A SAD END TO A RECORD SEASON ...
Ortiz's double seals the game for Curt Schilling

May 5, 2006 ... Who else to come up last night, in the most important situation of the night, with the bases loaded and two outs, than David Ortiz? The stage was set in the sixth inning, the Red Sox and Orioles tied, 3-3, with right-hander Todd Williams having come in one batter earlier in relief of Rodrigo Lopez. Alex Gonzalez was on third, having doubled in Mike Lowell to tie the game.

The Youkilis, who had worked a seven-pitch, two-out walk, was on second. Mark Loretta, with two outs, had bravely bunted for a hit. He caught a break when the ball bounced oddly near third baseman Melvin Mora. That loaded them for Ortiz. Williams started him with a fastball down and away, called a strike. Wally Bell had been calling low and outside strikes all evening. The Sox knew it. The Orioles knew it. Williams knew it. And Ortiz knew it, too, but he wasn't having it in this situation. He quickly took a hand off the bat, gesturing to Bell with his arm out and palm open, presumably telling him that had to stop. He then fouled off a pitch away, to fall to 0 and 2. But then he took three pitches well outside, to get to 3 and 2. Williams had to throw something over the plate. Ortiz, poised, turned on the next pitch, depositing it into the right-field corner. Gonzalez scored. Youkilis scored. Loretta, motoring around the bases, scored. The 3-3 tie became 6-3 Sox with one swing. Ortiz, as exuberant about overcoming Bell's strike zone as overcoming Williams, zealously celebrated, with a violent and vertical clap of his hands. His three-run double gave him 27 RBIs.

Those runs were enough to make a winner of Curt Schilling, who improved to 5-1 with a 3.02 ERA. Schilling allowed eight hits, seven of them singles, two of those absolute ropes by Kevin Millar, who received a standing ovation when he walked to the plate for his first at-bat.

Schilling was not sharp early, allowing one-out singles in the first inning to Mora and Miguel Tejada, then a run-scoring ground out to Jay Gibbons for a 1-0 Baltimore lead.

The Sox tied it, quickly, when Youkilis led off the bottom of the inning with a home run, his second leadoff homer of the season. It marked his second homer in three at-bats and third homer of the season. Lowell scored the run that made it 2-1 Sox, in the fourth. He doubled to right and came home on Wily Mo Pena's single to right, combined with right fielder Gibbons's error. Third base coach DeMarlo Hale held up Lowell, but when Lowell saw Gibbons fumble, he took off, scoring with a headfirst slide.

Baltimore, though, scored twice in the fifth off Schilling to go ahead, 3-2. Millar led off with an nicely struck single to right-center. Nick Markakis, the No. 9 hitter, then laced a run-scoring, stand-up triple to the gap in right-center. Brandon Fahey followed by singling to center, the third hard-hit ball of the inning, to score Markakis.

But the Sox rallied in the sixth. Lowell again began things, doubling with one out, his third double of the game, fifth in two games, and major league-leading 16th. That raised his average, through that at-bat, to .353 (36 for 102). Gonzalez plated him by doubling down the line, just fair, a key hit for the struggling shortstop. That tied it and set the stage for Ortiz's heroics.

Mike Timlin followed Schilling, pitching a clean eighth inning, and Jonathan Papelbon came on for the third time in as many nights. He got the save with a three-run lead. He popped up Ramon Hernandez with one pitch. He got Jeff Conine to ground out with one pitch. Corey Patterson then popped up the fifth pitch he saw, giving Papelbon his 12th save in 12 chances, this one in an economical seven pitches.