Boston Red Sox Championship Run 2004, Part Two
(Previously on Boston Red Sox Championship Run 2004: the Sox sweep the Angels on the strength of Big Papi’s walk-off home run in the 10th inning…..)
So there we were, headed into the weekend (October 9/10 2004) with the ALCS opponent still to be decided. My co-worker Dave had a little open house at his place after doing some serious home improvement, and the Sox fans among us were trying to decide who we wanted to face — did we match up better against the Twins? Did we want to face the Yankees again? What was more important — getting to the Series and winning or beating the Yankees?
(For my money, it was beating the Yankees, getting to the Series and winning….)
By the end of the weekend, we knew — it would be the Yankees, and the series that every Red Sox fan had been hoping for would be starting on Tuesday night, October 12, in the heart of the Evil Empire, Yankee Stadium.
Game 1, ALCS
We were pumped. Curt Schilling against Mike Mussina. We didn’t want to just win, we wanted to crush the Yankees. We wanted to stun them the same way that they had stunned us the year before. We wanted them to feel the embarrassment of losing to the Red Sox for a change.
Yeah, Yankee fans are smug. You can be smug when you’ve collected 26 rings, and have hardly ever had to face adversity. Oh sure, there were those “lean years” between 1978 and 1996, but nothing like what the Sox had faced and dealt with. Adversity can make you strong — but the kind of snakebit luck the Sox had in 1947, 1967 (okay, not so totally bad), 1975, 1978 (Bucky’s middle initial will always be “F” to Boston fans) and, ohmygodpleasesayitwonthappenagain 1986, does some strange things to a fan.
As a result, no lead is ever big enough for a Sox fan. They could be up 6-0 in the top of the 8th, and the fans will still be waiting for some bizarre, unexpected, totallyfreakingweird turn of events that cause them to lose 7-6.
But, this was game one. I was pumped.
After all of that waiting and speculating and looking forward to spanking the Yankees, all that happened was Curt Schilling (who arrived at the stadium with speculation about his ankle running rampant) just imploded on the mound, giving up 6 runs in 3 innings. That was a huge surprise, and made me totally uneasy. If Schilling was hurt (and clearly he was), then our chances were seriously affected. No, we were in deep doo-doo.
Meantime, Mussina was perfect — no, really, PERFECT, as in no hits, no runs, no errors, no baserunners — through 6 full. Wakefield, on in relief, gave up 2 in the 6th to spot the Yankees to an 8-0 lead.
Then, in what we all hoped would be a sign of things to come, the Red Sox got to Mussina, and their bats awakened. Over the next two the put up 7 runs to make the game interesting.
But, Timlin gave up 2 more in the 8th, and that was basically that. Final score: Evil Empire 10, Red Sox 8.
Aftermath
I was bummed, but not seriously so. The general wisdom usually is that if you’re starting a 7 game series on the road, if you can gain a split then the advantage swings back to you. And besides, didn’t the Red Sox go down 0-2 to the Mets in the 1986 World Series????
Pedro was going the next night, and inspite of all of the “Who’s Your Daddy” crap, I figured Pedro would pitch one helluva game and we’d be doing back to Boston tied at 1 game apiece. We could worry about Curt’s performance after that….
Game 2, ALCS
Petey was taking the mound, the Sox were going to tie up the Series with the Yankees, and all was right with the world.
And actually, it was through five and a half….kinda sorta.
Pedro gave up a run in the 1st. Nothing major, no reason to panic. Pedro gives up runs on occasion. The Sox have some might hefty bats and they’re going against Lieber, so again, no reason to panic.
By the time the bottom of the sixth inning rolled around, the Red Sox lineup looked like it was full of Pedro Ceranos from the movie Major League — “bats no like curve ball” and it was not looking good.
When Petey finally tired, giving up a two run homer to John Olerud in the bottom of the 6th, things began to look even worse. The Sox got one back, but then the Yankees pulled yet another little bit of magic out of their pinstriped butts….
Mariano Rivera had been back home in Panama for a funeral for a family member. He’d hopped a plane, and arrived at the stadium late. And of course, he came in the close the game out. It was such a “Yankee moment”……
Aftermath
Well, like I said, we’d been down 2-0 to the Mets in 1986, so there’s nothing to worry about right? Right? Right???
I was a bit nervous. Johnny Damon was 0-fer-the-series-so-far (0-8 actually). No one else was hitting, save Big Papi, and when they were it wasn’t at opportune times. One ace was hurting, our other ace had thrown a superb game but with no run support.
I took a deep breath and figured that maybe, just maybe, Fenway might be a bit more friendly. And we’d be back there on Thursday, October 14th…. The Sox were heading home.