Sox 7, Stankees 6
WP: Snyder (1-0)
LP: Rivera (1-2)
SV: Okijima (1)
HRs: BOS-Tek (1); NYY- A-Rod, 2 (12)
Sox box
***Due to this being a Sox/Stankees series some elements of this post had to be supersized***
As predicted by yours truly, the Captain had a breakout game against the archenemies
SUMMARY:
What started out as a bleak and depressing evening at the ballyard turned into another Red Sox/Stankees classic, complete with record-setting homers, a huge late-inning comeback, 25 hits, 13 runs a hit batter and one centerfielder tumbling ass-over-tea kettle into the bullpen.
Boston spotted New York a 6-2 lead thanks to 2 more home runs from A-Rod, but after Joe Torre pulled Andy Pettitte in the 6th the Sox touched up three relievers, including Mariano Rivera, for 5 hits and 5 runs in 2 2/3 to turn the game upside down and send the sellout crowd home happy.
HEROES:
1.) Cap'n Tek: 3-4, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI- you can call him Captain Clutch again
2.) Coco Crisp: 2-4, 3B, R, 2 RBI- 2-run triple tied the game & kept hope alive
3.) A-Rod: 3-5, 2HR, 2B, 3R, 4 RBI- gotta give the guy some due for that perf
4.) Okijima: 1IP, 1BB, 1K, SV- retired the heart of the order to preserve the win
5.) Alex Cora: 1-1, 1 RBI- his pinch-hit single knocked in the game-winner
GOATS:
1.) Rivera: 2/3, 3H, 2R, BSV- 2nd consecutive blown save, 11th career vs. the Sox
2.) Schilling: 7IP, 8H, 5ER, 2HRs- it was Opening Day deja vu all over again
3.) Judas Demon: 0-5, RBI- the traitor was a no-show in this return trip to his old haunts
RECAP:
I'm not sure where to begin with this one.
This game was full of so many twists & turns, ups & downs, plots & subplots, great plays and poor pitching that you could fill an entire blogpost about it. So here I go.
With Curt Schilling squaring off against Andy Pettitte you figured this was going to be a pitcher's duel. And with the way the Boston bats have been struggling to produce runs against anyone other than the Angels, you also had to fiugure it was going to fall on Schill's shoulders to keep his team in the game until Boston could get to New York's shaky bullpen. All he had to do was keep Jeter & Abreu off the basepaths and cool off the hottest player on the planet, A-Rod. No prob.
The plan was working to a tee, at least for the first few innings. Schill set down the first six Stankee hitters on just 18 pitches, including Rodriguez leading off the 2nd on a deep flyout to center. But just when it looked like a scoreless duel was taking shape the bottom of the New York order produced a run in the third on 2 singles, a sacrifice and an RBI groundout by Judas Demon.
This single run wouldn't have seemed like a big deal except for the fact that the Sox were leaving men on base all over the place: in the 1st inning Manny grounded into a DP with 2 on and 1 out; in the 2nd J.D. Drew (3-4) led off with a single but it was Mike Lowell's turn to GIDP; and in the 3rd inning Big Papi grounded out after Lugo (walk) and Youk (single) reached with two outs. And on it went.
The next inning the Stanks appeared to have really blown the game open when A-Rod mashed his 11th home run of the season and 4th in the last 4 games to give New York a 2-0 lead. Schilling attempted to finesse Rodriguez in his first at bat, but this time he left his second pitch over the plate and A-Rod sent a scud missile into the Monstah seats for his 475th career longball.
At that point things were looking pretty grim; the announcers, especially Karl Ravich (put him back in the studio, will ya ESPN?), were busy falling over each other to wax poetic about A-Rod's amazing April efforts and even made mention of how eerilly silent the Fenway crowd had been up to that point. And the Human Hairpiece was right- the Sox fans sounded like a bunch of worried wimps, sitting on their hands and wondering when the next shoe was going to drop.
I guess that's what happens when your team loses 7 in a row at home to it's archenemy.
The atmosphere in the park would change in the bottom of the 4th when Jason Varitek finally got off the schneid and launched a 2-run homer to centerfield that tied the game at 2 and allowed everyone breath a sigh of relief, especially Schilling. But what happened in the 5th inning made it seem as if the baseball gods were not on Boston's side tonight, despite the fact that the Sox were going for green-induced karma by honoring Red Auerbach.
Having been handed a new ballgame courtesy of Tek, Schill went out and gave it right back. After two quick outs the Stanks got a single by Jeter, a single by Abreu followed by a 3-run bomb by Rodriguez to the opposite field that sailed toward the Sox bullpen. As Coco raced to the spot of reentry, he leaped at the wall and nearly made a spectacular catch. Problem was, he and the ball wound up in the bullpen, which is a homerun anyway you look at it, and just like that The Man New England Loves to Hate had crushed RSN's spirit again.
For the next two innings the Sox looked dead in the water; for a moment things brightened in the 7th, when Tek & Coco both reached on singles, but after Pettitte got pich hitter Willy Mo Pena to strike out, Scott Proctor came on and retired Lugo and Youk to end what looked like would be Boston's last threat with Rivera looming in the bullpen. When New York tacked on another run in the 8th off J.C. Romero, all hope looked lost.
And then came the bottom of the 8th.
Sinkerballer and former Sox pitcher Mike Myers was brought in to face Big Papi to open the frame, due to the fact that papi was a miserable 1-11 against Myers in his career. So what happened? Papi promptly doubled off the wall, nearly breaking his ankle sliding into second base in the process. Okay, since that didn't work Torre went to Luis Vizcaino to face a scuffling Manny, who had already grounded into a rally-killing DP and struck out looking earlier; after falling down 0-2 Manny drew a walk, and things were getting a bit interesting.
After Drew grounded out, Lowell hit an RBI single that forced Vizcaino out and made Torre bring in Rivera to get 5 outs. When Tek followed with a run-scoring single to pull the Sox to within 2 at 6-4, even Torre had to be feeling butterflies and serious deja vu. And they weren't done yet. Coco took the first pitch he saw from Rivera and sliced it down the 1st base line into the rightfield corner for a 2-run triple that tied the score at 6 and finally sent the Fenway faithful into a frenzy.
Alex Cora completed the miracle comback with a single over a drawn in infield which was oddly similar to Luis Gonzalez' game-winning hit vs. New York in the 2001 Series, and all the Sox had to do was bring in Paps to get three outs in the 9th and it was over. Problem was, Papelbon wasn't available after pitching the previous 2 days in Toronto, so Tito went to "rookie" Hideki Okijima to face Jeter, Abreu and A-Rod. Gulp.
I don't know how you say no problem in Japanese, but Oki got Jeter to weakly ground out, A-Rod to feebly line out, and then Kevin Thompson to strike out to save one of the biggest Sox wins vs. their rivals in a long time.
Whew! So there won't be any repeat of the Boston Massacre II, and no way the Stanks can leave town with sole possession of first in the East.
No we better get some rest; the next chapter in this epic saga tips off in just under 17 hours.
NOTES:
-Rodriguez continues to set new April power records every day; his 2 homeruns put him 2 shy of the April record held by Albert Pujols (14); he now has 30 RBIs for the month; his 12 homers are more than 9 teams have; he tied Mike Schmidt as the fastest to 12 homers in history; he leads the ML in homers, RBIs and total bases and has hit safely in all 125 games
-Drew's 3 hits raised his average to .375
-Posada had to leave the game in the 4th with a thumb injury; his replacement, Will Nieves, threw out 2 baserunners, including Drew immediately after entering the game
-Schilling's second awful outing of the year raised his ERA to 3.81
-Coco Crisp had his 2nd 2-hit game in a row, raising his average from .136 to .192
-Manny (0-3) Pedroia (0-2) and Lugo (0-4) were the onlty starters not to register a hit
QUOTES:
- "It hurts. We had good momentum going and it looked like we were beating a good pitcher tonight."- Torre on the pain of losing the way his club did
RECORD: 10-5
AL EAST: UP 2 GMS
UP NEXT: SAT, 3:30 FOX
Karstens (NR) vs. Beckett (3-0, 1.50)
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