2006 BOSTON RED SOX
A SAD END TO A RECORD SEASON ...
 

There’s no way a team can ever reach the playoffs by finishing third in their division and in 2006 the Red Sox finished third with an 86-76 record, one game behind the Blue Jays (87-75). Though they spent more days in first place than in any other slot, the year ended with the Red Sox 11 games behind the Yankees. They allowed five more runs than they scored, but it was injuries and ailments that took the biggest toll.

Curt Schilling had finally made it back from the ankle injury that hobbled him in the 2004 playoffs and won 15 games. Jonathan Papelbon was in his first year as closer, and was on his way to a 35-save season and 0.92 ERA. Manny Ramirez hit 35 home runs and enjoyed his fourth consecutive year tag-teaming with Ortiz as one of the great 1-2 punches of all time.

It was also the first year since Johnny Damon had left Boston under less-than-ideal terms with management. While Damon did seem to want to make his peace with the fans, his choice of Pinstripes did him no favors.

A home run and three RBIs from David Ortiz helped Schilling get his first win of the year, on April 3^rd. Jason Varitek was starting catcher for the Red Sox for the seventh consecutive season opener. Tek had the season's first hit and the first RBI. Winning the home opener on April 11th brought Josh Beckett to 2-0, and saw Jonathan Papelbon earn his fourth save of a young season. Mike Lowell was 4-for-4, with three doubles, the first Red Sox player to hit three extra-base hits in a Fenway opener.

There were some great and exciting games played in April.  On April 17th, Mark Loretta hit his first major league home run over the Green Monster.  Fortunately it came in the bottom of the ninth inning and was a walk-off 7-6 game winner.  The next day, on April 18th, the Sox came from behind against Tampa Bay to grab the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning.  With the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Sox rookie, Adam Stern made a memorable diving catch to end the game with a flourish. 

Schilling was aces for most of April, winning his first four starts and giving up just six runs.  On April 25th in Cleveland, Curt Schilling threw 132 pitches, and it was one pitch too many, leaving the game losing in the 7th inning.  But it was Manny, who lined one into the stands in the 8th inning, to give the Sox an exciting win.

The Sox were on the road for three road trips at the end of the month and lost all three of those series to the Blue Jays, Indians and Devil Rays.  They limped home, finishing the month tied with the Yankees for first place in the A.L. East. On the brighter side,  Jonathan Papelbon was a perfect 10 for 10 in saves for the month, and David Ortiz set a team record, with 10 April home runs. 

n April, Tim Wakefield had four losses and only one win. Catcher Josh Bard, paired with Wakefield, had only started in those five games but already had 10 passed balls. He just couldn’t catch the knuckler, so the Red Sox made an emergency trade and sent pitcher, Cla Meredith to the Padres, reacquiring Wake’s personal catcher, Doug Mirabelli. Mirabelli flew coast-to-coast on May 1st by chartered jet, was whisked to Fenway in a Massachusetts State Police car, changing into his uniform in the back seat, as the car sped to the ballpark, arriving nine minutes before the start of the night’s game (Red Sox 7, New York 3, although it was Mike Timlin, who got the win in relief).

On May 3rd, after starting his career as a closer with 25 1/3 scoreless inning over 21 appearances, Jonathan Papelbon finally blew a game, but not a save, losing to the Blue Jays.  He picked up his 11th save the next night and his 12th the night after, on May 5th.  That game was another one with David Ortiz's heroics, who doubled in the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, to give Curt Schilling his 5th win.

On May 11th, Mark Loretta, who had four hits in the game, accounted for the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning, turning a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead, against the Yankees in New York. He was 17 for his last 31 (.548).  On May 20th, Josh Beckett  (6-1) slammed the first home run by a Red Sox pitcher in the designated hitter era, to help him earn his 6th win in Philadelphia.

Thru May, Curt Schilling was brilliant at Fenway Park (5-0, 1.86 ERA).  On May 22nd, he dominated the Yankees in a 9-5 win. He and Josh Beckett , who was 4-1 in May and 7-2 overall were the Red Sox punch.  On the opposite end was Matt Clement, who proved himself unreliable (4-4, 6.91 ERA), losing to the Yankees, thus allowing them to take 2 of 3 in the May series at Fenway Park.  Schilling closed the month by winning the 200th game of his career against the Rays on May 27th, also getting his major league leading 8th win. 

Jonathan Papelbon finished May a perfect 19 of 19, for a club record in saves at the start of a season, and had not allowed a run in 11 games.  Mark Loretta batted .404 for the month, leading the major league.  The Red Sox led the majors in hitting at .306

June started off with the Sox in Detroit and Kevin Youkilis winning the game on June 2nd with a ninth inning home run. But then they went to New York and lost two of the three games played.  In a peculiar turn of events on June 9th, Jonathan Papelbon's save streak ended at 20 when he blew his first save of the season against the Texas Rangers, only to see his teammates come back in the bottom of the inning to score the winning run and earn him his first win of the year.

Pitching became problematic in June.  Josh Beckett  slumped, Tim Wakefield's back bothered him, Davis Wells, Lenny DiNardo and Keith Foulke were on the DL and Matt Clement's arm went dead and also ended up on the DL.  The team could only depend on Schilling, who picked up his 9th win in New York, before battling Johann Santana in Minnesota on June 13th to a draw, leaving after eight strong innings. Meanwhile Papelbon kept rolling along in his domination and by mid-June sported a 0.26 ERA.

So the Sox were forced to use their youngsters.  On June 11th, in the first game of a doubleheader, David Ortiz slammed his first walk-off, game winning homer of the year, against the Rangers, giving Manny Delcarmen his first major league win.  Rookie Jon Lester made his major league debut on June 10th and was not a factor in the decision, but picked up his victory against the Braves on June 16th.  Rookie Kyle Snyder was brought up won in his first appearance on June 19th. The Red Sox swept their series with the Braves and the Nationals in the middle of June, with the fill-in pitchers giving up just ten runs in six games. 

On June 18th, Alex Gonzalez played his 49th consecutive clean game at shortstop, breaking Rico Petrocelli's club record for consecutive errorless games by a shortstop (his streak would end at 57 games). A major league record fell on June 30th, when the Red Sox went 17 straight games with out committing an error.

The Phillies next came into Fenway and were also swept.  David Ortiz launched his second walk-off home run in two weeks, to win the June 24th game and then lined a game winning single the next game, on June 26th, to complete the sweep.  Pedro Martinez came back to Fenway Park as a member of the Mets on June 28th and was roughed up by the potent Sox batters.  The Sox went on to sweep the Mets for twelve consecutive wins, their longest winning streak in 11 years, and a four game lead over the Yankees.  During the homestand, both Josh Becket and Curt Schilling won their tenth games. 

The Sox led the AL in hitting for the month of June with a .299 average and a .371 on-base percentage. Seven Sox hit .300 or better.  Sox pitchers were first in strikeouts with 205. Schilling had the best record among starters, a 2.85 ERA in six starts, with 37 whiffs and 5 walks in 41 innings.  On July 2nd, another record fell when Jonathan Papelbon picked up his 25th save.  That broke Dick Radatz's rookie team record set in 1962. 

Against the Marlins on July 1st, both Manny and Big Papi knocked out two home runs apiece.  For Manny, it was  his 2000th hit. On July 6th, David Ortiz homered twice in a game for the 23d time in his career, 21st time with the Sox, and third time this season in Tampa Bay.  His grandslam was the second one hit this year.  On July 7th, Ortiz took the league lead in home runs with his 30th, giving him the most home runs in Sox history before the All Star Game.

Josh Beckett  picked up his 11th win on July 8th, but up to that point, had given up more home runs on the road since Earl Wilson, 40 years ago.  The Sox entered the All Star break with a three game lead over the Yankees. 

By running his record to 5-0 on July 18th, Jon Lester became the first Sox rookie lefthander to win his first five decisions.  In the process, another Red Sox record, the one of most games caught (held by Carlton Fisk) was broken by Jason Varitek. On July 20th, Curt Schilling beat the Rangers, to make him still undefeated (8-0) at Fenway Park, and 20-1 at home since joining the Sox in 2004.  Both Schilling and Beckett  got their, major league leading, 13th wins while the team was beating Oakland at the end of July.

On July 29th, David Ortiz delivered another walk-off, game winning hit of the season, in the 11th inning against the Angels at Fenway.  Then, on July 31st, Ortiz hit two more home runs.  The second one was another walk-off game winner home run, his third this season, seventh in the regular season for the Red Sox, and eighth regular-season walk-off of his career. He has 15 walkoff hits in all, a dozen as a member of the Red Sox, five in the last 51 days starting on June 11th.

Again and again, Ortiz has done the impossible. He also equaled Jackie Jensen's record for most homers by a Sox player in any month (14). His four RBIs gave him 105 for the season, the most any Sox player has had on the eve of August. Ted Williams and Vern Stephens each had 104 RBIs by the end of July in 1950.

But the day before, the team lost Trot Nixon for the second time with an injury. In this game they lost Jason Varitek with a torn cartilage in his knee and he wouldn’t come back from surgery until September.  It was also this game where David Wells' unsuccessfully tried to return to the pitching rotation and got bombed, setting the stage for the Ortiz heroics.

This game was the turning point. The month of August would be all down hill for the 2006 Red Sox.  The Sox had a one game lead over the Yankees and had been tied for, or in first place, for just about the whole year.

August 2nd became the Sox last day atop the standings, with Mark Loretta's walk-off double giving the Sox a ninth inning win over Cleveland. But it was the third time, Jon Lester didn't last and did not look good, having lost three in a row, with an ERA that went from 2.38 to 3.49   Only Curt Schilling continued to pitch well, as the other starters had gone 0-5 at the end of July into August.  Since June, Josh Beckett  had lasted more than six innings just four times in 13 starts, the last being eight shutout innings against Kansas City in mid-July.  His ERA since the All Star break had mushroomed to 5.74

On August 6th, David Ortiz hit his 40th home run, becoming the first Red Sox player to hit 40 or more homers for three consecutive seasons.

They would go 6-18 over the next 24 games. The Sox lost 2 of 3 in Tampa Bay, then were swept by the last place Royals. The Sox hit just .248 including .196 with runners in scoring position while going 1-5 on a road trip against Tampa Bay and Kansas City.  The Sox were batting .306 at Fenway this season, the best home average in the majors, when they returned home to beat the Orioles on August 12th in a 10 inning walk-off victory.  But then they lost 2 of 3 to the Tigers. 

The bottom fell out when the Sox lost every single game of a rare five-game homestand against the Yankees at Fenway Park which became known as "Boston Massacre II".

On Friday, August 18th, Jason Johnson, a  journeyman starter, got the ball for Boston in the first game of a doubleheader, while New York sent ace Chien-Ming Wang. Johnny Damon led off with a triple, scored on a single by Derek Jeter and later homered off Johnson. The Sox trailed only 4-3 after five, but New York broke it open against the bullpen and won it, 12-4. A still-too-young Jon Lester gave up seven runs in less than four innings of work in the second game, but Boston led 10-7 after six innings. The Yankees then piled up seven runs on Mike Timlin and eventually won the game 14-11.

Nine Sox pitchers combined to throw a staggering 431 pitches in the losses. The Yankees had 17 hits in each game, six by former Sox icon Johnny Damon.

The cameras of Fox Sports were honed in for Saturday afternoon’s Randy Johnson vs Josh Beckett  battle on August 19th. Johnson continued his pattern of mediocrity, as Manny hit a three-run blast in the fourth inning, but Beckett  was simply awful. Beckett  had cashed in on his reputation as a big-game pitcher by signing a new $30 million deal, but failed miserably to live up to it.  He was supposed to revive memories of the "Rocket", but instead summoned the ghost of Rogelio Moret by walking nine in 5 2/3 torturous innings in which he yielded nine runs. The Yanks took advantage of his free passes and the final was 13-5. The Sox now trailed the Yankees by 4 1/2 games.

Boston grabbed the lead in the fourth game on Sunday, August 20^th, as Manny continued to eat up Yankee pitching. Curt Schilling again, had the look of a veteran who was restoring order as he departed after seven innings with the lead.

In the ninth inning with Jonathan Papelbon having gotten two strikeouts outs and with a runner at third, Derek Jeter was at the plate. Jeter managed to just get his bat on the ball with a bloop hit and tied the game. The Sox then loaded the bases with one out off Mariano Rivera in the ninth, but the bottom of the order failed to drive in the winning run. Craig Hansen came to pitch in the 10^th, gave up two home runs, and the game ended 8-5.

Finally, on Monday afternoon, August 21^st, David Wells was brilliant, but a listless Sox offense could do nothing and the Yankees completed the five game sweep, winning 2-1.  They emerged bloodied and 6 1/2 games out of first place. Boston had been as many as four games up in June and were still within a game and a half of first-place New York when a series that was highly anticipated throughout baseball began.  

Things went from bad to worse.  With injuries all season long, first just to David Wells and later to Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Matt Clement, Lenny DiNardo, Tim Wakefield, and Keith Foulke,  the Sox had suffering additional injuries that de-railed them.

David Ortiz had been admitted to Mass General with an irregular heartbeat during the Yankees series. On August 22nd, in Anaheim, Dustin Pedroia made his major league debut when Alex Gonzalez went to the DL, and Mark Loretta was out with a strained quad.  Manny Ramirez was also out with a sore knee. An MRI showed no structural damage, and the initial diagnosis was patellar tendinitis, an inflammation of the tendons that connect the kneecap (patella) to the muscles that straighten the leg. Josh Beckett  pitched in Anaheim on August 24th and had to be removed because of a sore on one of his right fingers.

On August 28th, Jon Lester was sent back to Boston from Oakland, with a sore back that wasn't getting better, after a car accident, along with David Ortiz who was to undergo a series of cardio tests. He passed his heart tests with no signs of arrhythmia, was fit with a heart monitor for a few days, and kept going.

After Curt Schilling recorded the 3000th strikeout of his career on August 30th, the Sox limped home having gone 2-7 on the west coast trip, where they batted .198 (58 for 293) in the nine games while scoring just 19 runs. They began the trip by going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position in Anaheim.  Overall, they were just 8 for 59, a .136 average, with runners in scoring position. The pitchers fared no better, posting a 5.23 ERA (43 runs in 74 innings on the trip).  It turned out that in a game against Oakland, only one starter was able to play in his usual position, third baseman Mike Lowell. The Sox were 8 games behind the Yankees and 7 1/2 games behind the White Sox for the wild card when they returned to Boston. 

The Sox lost 21 games in the month of August, one of the worst months in franchise history. The wipeout of August gave way to a late summer and early fall of acrimony. GM Theo Epstein made just one move on August 31st and it was one that did not help the present club get back on track.  He traded David Wells to San Diego for prospect, George Kottaras.

Then came one of the saddest month of the season. In September Jon Lester found out that he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer. Curt Schilling was shut down with a strained muscle in his side, and on September 1st, Jonathan Papelbon clutched his right shoulder in pain, two outs away from a 2-1 victory the Sox would claim over the Toronto Blue Jays. Papelbon made a staff-high 59 appearances, pitching 68 1/3 innings. He was diagnosed with "dead arm syndrome" with nothing wrong structurally.

Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon returned on September 4th, as Carlos Pena gave the crowd something to cheer about with his 10th inning walk-off homer. But the Sox kept sinking. and Manny seemed to just give up.

David Ortiz did not give up.  He came back and hit his 48th home run on September 10th.  His 49th came on September 17th in New York.  No 50, that tied Jimmie Foxx's Red Sox home run record, came on September 20th at Fenway Park. Ortiz kept hitting homers, set a new franchise record on September 21st with 2 home runs, and ended the season with 54 home runs, driving in 137 runs.

On the bright side, the Red Sox played error-free ball in their last six games and concluded the season by breaking one more record. A major league record best-ever fielding percentage (.98909) now belonged to the 2006 Red Sox.

And finally, on the very last game of the year, October 1st, rookie Devern Hansack, who’d been working as a lobsterman not long before, made his first start in Boston, the second game of his big-league career. There was nothing at the stake, but he still threw a 9-0 no-hitter. Because the game was rained out after five innings, he’s not credited with an “official” no-hitter, but he was credited with a complete game, and a shutout, and he didn’t give up any hits.

It was a fitting end to a record setting season where the Red Sox seemed to have so much promise, only to crash and burn at the end ... so sad :(