July 27, 2003
...
There's no overstating the exhilaration the Nation is feeling after
one last huge helping of hardball histrionics on a weekend of nonstop
drama lifted the Sox to a 6-4 win over their arch-rivals and drew
them to within 1 1/2 games of the Yankees in the American League
East.
Trailing,
3-0, to Jeff Weaver and outhit, 10-2, with nine outs to go, the Sox scored six
runs in the seventh on back-to-back home runs by Jason Varitek, a game-tying
three-run job that cleared the Monster seats, and Johnny Damon, plus a two-run
triple by David Ortiz.
A sellout
crowd of 34,787, the team's 20th consecutive full house, kept the temperature at
a fever pitch on a muggy but magnificent night in the Fens, and collectively
exhaled only after a terrific, sliding backhanded catch by Ramirez on the
left-field line ended the game with the tying run at the plate. The ball
teetered precariously at the top of Ramirez's glove but stayed home, giving a
shaky but grateful Byung Hyun Kim a save after he'd given up one run in the
ninth.
The win went
to Casey Fossum, who relieved Derek Lowe in the seventh and escaped a
first-and-second, none-out jam.
Weaver was
lifted after he walked Trot Nixon, and hit Bill Mueller with a pitch in the
right ankle with one out in the seventh. Varitek greeted Hammond with his 18th
home run of the season and Damon followed with a line-drive home run that curled
around the Pesky Pole, giving the Sox a 4-3 lead. Ortiz's two-run triple off old
tormentor Jesse Orosco gave the Sox a three-run cushion.
The Sox,
already trailing, 2-0, after Jason Giambi's tape-measure home run off the
left-center-field light stanchion in the first off Lowe and Hideki Matsui's RBI
single after two infield hits in the third, found themselves in big trouble in
the sixth. Matsui beat out an infield hit just past the mound, and Jorge Posada,
with Sox second baseman Todd Walker cheating toward the bag, singled through a
big hole on the right side. Both runners moved up when catcher Varitek couldn't
block a 1-and-0 pitch that Lowe bounced through the 5-hole.
With the
infield playing in, Walker snagged Nick Johnson's grounder and threw him out,
the runners holding. Little then had Lowe issue an intentional pass to Robin
Ventura, loading the bases, a strategy that appeared to pay off when Raul
Mondesi skidded a grounder at double-play speed to third baseman Mueller. But
Mueller slipped, fell to his knees, and did not field the ball cleanly,
clambering to his feet in time for a force at third as Matsui scored the
Yankees' third run. Mueller threw out Alfonso Soriano to end the inning, but the
Yankees were within a dozen outs of leaving town as winners.
