the plate, and parked it over the wall in center field. Suddenly the game was no laugher; Okajima got the next three outs but the score was Boston 6, Colorado 5.
“Oki has been great for us all year,” Lowell said. “I don’t think he lets previous at bats change his focus and change his approach. He goes after hitters and did a great job again today. After that big home run, we just needed to get out of the inning with the lead and see if we can tack on a few more.”
That’s exactly what they did, as the new top of the order came through again. With one out Lugo drew a walk and defensive substitution Coco Crisp followed up with a soft line drive single. Up came Ellsbury; he doubled to right field, scoring Lugo. Then Pedroia nearly duplicated that hit, doubling home Crisp and Ellsbury. Three quick runs, and Boston led by four.
The icing on the cake came in the ninth. Mike Lowell led off with a line drive single. Alex Cora sacrificed him over to second, and with Jason Varitek at the plate Lowell stole third base. A fly ball to center by Varitek brought home the tenth run.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
||
|
BOSTON |
||||||||||
|
Ellsbury |
CF, RF |
5 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.417 |
|
|
Pedroia |
2B |
5 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.357 |
|
|
Papelbon |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Ortiz |
1B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
.333 |
|
|
Youkilis |
1B |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.222 |
|
|
Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.333 |
|
|
Lowell |
3B |
5 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.364 |
|
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.455 |
|
|
Okajima |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Delcarmen |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Cora |
2B |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.273 |
|
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
.400 |
|
|
Matsuzaka |
P |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.333 |
|
|
López |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Timlin |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Crisp |
CF |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
TOTALS |
39 |
10 |
15 |
10 |
3 |
7 |
16 |
|||
|
2B: Lugo (1, Fogg), Ellsbury 3 (3, Fogg, Fogg, Fuentes), Ortiz (3, Fogg), Drew (2, Morales), Pedroia (1, Fuentes). |
||||||||||
|
COLORADO |
||||||||||
|
Matsui |
2B |
5 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.308 |
|
|
Tulowitzki |
SS |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
.333 |
|
|
Holliday |
LF |
5 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.385 |
|
|
Helton |
1B |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
.273 |
|
|
Atkins |
3B |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
.100 |
|
|
Hawpe |
RF |
5 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.231 |
|
|
Torrealba |
C |
5 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.200 |
|
|
Sullivan |
CF |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Spilborghsb |
PH,CF |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Fogg |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Morales |
P |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Smitha |
PH |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
|
|
Affeldt |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Bakerc |
PH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Herges |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Fuentes |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Taverasd |
PH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Hawkins |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
38 |
5 |
11 |
5 |
4 |
7 |
22 |
|||
a-Singled for Morales in 5th.
b-Flied out for Sullivan in 6th.
c-Lined out for Affeldt in 6th.
d-Lined out for Fuentes in 8th.
3B: Hawpe (1, Papelbon).
HR: Holliday (1, Okajima).
World Series Game 4 at Colorado
October 28, 2007
| Score by innings | R | H | E | |
| Boston | 100 010 110 | 4 | 9 | 0 |
| COLORADO | 000 000 120 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| PITCHING | |||||||||
|
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
HR |
ERA |
||
|
BOSTON |
|||||||||
|
Lester (W) |
5.2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Delcarmen (H 1) |
0.2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
6.75 |
|
|
Timlin (H 2) |
0.2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
7.71 |
|
|
Okajima (H 3) |
0.1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
7.36 |
|
|
Papelbon (S 3) |
1.2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
COLORADO |
|||||||||
|
Cook (L) |
6.0 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
4.50 |
|
|
Affeldt |
1.0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Fuentes |
0.2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
9.82 |
|
|
Corpas |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
Cook pitched to one batter in the 7th.
Winning the World Series shouldn’t be easy. After all, it took the Red Sox eighty-six years to get to hang a banner in 2004. And it took all nine innings of Game 4 in 2007 for Boston to win again.
It also required a great story of personal courage. One year earlier, young starter Jon Lester was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. Lester was carefully brought back through the minor leagues and onto the Red Sox roster. And he got the start because longtime Boston stalwart Tim Wakefield took himself out of the rotation before the World Series because of shoulder problems.
Lester made the most of his opportunity and threw 5 2⁄ 3 shutout innings, earning the win in his first start in a postseason game. “Words can’t describe it,” said Lester. “It really hasn’t sunk in. Maybe it will sink in when we go ride around Boston with the trophy. This is the one you work for ever since you first picked up a baseball. This is what you dream of and this is what you work towards all year.”
The Sox scored just enough runs—one each in the first, fifth, seventh, and eighth—and then held on for dear life as the Rockies came within a run of tying the game. The heroes of the final game of the Series included the usual gang: David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, and Mike Lowell as well as youngsters Jacoby Ellsbury and Lester. And the eventual winning run came courtesy of a cameo appearance by a bit player who came off the bench.
Once again, the Red Sox scored early. Jacoby Ellsbury, who had four hits in Game 3, led off the final game with a double and moved to third on a groundout by Pedroia; he scored on a single to right by Ortiz.
Rockies pitcher Aaron Cook, making his first start in more than two months because of a muscle strain, kept the Red Sox from scoring again for the next four innings. In the fifth, though, Lowell hit a leadoff double to center and then slid home head first after a single to right by Varitek.
Lowell hit a solo homer in the top of the seventh to give Boston a 3–0 lead. But in the bottom of that inning, Brad Hawpe answered with a shot of his own off Boston’s Manny Delcarmen.
In the top of the eighth inning, Francona sent up Bobby Kielty as a pinch hitter for Mike Timlin. It was Kielty’s only appearance at the plate in the World Series—the first of his career—and he made the most of it. He swung at the first pitch he saw from reliever Brian Fuentes and put it over the leftfield wall for a home run.
“You have to have horses,” said Red Sox right-hander Curt Schilling. “You have to have Papelbons, you have to have Becketts, you have to have Mannys, you have to have Davids, but when you have Jon Lester winning it and Bobby Kielty hitting the game-winning homer, it just speaks to the depth of the club.”
The Red Sox were in a commanding position, up three games to none, but Terry Francona pulled no punches in trying to end the Series in Game 4. Although Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon had both pitched the day before, they were at the ready in the bull pen.
Okajima came in to start the bottom of the eighth inning and he may have been out of gas. With one out he gave up a single to Todd Helton and five pitches later he left a fat pitch right over the plate for Garret Atkins; the result: a two-run homer that cut the score to 4–3.
In came Jonathan Papelbon for the final five outs of the game: 23 pitches, 18 strikes, 0 hits, 0 runs, and his 3rd save in the World Series. In fact his ERA for seven postseason appearances including the Series was a nice, even set of goose eggs: 0.00.
“It got a little dicey there after Atkins hit the home run,” said Lowell, “but Pap’s been there all year for us. There’s no better guy to have in that situation than him.”
Papelbon climbed the ladder on pinch hitter Seth Smith to strike him out on a 95-mile-per-hour fastball. He tossed his glove high in the air and beckoned Varitek—and the rest of the team—to join him on the mound in celebration of Boston’s second World Series championship in four seasons.
Mike Lowell was selected as World Series MVP, a salute to his hot hitting and steady play at third base. Not that anyone in Boston wanted to see a Game 5, but if there had been one, the starting pitcher was scheduled to be Josh Beckett who would have had a very good chance of becoming the first pitcher in history to win five starts in one postseason.
|
POS |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
LOB |
AVG |
||
|
BOSTON |
||||||||||
|
Ellsbury |
CF, LF |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.438 |
|
|
Pedroia |
2B |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.278 |
|
|
Ortiz |
1B |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Crispb |
PR, CF |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Ramírez |
LF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.250 |
|
|
Okajima |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Papelbon |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Lowell |
3B |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.400 |
|
|
Drew |
RF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.333 |
|
|
Varitek |
C |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Lugo |
SS |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.385 |
|
|
Lester |
P |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Delcarmen |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Timlin |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Kieltya |
PH |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
|
|
Youkilis |
1B |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.222 |
|
|
TOTALS |
33 |
4 |
9 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
10 |
a-Kielty homered for Timlin in the 8th.
b-Crisp ran for Ortiz in the 8th.
2B: Ellsbury (4, Cook), Lowell (3, Cook).
HR: Lowell (1, Cook), Kielty (1, Fuentes).
|
COLORADO |
||||||||||
|
Matsui |
2B |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.294 |
|
|
Corpas |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Smithb |
PH |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Tulowitzki |
SS |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
.231 |
|
|
Holliday |
LF |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.294 |
|
|
Helton |
1B |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Atkins |
3B |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.154 |
|
|
Spilborghs |
CF |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
.000 |
|
|
Hawpe |
RF |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.250 |
|
|
Torrealba |
C |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.143 |
|
|
Cook |
P |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Affeldt |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Sullivana |
PH |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Fuentes |
P |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Carroll |
2B |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
34 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
3 |
7 |
12 |
a-Singled to center for Affeldt in the 7th.
b-Struck out for Corpas in the 9th.
2B: Helton (2, Lester), Matsui (1, Lester).
HR: Hawpe (1, Delcarmen), Atkins (1, Okajima).
American League Divisional Series, American League Championship Series, World Series totals
Boston Red Sox Batting (Ranked by at bats)
|
PLAYER |
POS |
AVG |
OBP |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
|
|
Dustin Pedroia |
2B |
.283 |
.348 |
14 |
60 |
12 |
17* |
6 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
6 |
7 |
|
|
Jason Varitek |
C |
.269 |
.310 |
14 |
52 |
6 |
14 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
10* |
3 |
14* |
|
|
J. D. Drew |
RF |
.314 |
.352 |
14 |
51 |
7 |
16 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
11 |
2 |
6 |
|
|
Mike Lowell |
3B |
.353 |
.410 |
14 |
51 |
10 |
18 |
7* |
0 |
2 |
15 |
6 |
4 |
|
|
Kevin Youkilis |
1B |
.475* |
.475 |
14 |
49 |
16* |
19 |
4 |
1* |
4* |
10 |
9 |
8 |
|
|
Julio Lugo |
SS |
.271 |
.327 |
14 |
48 |
7 |
13 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
9 |
|
|
David Ortiz |
DH, 1B |
.370 |
.508* |
14 |
46 |
16* |
17* |
6 |
0 |
3 |
10 |
14 |
9 |
|
|
Manny Ramírez |
LF |
.348 |
.508* |
14 |
46 |
11 |
16 |
2 |
0 |
4* |
16* |
16* |
9 |
|
|
Coco Crisp |
CF |
.182 |
.206 |
13 |
33 |
3 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
9 |
|
|
Jacoby Ellsbury |
OF |
.360 |
.429 |
11 |
25 |
8 |
9 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
Bobby Kielty |
PH,OF |
.500 |
.571 |
3 |
6 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
P |
.333 |
.333 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
P |
.000 |
.000 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
Eric Hinske |
PH |
.000 |
.000 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
Doug Mirabelli |
C |
.000 |
.000 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
Alex Cora |
SS |
.000 |
.000 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
TOTALS |
.313 |
.392 |
14 |
476 |
99 |
149 |
41 |
1 |
18 |
96 |
66 |
85 |
*Team leaders with more than 25 AB.
Boston Red Sox Pitching (Ranked by IP)
|
PLAYER |
W |
L |
SV |
ERA |
IP |
G |
GS |
CG |
SHO |
|
|
Josh Beckett |
4 |
0 |
0 |
1.20 |
30.0 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Curt Schilling |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3.00 |
24.0 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
2 |
1 |
0 |
5.03 |
19.2 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Hideki Okajima |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2.45 |
11.0 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Jonathan Papelbon |
1 |
0 |
4 |
0.00 |
10.2 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1.93 |
9.1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Mike Timlin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3.18 |
5.2 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Tim Wakefield |
0 |
1 |
0 |
9.64 |
4.2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Manny Delcarmen |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8.31 |
4.1 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Eric Gagné |
0 |
1 |
0 |
6.23 |
4.1 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Javier López |
0 |
0 |
0 |
15.43 |
2.1 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Boston Red Sox Pitching (Extended)
|
PLAYER |
H |
R |
ER |
HR |
BB |
SO |
WHIP |
OPP AVG |
|
|
Josh Beckett |
19 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
35 |
0.70 |
.200 |
|
|
Curt Schilling |
25 |
8 |
8 |
3 |
3 |
16 |
1.17 |
.302 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
22 |
11 |
11 |
1 |
8 |
17 |
1.53 |
.348 |
|
|
Hideki Okajima |
9 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
11 |
1.09 |
.267 |
|
|
Jonathan Papelbon |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
0.84 |
.220 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
6 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
1.07 |
.263 |
|
|
Mike Timlin |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0.53 |
.150 |
|
|
Tim Wakefield |
5 |
5 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
1.50 |
.364 |
|
|
Manny Delcarmen |
7 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
0.60 |
.458 |
|
|
Eric Gagné |
4 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
0.40 |
.316 |
|
|
Javier López |
5 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1.33 |
.500 |
Pickoffs: Papelbon 1.
Wild pitches: Beckett 2, Matsuzaka 3, Gagné 1, López 1.
Boston Red Sox Batting (Ranked by hits)
|
PLAYER |
POS |
AVG |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
TB |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
|
|
Jacoby Ellsbury |
OF |
.438 |
4 |
16 |
4 |
7 |
11 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
|
Mike Lowell |
3B |
.400 |
4 |
15 |
6 |
6 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
|
|
J. D. Drew |
RF |
.333 |
4 |
15 |
1 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
Julio Lugo |
SS |
.385 |
4 |
13 |
2 |
5 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
Dustin Pedroia |
2B |
.278 |
4 |
18 |
2 |
5 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
|
|
David Ortiz |
DH,1B |
.333 |
4 |
15 |
4 |
5 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
|
|
Jason Varitek |
C |
.333 |
4 |
15 |
2 |
5 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
|
Manny Ramírez |
LF |
.250 |
4 |
16 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
Kevin Youkilis |
1B |
.222 |
4 |
9 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
Coco Crisp |
CF |
.000 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Bobby Kielty |
PH |
1.000 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
P |
.333 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
Eric Hinske |
PH |
.000 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
P |
.000 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Alex Cora |
PH |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
TOTALS |
.333 |
141 |
29 |
47 |
73 |
13 |
0 |
3 |
29 |
Boston Red Sox Extended Batting (Ranked by hits)
|
PLAYER |
SH |
SF |
HP |
IBB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
DP |
E |
SLG |
OBP |
|
|
Jacoby Ellsbury |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.688 |
.500 |
|
|
Mike Lowell |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.800 |
.500 |
|
|
J. D. Drew |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.467 |
.412 |
|
|
Julio Lugo |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.462 |
.500 |
|
|
Dustin Pedroia |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.500 |
.350 |
|
|
David Ortiz |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.533 |
.412 |
|
|
Jason Varitek |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.400 |
.33 |
|
|
Manny Ramírez |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.313 |
.33 |
|
|
Kevin Youkilis |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.444 |
.417 |
|
|
Coco Crisp |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
.500 |
|
|
Bobby Kielty |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4.000 |
1.000 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
.333 |
|
|
Eric Hinske |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Mike Timlin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Alex Cora |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
TOTALS |
2 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
20 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
Boston Red Sox World Series Pitching (Ranked by innings pitched)
|
PLAYER |
R/L |
W |
L |
ERA |
G |
GS |
CG |
GF |
SHO |
SV |
|
|
Josh Beckett |
R |
1 |
0 |
1.29 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
L |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
R |
1 |
0 |
3.38 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Curt Schilling |
R |
1 |
0 |
1.69 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Jonathan Papelbon |
R |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
|
|
Hideki Okajima |
L |
0 |
0 |
7.36 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Mike Timlin |
R |
0 |
0 |
7.71 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Manny Delcarmen |
R |
0 |
0 |
6.75 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Eric Gagné |
R |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Javier López |
L |
0 |
0 |
— |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Boston Red Sox World Series Pitching (Extended)
|
PLAYER |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
HR |
BB |
IBB |
SO |
WP |
BK |
OPP AVG |
|
|
Josh Beckett |
7.0 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
.259 |
|
|
Jon Lester |
5.2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
.261 |
|
|
Daisuke Matsuzaka |
5.1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
.304 |
|
|
Curt Schilling |
5.1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
|
|
Jonathan Papelbon |
4.1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
.143 |
|
|
Hideki Okajima |
3.2 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
.267 |
|
|
Mike Timlin |
2.1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
.222 |
|
|
Manny Delcarmen |
1.1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
|
|
Eric Gagné |
1.0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
|
|
Javier López |
0.0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.00 |