It’s almost hard to believe that the Red Sox have just won another World Series. Four years ago, in 2003, it seemed like they would never get there or if they did, they would somehow manage to let it slip through their fingers- or roll between their legs. Yet somehow, Boston has won its second World Series since then, earning their second trophy tonight after a 4-3 win in Denver.
After being down 3-1 in the ALCS against the Indians, the Red Sox came surging back. In the last seven games, they have never trailed by more than one run. The Rockies did score in the first inning off Curt Schilling in game two, but Boston battled back- offensively with the help of Series MVP Mike Lowell (who scored the tying run and knocked in the winning run with an RBI double) and defensively with some stellar pitching from Schilling and young relievers Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon.
Although the Rockies managed to come within one run last night (with Matt Holliday hitting a three-run homerun off Okajima) and again tonight (with Garrett Atkins hitting a two-run homerun off… Okajima), it never felt like Colorado was really in the game.
The Red Sox struck early in game four with rookie Jacoby Ellsbury hitting a lead-off double and then scoring on a David Ortiz single, and it seemed like the series was over for Colorado (and believe me, as a Red Sox fan, I know perfectly well that a 3-0 series lead guarantees nothing). Rockies starter Aaron Cook did not even have that bad o####ame- in his first six innings, he allowed just two runs on five hits before Lowell homered to lead off the seventh.
Jon Lester had an excellent start for Boston, though, after nearly a month since his last start. He pitched five and two-thirds scoreless innings with just three hits and struck out three.
The only time it really felt like maybe there was going to be an exciting turn of events was in the bottom of the ninth when Jamey Carroll hit a high fly ball that took Manny Ramirez back to the wall. Ellsbury made the catch, though, and Papelbon struck out pinch hitter Seth Smith to end the game and earn himself a ring.
Although I think Lowell is deserving of the MVP trophy (and contributed both offensively and defensively in the series), Papelbon would be my pick as MVP. He earned three saves in this World Series through four complete scoreless innings. He allowed only two hits, struck out three, and walked none in those four innings. He also pitched a two-inning save in game seven of the ALCS to help the Sox get to the Fall Classic.
I’m glad that Lowell got some recognition for his contributions, though, and for his excellent October. In the last fourteen games, he’s had 18 hits, including 7 doubles and 2 home runs, for a .350 (18-51) average. He had 15 RBI and hit .400 in the World Series. I hope that the award is a sign that the Red Sox will do what they can to bring him back next year.
Alex Rodriguez managed to make an #### of himself twice during tonight’s game without even being there. His absence was tacky originally when he was not present to accept the Hank Aaron Award from Hammerin’ Hank himself before the game, along with NL winner Prince Fielder. It was even more tasteless when he and his agent, The Great Satan, chose to release the announcement that he will opt out of his contract with the Yankees during the seventh inning of the game. As Peter Gammons pointed out, it displayed a total lack of respect for the game of baseball.
I’m going on record right now, though, that if the Red Sox make a deal with him and his sleaze ball agent, I am washing my hands of them.
For now, though, I will enjoy this championship. Go Sox!
It had to end sooner or later, and today, Jonathan Papelbon’s perfect save record came to an end. After two months and twenty saves as the Red Sox closer, Papelbon had his first blown save tonight against the Rangers.
In the top of the eighth inning, Craig Hansen relieved Tim Wakefield, who had allowed just two runs on four hits and a walk through seven innings. The 22-year-old rookie made his first appearance of the season, after pitching in just four games (with a 6.00 ERA over three innings) in 2005. In two thirds of an inning, Hansen gave up back-to-back singles to Gary Matthews, Jr. and Michael Young. Papelbon was brought in to face Hank Blalock with two outs and runners on the corners. Blalock singled to tie the game and hand Papelbon his first blown save before Kevin Mench flied out to end the inning.
The Red Sox had taken an early lead against Vicente Padilla. In the bottom of the first, he gave up consecutive singles to lead-off batter Coco Crisp and Mark Loretta. Padilla retired Boston’s star sluggers, with David Ortiz flying out to Matthews and Manny Ramirez going down on strikes, bringing Trot Nixon to the plate. Trot has a better batting average on the season than either Papi or Manny and already has thirty RBIs, but only had five homeruns going into the game tonight. However, with two on and two out and a 1-0 count, he hit his first Fenway homer of 2006 to put the Sox up 3-0.
The Rangers picked up their only runs against Wakefield in the top of the third. After striking out Ian Kinsler, Wake gave up a single to Matthews and then a two-run shot to Young. He retired the next eleven batters he faced, and struck out the side in the fifth inning. The only other hit he allowed was a two-out double to Brad Wilkerson in the seventh.
Papelbon did allow Blalock to tie the score in the next inning, but, luckily for him, the Rangers brought Francisco Cordero in from the bullpen to relieve Padilla in the bottom of the inning. Coco began with a lead-off walk to Manny, followed by a single to Trot, who was 4-4 on the evening. Mike Lowell then hit a sacrifice fly, allowing Ramirez to score the go-ahead run before Kevin Youkilis lined into a double play.
Although Papelbon was already charged with the blown save, he did return in the ninth inning to close the door with the Sox back on top. He did allow a single to Rod Barajas, and pinch runner Jerry Hairston, Jr. stole second, but Mark DeRosa and Wilkerson had already struck out, and Kinsler went down swinging for the third time that night to end the game. Papelbon came away with the win, and while his record is marred with the blown save, he still has only one earned run in over thirty innings this season.
I have been without internet access after some network difficulties following a thunderstorm and blackout Friday night. Here is the second installment in my weekend-in-review.
In the final game of the series on Sunday, Lenny DiNardo picked up his first win since joining the starting rotation in place of an injured David Wells. He began with an ugly first inning when he gave up four consecutive walks with two outs. Fortunately for DiNardo and Boston, former Sox teammate Kevin Millar could be counted on for the bases-loaded strike out to end the inning.
Despite starting out with a one-run deficit, the Sox wasted little time in establishing a lead for themselves. After a fly out from Kevin Youkilis, Mark Loretta drew the walk. David Ortiz took Luis Matos to the wall on a deep fly ball that was caught for the second out. Orioles starter Kris Benson then gave up a base hit to Manny Ramirez and beaned Trot Nixon in the elbow to load the bases, bringing up Jason Varitek. The Boston captain took Bensen deep for a grand slam that gave the Sox a 4-1 edge.
Despite another shaky inning from DiNardo in the third, those four RBIs would be enough to keep ahead of the struggling O-Birds, but Boston did not stop there. DiNardo allowed one more walk to Melvin Mora to lead off the third, and the Orioles pried one more run out of him in a display of poor fielding. After Miguel Tejada struck out, Jay Gibbons reached on a single that sent DiNardo, Alex Cora at short, and Mark Loretta at second all diving but eluded them all. Mora then scored when the Boston pitcher bobbled a ground ball hit by Ramon Hernandez.
DiNardo eventually settled down, allowing only one more base runner (on a double to Mora) in the next two innings. Kris Benson had no such luck, getting roughed up again in the bottom of the fifth. Youk and Loretta hit back-to-back singles before he struck out Ortiz for his first out. Another single to Manny loaded the bases, and a double to Trot drove in the first two runners. Benson decided not to take a chance on Varitek again and intentionally walked him to load the bases for Mike Lowell. The third baseman may not have had a grand slam in him, but he did pick up two RBIs on a double to deep centerfield. It seems that was the point when Sam Perlozzo decided Benson may have been in trouble and brought in Sendy Rleal. One of his inherited runners got in on a sac fly from Wily Mo Peña before Alex Cora, the ninth Boston batter of the fifth, ended the inning on a fly out.
Three was the Orioles’ magic number this weekend in Fenway, although it did not work out terribly well for them. They did manage to squeeze one more run from Boston reliever Julian Tavarez to equal their run total from each of the first two games of the series. It is a slight improvement over their performance in Arlington, when the Orioles scored only three total runs in a two-game series against the Rangers. Unfortunately for Baltimore, their pitching staff’s ERA is nearly double that figure at 5.55, the second worst in the American League.
Game Two: The Orioles fared no better yesterday, handing Tim Wakefield his second win of the season after nearly a month of struggles since his first win in Camden Yards on April 9. Although the knuckleballer’s control still leaves a bit to be desired, he allowed just three runs on seven hits and two walks. Wake had a wild pitch and one hit batter (Hernandez), but things are still looking up for him with Mirabelli back behind the plate. The backup catcher also added an insurance run for Boston with an RBI double in the bottom of the third to bring the lead to 6-1.
The Red Sox had already done all the damage they would need, batting around against Erik Bedard in the second inning. He allowed a pair of walks to Ramirez and Lowell to lead off the inning, followed by singles to Peña and Nixon before getting his first out against Mirabelli. Another three runs came in on a set of singles to Alex Gonzalez and Youk. The inning should have ended when David Ortiz struck out swinging, but he reached first and Gonzalez scored one more run on a passed ball by Hernandez.
In the fourth inning, Chris Gomez brought Baltimore within three runs with a homerun that also scored Millar. Through the final five innings, however, the Orioles had only four more hits and a walk and could not score another run. Meanwhile, Boston continued to add to their lead, well after Bedard was pulled after the second inning, with a solo home run for Ramirez in the fourth and two more runs on sacrifice flies (by Manny and Wily Mo) in the eighth.
Game One: The Orioles kept things a bit closer in Friday night’s game. With a three-hit, two-run fifth inning against Curt Schilling that included a triple by Nick Markakis, Baltimore even had a 3-2 lead over Boston for a short while. However, in the bottom of the sixth, the Sox came back to get Schilling his fifth win. The inning included a walk to Youk, a bunt single for Loretta, a stolen base by Lowell, and three doubles (Lowell, Gonzalez, and Ortiz). Both teams saw good performances from their bullpens with Mike Timlin allowing one hit in relief of Schilling in the eighth and 2005 Red Sox reliever John Halama giving up a walk (to Trot) and a single (to Youk) in the final two innings against Boston. Jonathan Papelbon made his first and only appearance of the series, coming on in the top of the ninth to pitch a scoreless inning and pick up his twelfth save.
Okay, let's try that again. Sorry for the technical difficulties (also known as cut-and-paste errors).
No, I’m not talking back about Johnny Damon’s return to Fenway Park in a Yankees uniform, although that attracted most of the media attention in tonight’s game. For me, the real excitement was the reunion of backup catcher Doug Mirabelli with battery-mate Tim Wakefield. I don’t know how long Theo Epstein has been working on this deal; hell, I do not know why they dealt Mirabelli away in the first place. However, the timing of his return could have hardly been more dramatic. His arrival to Fenway, via police escort from Logan Airport half an hour before Wakefield took the mound in the season’s first game against the Yankees, could have been written for a movie.
Although catching a knuckleball pitcher is hardly an enviable task, the return of Wakefield’s partner in crime for the past several seasons was a welcome relief after Josh Bard got off to an extremely rough start with ten passed balls in four games. Things got off to a pretty start with the first three Yanks (beginning with Johnny Damon) going down in order against Wakefield.
In the bottom of the first, Kevin Youkilis, the Greek God of Walks, led off and lived up to his reputation. David Ortiz got to work quickly sending Youk home with a single to give the Sox a 1-0 lead to get things going. Wake got roughed up a bit in the fourth, after loading the bases with a lead-off single to Derek Jeter and consecutive walks to Jason Giambi and A-Rod. Hideki Matsui drove in Jeter to tie the score, and Robinson Cano hit a single to put the Yanks up 3-1.
Boston came back to tie it in the next inning with Alex Cora bunting his way on and Youk hitting a single. Cora was erased on Mark Loretta’s fielder’s choice, but Papi singled to load the bases for Manny. He and Trot Nixon each batted a runner in to get the score back to 3-3. Wake had to settle for a no-decision when he left after seven innings. He allowed just the three runs on four hits and three walks.
Things got out of control for Aaron Small in the eighth, though. After walking Cora, he hit Youk and sent him to the plate. Tanyon Sturtze took over from their, giving up an RBI single to Loretta. At that point, Joe Torre decided to try his luck with a former teammate of the Sox, their left-handed specialist Mike Myers, to face Big Papi. Ortiz got ahead of Myers before working the count full and then knocking the 3-2 pitch out.
Damon went back to the wall (which probably still has strands of his hair caught on it from his head-first dives) trying to run it down, but he had no chance. Jonathan Papelbon grabbed it as he was warming up in the bullpen. The three-run homer eliminated his save opportunity, but Papelbon tossed the ball into the stands and resumed his throwing. He retired A-Rod, Matsui, and Posada in order, striking out Rodriguez and Posada, to exceed fifteen scoreless innings and put the lid on an 7-3 victory in the first game against the Yankees of 2006.
I wish I could rise above, as Northsider recommended, be the better (wo)man, and applaud Damon in his return to Fenway. I'm not sure I would've had it in me, though. I have to admit I was glad to see him go 0-4, not so much for reasons of spite as just wanting the Sox to come out on top.
Boston ended what has been an ugly three-game losing streak and avoided the sweep in the Rogers Centre today. Things looked iffy for a while, after the Red Sox looked poised to blow a 4 – 0 lead. Fortunately, with some insurance runs in the final innings and some good work out of the bullpen, the Sox hung on to win.
It was reassuring to see the Sox take a three-run lead before Toronto ever came up to bat. Josh Towers, who is now 0 – 4 for the Jays, hit lead-off batter Kevin Youkilis. David Ortiz then came up and hit a homer that put the Sox up by two with just one out in the game. Towers followed it up with back-to-back singles to Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon. Another single to Mike Lowell drove in Manny before he got out of the inning.
Matt Clement did rather well against the Jays early in the game, allowing only two hits in the first three innings. In the fourth inning, Kevin Youkilis drove in Willie Harris (continuing to hit well with runners in scoring position) to put the Sox’s up 4 – 0. However, that lead appeared to be jeopardized when Gregg Zaun quickly brought the Jays within a run at 4 – 3. Matt Clement was not entirely to blame, however, as lead-off man Vernon Wells reached on a throwing error by third baseman Mike Lowell. He did walk Lyle Overbay, however, and later hit Alex Rios in what proved to be the ugliest inning for Boston.
His control continued to waver in the fifth inning when he hit Vernon Wells and gave up another walk to Overbay as well as a base hit Frank Catalanotto. He escaped the inning without any further damage. After allowing two singles with just one out in the sixth, Clement was pulled by Terry Francona and Keith Foulke took the mound in relief. Although Foulke has been somewhat inconsistent lately and has been replaced in his role as closer, he looked good today and held the Jays at three for Boston. In an inning and two-thirds, he allowed no hits and had three strikeouts.
In the eighth, Adrian Gonzalez led off with a walk against Vinnie Chulk. Youk and Loretta hit back-to-back singles, with Gonzalez scoring off Loretta’s. Afterwards, the Jays brought in B.J. Ryan to stop the bleeding, but Mike Timlin already had a bit more cushion in his lead when he took the mound in the bottom of the inning. The set-up man allowed one base hit but struck out two before handing it off to Jonathan Papelbon.
Shaun Marcum took over for Ryan in the top of the ninth and allowed a lead-off single to Jason Varitek and RBI double to Mike Lowell to give the Sox a 6 – 3 lead. He then walked Harris before eliciting two pop flies and striking out Youk to strand Harris and end the inning.
Papelbon, sporting his new mohawk, came on for the close in the bottom of the ninth. Although he allowed consecutive singles, to lead-off hitter Russ Adams and Frank Catalanotto, Papelbon continued his streak of scoreless innings (now up to eleven and a third) that earned him his new ‘do in the first place. Papelbon struck out Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus hit into a 6 – 4 – 3 double play to end the game (and Boston’s losing streak) and earn Papelbon his eighth consecutive save.
"Basketball, football, baseball- if it has balls, I'm all over it. Puck hockey."
I am a Red Sox fanatic and otherwise sports-obsess ed nut. Favorite teams include: Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers; Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots; Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics.
