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MARK BELLHORN |
THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
2004 WORLD SERIES, GAME #1
Mark Bellhorn's HR breaks the
tie in a sloppy game at Fenway
October 23, 2004 ... The Red Sox overcame a wobbly outing by Tim Wakefield and a goofy array of defensive gaffes to outlast the
Cardinals, 11-9, before 35,035 in the Fens in an ugly affair that all but shattered the image of a Fall Classic.
Style points mattered little to the Sox after Mark Bellhorn blasted a cathartic, two-run shot off Pesky's Pole with one out in the bottom of the eighth to break a 9-9 tie and erase an embarrassing pair of costly blunders by Manny Ramirez in the top of the inning.
Thanks largely to Ortiz's homer and a three-run rally in the fourth, the Sox led, 7-2, when the sky began to fall. Unable to spot his breaking ball, Wakefield opened the inning by firing 12 of his first 13 pitches for balls to load the bases. Mike Matheny promptly made Wakefield pay by
lofting a sacrifice fly to right. Then Millar exacted an additional toll by firing a relay to third on a couple of bounces into the stands for an error, helping the Cardinals creep back to within 7-4. The error was the first of the postseason by a Boston infielder, and it also led to another
run when Womack, who advanced to third on the wild throw, scored on So Taguchi's ground out. That kept the Cardinals in contention, trailing, 7-5. Wakefield lasted only one more batter, yielding to Bronson Arroyo after he issued his fourth walk of the inning, to Renteria, tying a World
Series record shared by 11 pitchers. And the Cardinals tied it when they scored twice off Arroyo in the sixth.
With the Sox clinging to a 9-7 lead in the eighth, their chances of securing the first win suddenly turned dicey when Ramirez almost single-handedly let it slip away by committing a pair of errors. First, he bobbled a routine single by Renteria, allowing Jason Marquis to score and pull the
Cardinals within a run. Then he tried to make a sliding catch on a shallow fly by Larry Walker, only to let the ball bounce off his glove as he caught his cleats on a drain and cartwheeled out of control, allowing the tying run to score. The happy ending allowed the Sox to enjoy a laugh at
Ramirez's expense.
After the chaos created by Ramirez's goofs, Keith Foulke salvaged the victory by getting the final five outs. The Cardinals brought the tying run to the plate before Foulke got Yadier Molina to pop out and fanned Roger Cedeno. |
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