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ALCS Miscellany: Believe It Or Not, The Sox Have The Rays RIGHT Where They Want Them
By Administrator | October 18, 2008
As the post-season started, I joked with a friend that the Sox would probably fall behind three-games-to-one before rallying to win the pennant… of course, I didn’t expect the Red Sox to take my remark to heart.
The Red Sox recent history in elimination games is extraordinary… they have now won four in a row and nine of their last eleven contests when they have faced the prospect of an earlier-than-wanted off-season. On Tuesday night, after the Sox dropped Game Four to Tampa Bay to fall behind three-games-to-one, I wrote that they had the Rays right where they wanted them…
As counter-intuitive as that may seem, it may very well be a fact. Recent editions of the Red Sox seem to play their best baseball when their backs are against the wall… here’s a review of each of the last eleven elimination games they have played in:
2003 ALCS
The Sox headed to New York City trailing 3-games-to-2, but took Game Six, 9-6, in spite of John Burkett’s sub-standard performance (3 2/3 IP, 5 R on 7 hits). DH David Ortiz drove in three runs with a pair of singles and RF Trot Nixon hit a two-run home run to pace the attack.
In Game Seven, it took Grady Little’s historic mental meltdown to keep the Red Sox out of the World Series. With the Red Sox leading 5-2 as the eighth inning began, everyone believed starting pitcher Pedro Martinez was going to be pulled from the game in favor of reliever Alan Embree. But Little sent Petey back out to the mound. The Sox ace retired the first batter but then the roof fell in… he allowed a single and three doubles to the next four batters as New York scored three runs to tie the game. Little visited the mound during the implosion, yet he stubbornly kept Martinez in the game. Aaron Boone hit an eleventh inning home run off Tim Wakefield to send the Yankees into the World Series. Grady Little was fired shortly after the ALCS ended.
2004 ALCS
The Red Sox fell behind the Yankees again — this time by a factor of three-games-to-none. The Bronx Bombers belted Red Sox pitching in two of the first three games, including a 19-8 drubbing in Game Three… but the Sox won the next four games to move onto the Fall Classic (becoming the first team in MLB history to win a series after trailing 3-0).
In Game 4, they trailed 4-3 entering the bottom of the ninth with future Hall-of-Famer Mariano Rivera on the mound… but Kevin Millar singled, pinch-runner Dave Roberts engineered the most famous stolen-base in franchise history, and Bill Mueller rapped a single up the middle to drive home the game-tying run. David Ortiz then hit a two-run home run off former Red Sox pitcher Paul Quantrill in the twelfth inning to win the game.
In Game Five, the Sox again trailed - this time by a score of 4-2 - as they entered the late innings. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Ortiz led off the inning with a home run… after a walk and a single, Jason Varitek drove a sac fly into center field to tie the game. Each team used four pitchers over the next six innings… the game remained deadlocked 4-4 heading into the bottom of the fourteenth inning. Yankees pitcher Esteban Loiaza walked two batters and struck out two others to bring — who else? — Ortiz to the plate. Big Papi fisted an rbi-single into center field for the win.
David Ortiz celebrates his game-winning base hit in the fourteenth inning of Game Five of the ‘04 ALCS against the NY Yankees
The series shifted to The Bronx for Game Six. Curt Schilling started the game for the Red Sox one day after undergoing an experimental surgical procedure to stabilize a tendon in his right ankle. During the game, one of the three sutures used in the procedure tore loose and caused bleeding that eventually seeped through his white stocking (the bloody sock!). Schill was magnificent! He allowed one run on four hits over seven innings as Boston won for the third straight time, 4-2, to force Game Seven.
Game Seven was over almost as soon as it began. I watched from the Tier Boxes behind home plate (the only time I ever attended a game at Yankee Stadium) as Johnny Damon and Derek Lowe served as a two-man wrecking crew, leading the good guys to a 10-3 win and a spot in the 2004 World Series against the St Louis Cardinals. Damon hit two home runs, including a grand slam in the second inning, and Lowe allowed one run on one hit over six innings as the 2004 team ended The Curse of Tom Yawkey once and for all (Hey, Dan Shaughnessey! There never was a Curse of the Bambino… but there sure was a curse placed on the franchise by its former — racist — owner!)
2005 ALDS
The Red Sox lost the ALDS 3-games-to-0 to the Chicago White Sox. In Game 3, 1B Paul Konerko broke up a 2-2 game with a two-run home run off Tim Wakefield in the sixth inning… the Red Sox got one run back but came up short in the 5-3 loss.
2007 ALCS
The Red Sox won Game One of the series behind staff ace Josh Beckett but then lost the next three games to the Cleveland Indians. In Game Five, Beckett re-energized the ballclub with another masterful performance… he struck out eleven batters while allowing only one run over eight innings in the Sox 7-1 win.
The series returned to Fenway Park for the final two games. In Game 6, J D Drew got things started on the right track with a first-inning grand slam off Indians righty Fausto Carmona… the Sox never looked back en route to a 12-2 thumping of the Tribe.
J D Drew took Indians ace Fausto Carmona into the center field bleachers in the first inning of Game Six of the 2007 ALCS. Observers didn’t know it at the time but the grand slam effectively ended the series… despite the fact that there were still seventeen innings left to play over two games, The Tribe folded like a house of cards, 12-2 and 11-2.
Game Seven was a close affair entering the seventh inning. With the Red Sox ahead by a run (3-2) in the top of the seventh inning, speedster Kenny Lofton reached second base on an error. Franklin Gutierrez then ripped an apparent game-tying single into left field, but 3B coach Joel Skinner inexplicably held Lofton from scoring. He was stranded at third base. The Red Sox went to work on former farmhand Rafael Betancourt ( 1 2/3 IP, 7 R) in the seventh and eighth innings… 2B Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and added a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double in the eighth inning as the Sox rolled to an 11-2 win in clinching the AL pennant.
2008 ALCS
That brings us to Thursday night. In Game Five, the Sox were down 7-0 with seven outs remaining in their season… but they rallied to score eight unanswered runs to register the largest come-from-behind win in an elimination game in baseball history (the second-largest comeback in ANY post-season game in MLB history). Dustin Pedroia delivered a big two-out, rbi-single in the bottom of the seventh inning to get the Sox on the scoreboard… when Ortiz followed with a three-run home run, the Red Sox post-season was effectively resuscitated. J D Drew hit another clutch post-season home run, a two-run shot, to pull the Sox to within a run… Coco Crisp had one of the best clutch at-bats in memory (reminiscent of Ortiz’ at-bat in the fourteenth inning of Game Five of the ‘04 ALCS) to drive home the tying run… and then Drew ripped the game-winning ground-rule double into the bullpen to send the series back to Florida.
Will tonight be another chapter in this continuing epic drama? We can only hope so…
Topics: MLB Playoffs, Sox Games, Sox History, Sox Players |
