June 15, 2003
...
Manny Ramirez's line drive to right-center with one out completed an
exhilarating, if exhausting, 3-2 victory over the Astros to the
delight of 34,085 who spent 4 hours and 38 minutes of Father's Day
hoping for the best at Fenway Park. But Ramirez never could have
sealed the three-game sweep of Jimy Williams's Astros, and the 10th
triumph of the season by the Sox in their last at-bat, if not for the
pitching staff, particularly the bullpen.
That's
right. The bullpen. Squaring off for eight innings against one of the best
relief corps in baseball, Grady Little's widely ridiculed pen utterly muzzled
the Astros after a fine six-inning start by Byung Hyun Kim. If the Sox expect to
reach the postseason, this was the kind of pitching they will need. Not the kind
that produced a bullpen ERA of 5.65 entering the game, compared with the Houston
pen's 2.75.
With the
team's vaunted offense struggling as the Sox went 1 for 18 with runners in
scoring position before Ramirez's single, the quartet of Mike Timlin (two
innings), Brandon Lyon (two), Alan Embree (three), and Jason Shiell (one)
combined to blank the dangerous Houston lineup.
After the
pen kept the Sox in the game amid their long run of offensive futility, Walker
sparked the winning rally by singling up the middle off lefthander Nate Bland to
open the 14th. Then Garciaparra stunned many in the house, including manager
Grady Little, by laying down the bunt against righthander Pete Munro.
Garciaparra had been killing the ball, doubling three times and tripling in the
game. Little wanted him swinging the bat.
Ramirez fell
behind, 0 and 2, before he laced an 86-mile-per- hour cut fastball from Munro
for the decisive hit. Still, Ramirez needed the pen to put him in position to
deliver. The Astros moved runners into scoring position in four of the eight
innings against Sox relievers, but they were rebuffed at every turn.
Shiell
picked up the victory, but the entire crew shared the acclaim on a day when the
pitchers finally shouldered the load after weeks of lopsided support from their
hitters. The bullpen's contribution largely overshadowed Kim, who surrendered
only the two runs over six-plus innings by scattering seven hits and a pair of
walks. He fired first-pitch strikes to 21 of 27 batters and threw as many as
three balls to only one batter besides the two he walked. In fact, the only
pitch that really hurt him was a slider that Richard Hidalgo slugged over the
Monster in the fourth inning for a two-run homer.
Trailing,
2-0, the Sox first broke through against Houston starter Wade Miller in the
fifth. Trot Nixon started things by singling. A batter later, Damian Jackson
reached on a fielder's choice, with Nixon erased at second. And when left
fielder Lance Berkman bobbled Bill Mueller's double off the Wall for an error,
Jackson raced home for the first Sox run.
Nature
provided the Sox an assist in the sixth, when Hidalgo lost Garciaparra's
towering shot to the warning track near Pesky's Pole, clearing the way for
Garciaparra's career-best 12th triple. And Ramirez wasted no time capitalizing
as he lofted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-2.
But the Sox
had no more success at the plate as they went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring
position from the seventh until Ramirez's single. Though Garciaparra created
several scoring opportunities that ultimately went for naught, he seemed to
remember best the threat he helped snuff by popping up with the bases loaded in
the 11th. Now, the Sox may even be able to believe in their bullpen.
