August 23, 2003
...
Kevin Millar, who made today's win the most thrilling of the three by
driving in Damian Jackson with a two- out walkoff double in the
bottom of the 10th inning as the Sox stung the Mariners, 7-6, before
34,488 at Fenway Park.
No one liked
the outcome more than Jackson, a bit player who took a turn on center stage
after he singled to left off Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki amid a 6-6 tie with
one out in the 10th. A batter later, Millar sent a first-pitch fastball from
Sasaki's successor, lefthander Arthur Rhodes, to the 379-foot marker on the
Monster.
Indeed,
center fielder Mike Cameron leaped at the Wall, only for the ball to bounce off
the webbing of his glove as Jackson sprinted around the bases. Instead, he
became the celebrant in chief, leaping from one set of a teammate's arms to
another's amid the ensuing scrum of joy. The victory guaranteed the Sox would
awake this morning with a share of the wild-card lead intact after Oakland held
off Toronto.
It hardly
came easily, though. Leading, 6-5, in the ninth, closer Byung Hyun Kim twice
came within one strike of finishing off the Mariners before trouble struck.
First, he let Mark McLemore rip a 1- 2 pitch to deep right field, where Trot
Nixon typically would make the play as routinely as he laces his shoes. But
Nixon lost the ball in the glare of the falling sun. After the double, Kim put
Cameron in an 0-2 hole before he left another pitch over the plate. Catcher
Jason Varitek was set up outside and the ball zipped into Cameron's wheelhouse.
He hit it for a run-scoring single that ultimately forced the extra inning, and
blew Kim's second save opportunity in his last three tries.
Kim was in
position for the save because the Sox rallied to overcome a 5-4 deficit in the
seventh thanks to a solo homer by David Ortiz off Seattle fireballer Rafael
Soriano and Varitek's single off Armando Benitez to drive in Millar with the
go-ahead run. Millar helped to set the stage by stealing his third base of the
season after swiping only one base previously in his career. Varitek lined an
0-2 pitch, a 93-mile-an-hour fastball, to left field for his first hit in six
career at-bats against Benitez.
Varitek also
saved a run earlier in the game when he blocked the plate with his left leg to
prevent John Mabry from scoring on a single by Cameron to end the fourth. It was
the second time in a week Varitek has blocked the plate to erase a Seattle
runner.
The Sox also
got a big lift from Timlin and his bullpen mates Scott Sauerbeck, Todd Jones,
and Alan Embree, who combined to throw 3 1/3 scoreless innings after the
Mariners tagged Burkett for five runs on eight hits and a walk over six innings.
When Nixon
and Bill Mueller hit consecutive home runs off Garcia in the second, it marked
the 11th time this season the Sox have hit back-to-back homers. The Sox improved
to 9-5 in extra-inning games and 21-15 in one-run decisions.
Visibly
thinner and hardly chipper, Pedro Martinez returned from a two-day sick leave
for a light workout but remained too run down for the Red Sox to clear him to
pitch. Martinez spent nearly six hours Thursday at St. Elizabeth's Medical
Center with severe throat inflammation, rested at home Friday, and remained on
medication, including antibiotics, today.
