Go Go Red Sox !!!!
Pedro Martinez heard the "Who's your Daddy" chants loud and clear at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night, but one minute after the clock struck midnight, the Boston Red Sox were headed to the World Series with their Papi while the New York Yankees were left scratching their heads to wonder about the biggest collapse in baseball postseason history.
Left for dead following a 19-8 loss in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series Saturday night at Fenway Park, and behind by a run in the ninth inning of Game 4 and facing the prospect of a sweep, the Red Sox pulled off the improbable against the most decorated team in baseball.
With a 10-3 victory in Game 7 of the ALCS, Boston became the first team to rally from a three-game deficit to win a best-of-seven postseason series. The Red Sox gained their first World Series berth since 1986 and now have a chance to erase the Curse of the Bambino and win their first World Series since 1918, due mostly to the man the team calls Papi - David Ortiz.
Unlike Martinez, who pitched in relief Wednesday night and was again teased with the "daddy" shouts while allowing two runs in the seventh inning, Ortiz turned out to be the Yankees' daddy.
Without Ortiz, Boston would have been swept and Red Sox Nation would be spending another winter wondering what formula it would take to overcome the Evil Empire. However, with one of the game's most feared power hitters, the Red Sox were able to rally against the Yankees.
Ortiz was named the Most Valuable Player of the ALCS and it was unanimous. After Boston tied Game 4 in the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera, Ortiz won it with a two-run homer off Paul Quantrill in the 12th to keep the Sox alive. That game didn't end until 1:22 a.m. (et), and later on Monday, his broken-bat single in a 10-pitch at-bat scored Johnny Damon with the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning.
Boston then won Game 6 in the Bronx with Ortiz going 0-for-4, but Mark Bellhorn had the big bat that night for the Red Sox. Ortiz got the Red Sox on the scoreboard Wednesday night with a two-run homer off Kevin Brown in the first inning.
The Red Sox were quickly on their way to erasing the memory of last year's seventh game of the ALCS when Aaron Boone's homer in the 11th inning catapulted the Yankees into the World Series.
"You know how long this team and the fans here have been waiting for this ball club to go to the World Series. Not just to go to the World Series, but to win the World Series," Ortiz said. "Last year, I remember we had a bad memory. So a lot of my teammates were just destroyed because we played a pretty good game and we lost and it was a big-time opportunity to step to the World Series."
Ortiz hit .387 (12-for-31) in the series with three home runs and 11 RBI, which established an LCS record. That passed the previous record of 10 RBI by California's Don Baylor (1982) and Florida's Ivan Rodriguez (2003).
Following that crushing Game 3 defeat and watching the Red Sox faithful in tears, Ortiz knew his team couldn't go down without a fight.
"We saw a lot of fans crying and feeling hurt and I think myself and all of my teammates, we were worried about it and kept that for ourselves," Ortiz said. "And that's one of the big reasons for us to come to the field and represent the way we did the last four games."
The plight of the Red Sox is well known. There are commercials that poke fun at the team's postseason collapses and even billboards in Boston encourage fans to keep the faith to erase the infamous Bambino curse when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees before the 1920 season. Since then, the Yankees have 26 World Series crowns and the Red Sox zero.
"I tell you, one day I was driving from my house to the stadium on a work-out day and I saw a big sign on the street that said 'Keep the faith,'" Ortiz said. And I saw it was a photo of Manny (Ramirez). It had the big smile. I just parked in front of the photo and I just sat down for a minute and just thought about it. Then I went to the field and I just expressed myself to my teammates about what the Boston nation has been waiting for us and what they expect from us. So it doesn't matter if we are down 3-0. We just have got to keep the faith."
JOHNNY BE GOOD
Damon was just 3-for-29 entering Game 7 due mostly to being less aggressive at the plate than he was during the regular season. He was taking first pitches on almost every occasion in the ALCS, but that changed Wednesday night.
With the bases loaded in the second inning, Damon crushed Javier Vazquez' first pitch over the wall in right field. The grand slam extended Boston's lead to 6-0. Damon would connect for a two-run shot in the fourth off Vazquez, again smacking the first offering deep into the night for an 8-1 advantage.
"I don't care if Johnny is 0-for-30 or 0-for-50," Ortiz said. "Everybody knows what kind of hitter Johnny is and everybody knows that Johnny is going to step in one of those games and represent the way he did tonight."
Damon finished the game 3-for-6 and tied an LCS record with six RBI. His slam is only the second ever in a Game 7 in postseason history, joining Bill Skowron, who hit one for the Yankees in the 7th inning off Roger Craig of Milwaukee in the 1956 World Series. New York would win that game, 9-0.
LOWE AND BEHOLD
Derek Lowe had thrown 88 pitches and 5 1/3 innings in his Game 4 start Sunday night, and the Red Sox wondered how long he would last for Game 7 pitching on just two days' rest. The veteran righthander did more than an admirable job. It was phenomenal, almost Curt Schilling-like from Game 6.
Lowe threw 69 pitches, allowing just one hit and one run while striking out three and walking one in six innings of work to get his first career LCS win. He retired his final 11 consecutive batters before leaving the game.
"When someone tells you that you really can't do something that you think you can, given an opportunity, you want to go out there and prove to yourself that you can do it," Lowe said. "There was a lot in this series for me personally, because the decision to put me in the bullpen was correct because I pitched poorly down the stretch. I was able to pitch three games against Anaheim and New York and win two of them."
PITCHING PROBLEMS
"I'm just hopeful -- hopeful that the pitching is OK and that we are playing championship baseball. I am hopeful for New York and I want to give New York a championship."
That was the statement made by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner before the playoffs began.
Unfortunately for Steinbrenner, the pitching didn't hold up throughout the seven games in the ALCS. Mike Mussina and Jon Lieber had solid outings in Games 1 and 2 and that stats were thrown out the window in the Game 3 slugfest.
However, Rivera blew back-to-back save opportunities in Games 4 and 5, and Lieber made a mistake to Bellhorn in Game 6. The final contest showed that the Yankee pitching wasn't up to par.
Brown didn't have any control and Vazquez couldn't hit the corners. The end result will likely leave the Yankees hunting for a big free agent starter this winter.
"He's going to be disappointed," Yankees manager Joe Torre said of Steinbrenner. "I saw him before the game. He was offering all of the support he possibly could. I mean, none of us want this to happen. We went out there, busted our tails. I think everybody was a little surprised that we were up 3-0, and, you know, you thought going in it was going to be a seven-game series. However, you didn't think it was going to be three straight and three straight and then of course they finished us off tonight. I mean, George knows that we do the best we can. Unfortunately the results are not always what you want them to be."
Both Brown and Vazquez were acquired in the offseason and neither could get the job done Wednesday night. Brown was lifted after allowing five runs and four hits in 1 1/3 innings. Vazquez allowed three runs and two hits and walked five.
"It's just too bad it happened," Torre added. "You go out there and all of a sudden you give up a two-spot and a four-spot and that's a hell of a hill to climb. Fact is, even if you try to fight your way back, Derek Lowe did another great job for them. If we scored a run, they scored two, we scored two, they scored one, so we could never really mount anything to get back into it. You know, we just didn't pitch well enough."
Hmmm, check out the link above and see Johnny's picture. He sure looks different with shorter hair and without beard/mustache! 
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