Dustin Pedroia broke open a close game in the 7th inning with a 2-run homer as the Sox would erupt for 6 more in the 8th as they beat the Indians 11-2. The win gave them an almost improbable American League Championship as they overcame a 3-1 deficit for the second time in four years.
Daisuke Matsuzka gave the Bosox five effective innings as the bullpen would do the work the rest of the way. Hideki Okajima was brilliant tonight and Jonathan Papelbon finished it off with his first career 6-out save.
Dice-K had a relatively easy 1st inning on the bump. He got Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera to pop out to Pedroia at second. He then ended the top half of the 1st with a strikeout of big Travis Hafner. Dice-K’s command looked to be there in the 1st and the Sox would hope it would continue.
The Red Sox came out swinging in the their half of the 1st. Pedroia led off with a single and went to second on a Kevin Youkilis single. Jake Westbrook then got his first strikeout of the night as David Ortiz went down swinging. Manny Ramirez kept his hot bat going as he singled into left center to drive in Pedroia from second to put the local nine up 1-0. Mike Lowell followed that up with the fourth single of the inning to load up the bases for last night’s hero J.D. Drew. Unfortunately for the Sox, Westbrook threw a sinker to Drew who grounded into a 6-4-3 inning ending double play, allowing Westbrook to escape a huge jam.
The Indians went quietly as in the 2nd inning as Dice-K had his pitches working for him. Victor Martinez hit a soft liner to Lowell at third. Lowell would actually end up being in on all three outs of the inning as Ryan Garko and Jhonny Peralta grounded out to him as well.
Jason Varitek led off the 2nd for the Sox with a double as Westbrook’s struggles continued. Westbrook jammed Jacoby Ellsbury but Ellsbury got just enough muscle on it to get it past Peralta at short with the Captain holding up at third. Westbrook then got Julio Lugo to hit a sinker for another double play as the Indians got the two outs and gave up the run to give the Bosox a 2-0 lead. Westbrook finished the inning by getting Pedroia to fly out to Lofton for the third out.
Dice-K was still cruising as he retired the first two batters of the 3rd. The 9th hitter in the Indians lineup, Casey Blake, broke up the no-no as he hit a single back up the middle. With Sizemore at the plate, Blake took second base as Dice-K threw a ball in the dirt for a wild pitch. Dice-K would rebound to get Sizemore swinging for his second strikeout of the night.
The struggles for Westbrook continued to start the bottom of the 3rd as Youk smoked a double to left. Big Papi moved Youk over 90 feet as he grounded out to first base. Rather than face Manny, the Indians elected to intentionally walk him to face Lowell. The intentional walk wouldn’t matter as Lowell hit a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Youk to put the Sox up 3-0. Westbrook got Drew to fly out to finish up the 3rd.
Cleveland would finally strike for a run in the 4th. Dice-K got Cabrera to pop out for the first out. Hafner, who had been struggling throughout this LCS, finally got a hit as he hit a wall-ball double. Dice-K then got Martinez to hit a comebacker that he knocked down before getting the slow-of-foot VMart at first. Garko got into a battle with Dice-K as he continued to foul pitches off before he got a hanging breaking ball. He hit it just below the top of the wall for a double easily scoring Hafner to cut the Sox lead to 3-1. Dice-K got out of the inning as Peralta grounded out for the final out of the inning.
The Captain led off the 4th with a single for the Sox. He would end up being forced at second as Ellsbury hit a scorcher off the glove of Garko. Garko recovered the ball and got Tek at second. Lugo singled and the speedy Ellsbury went from first to third to give the Sox a chance to get the run back. That wasn’t in the cards though as Pedroia grounded into a 4-3 inning-ending double play.
Dice-K’s command started to go in the 5th and you had to wonder whether or not the pressure was getting to him. He’s pitched in big games before but nothing like this. Lofton scorched one off the wall but Manny played it perfectly and got threw out Lofton at second. This ended up being a key play in the inning as Gutierrez and Blake followed the out with singles. Sizemore made the game 3-2 as he hit a sacrifice fly. Dice-K ended his night with a strikeout of Cabrera.
Westbrook finally looked like he did in Game 3 in the 5th as he set the side down in order. He struck out Youk, got Big Papi to ground out and he struck out Manny looking.
Hideki Okajima came on for the Sox in the 6th as the Sox used their second rookie Japanese pitcher. He worked a perfect 1-2-3 inning on just 11 pitches. He got Hafner and Martinez to fly out and got Garko to ground out.
Westbrook would make quick work of the Sox again in the 6th as he got two more strikeouts.
Oki was back out on the mound for the home team to start the 7th. He got Peralta to fly out and then he got Lofton to hit a shallow pop fly to left but it bounced off the glove of Lugo for a 2-base error. Gutierrez then hit a single over the bag at third that hit the stands and bounced back in. The Indians third base coach, Joel Skinner, decided to hold the speedy Lofton even though it looked like he would have easily scored. This would prove to be fatal as Blake grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to allow Oki to escape a huge jam.
Eric Wedge decided to bring out his top setup guy, Rafael Betancourt, to start the bottom of the 7th. Betancourt hadn’t given up a run in the playoffs so it looked a like a good move at the time. Ellsbury led off with a hard-hit groundball to Blake at third who booted it, allowing Ellsbury to get to second. With Lugo coming up, all of Red Sox Nation knew that he was going to bunt and he did, laying down a perfect bunt to move Ellsbury into scoring position with one out. Betancourt left a fastball over the plate that Pedroia put into the Green Monstah seats to give the Sox a 5-2 lead. Betancourt rebounded to get Youk and Big Papi to go to the 8th with his team trailing by 3 runs.
Terry Francona stuck with Okajima to start the inning and Sizemore led off with a bunt single. Cabrera would chase Oki from the game with a single. Francona went for his ace of the ‘pen, Jonathan Papelbon. He came in and blew fastballs by Hafner for the first out. He then got Martinez to ground into a fielder’s choice, retiring Cabrera at second. He finished off the inning as Garko hit a long fly ball to Ellsbury in right-center.
Betancourt was back on the mound for the Erie Warriors in the bottom of the 8th. He got Manny to hit an infield pop out for the first out. Lowell then hit a shot into the gap in left-center for a double. Everyone’s favorite Drew brought Lowell in as he hit a single back up the middle to put the Sox up 6-2. Things continued to get ugly for the Tribe. Varitek hit a shallow fly ball down the line in left and the Indians decided to have a cluster fuck and the ball dropped between them and bounced into the seats for a ground-rule double. The Indians decided to intentionally walk Ellsbury and load up the bases for Lugo. The move paid off temporarily as Lugo would strike out. Pedroia would make it 9-2 Red Sox as his double in the gap cleared the bases. The Indians went for their bullpen and brought in Jensen Lewis. The first batter he would face was Youkilis and Youk crushed a Lewis fastball off the Coke bottles for a 2-run homer and a commanding 11-2 lead. Lewis finally ended the long inning as he struck out Big Papi.
Papelbon came back out in the 9th as the Sox made some defensive changes as well. Coco Crisp came in to play center with Ellsbury sliding over to left, replacing Manny. Peralta led off with a single but would end up be left stranded there. Lofton lined out to left as Ellsbury made a sliding catch for the first out. Gutierrez flew out to center for the second out and the Fenway crowd was ready for the celebration. A great catch in center by Coco ended the game as the Sox rushed the field in celebration of their second trip to the World Series in four years.
The Red Sox now move onto the World Series and look to return the World Series trophy back to Boston. They will face the magical Colorado Rockies team that won 21 of their final 22 games to get to the World Series.
Josh Beckett was awarded the American League Championship Series MVP for his efforts in Game 1 and Game 5. I will have more on the celebration as the night goes on.
Notes and musings:
Kathryn Tappen was working with the NESN crew tonight since there was no Bruins game.
Matsuzaka was the 1st rookie to ever start Game 7 of a League Championship Series.
Everybody was available for the Red Sox on their postseason roster with the exception of Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield. Even Josh Beckett was available for an inning or two. Wakefield is not available because he was sore after his last start plus he really hasn’t pitched a whole lot lately so Terry Francona would rather be safe than sorry.
C.C. Sabathia was available for the Indians tonight out of the bullpen and actually was sitting in the ‘pen to start the game.
The Red Sox are 2-1 in ALCS Game 7’s. They won in 1986 and 2004 and lost in 2003.
Matsuzaka was just the 11th Red Sox rookie pitcher ever to record as many as 15 wins in a season.
If you didn’t see the link I posted earlier, Paul Byrd did admit to using HGH for a pituitary gland problem.
Matsuzaka was also the first major league rookie to reach the 200 inning-200 strikeout plateau since Mark Langston and Dwight Gooden both did it in 1984.
Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz are the only Red Sox to hit safely in all 6 games of this series.
The Red Sox are attempting to become the 12th team in major league history to win a best of 7 or best of 9 post-season series after being down, 3 games to 1.
J.D. Drew’s 5 RBI last night tie for 5th most in Sox post-season history.
Former Red Sox 1B/Idiot Kevin Millar threw out tonight’s ceremonial first pitch. How the heck he worked this one can only wonder. It was Millar’s first ever time throwing out a first pitch.
The Dropkick Murphy’s performed tonight’s National Anthem.
Boston’s 12 runs on Saturday tied its 3rd most ever in a post-season game. Their high is 23 back in the 1999 ALDS against these Indians.
The Sox have a LCS record 14 GIDPS (grounded into double plays) and 20 overall GIDPS which is the post-season record.
The game started at 9:20 am on Monday morning in Japan. Just in time for breakfast.
The Dropkick Murphy’s also performed a couple of songs after the National Anthem and even had Irish dancers in front of the stage in the triangle in center field.
Ryan Garko extended his hitting streak to 7 games with his RBI double in the 4th.
I have to point this out. Last night, Tina Cervasio interviewed J.D. Drew before the game and he went out and had a big game. Tonight, she interviewed Dustin Pedroia and he had a huge night. She also had interviewed Big Papi before game 5.
