2000 BOSTON RED SOX
SAVING FENWAY, MORE PEDRO AND FRUSTRATION ...
 

Before the start of the 2000 season, the Red Sox made their plans clear. Their desperation for new ballpark went into overdrive. In 2000 they would completely ignore the marketing possibilities of their own 100th season of play, while embarking on a relentless public relations push for the new ballpark. The season was almost an afterthought, and that's the way it played out.

After the usual lopping off of players, who only a few months earlier had been key performers, such as number two starting pitcher Pat Rapp, Dan Duquette worked a trade with the Astros, sending a couple of minor leaguers, including shortstop prospect Adam Everett to Houston for outfielder Carl Everett, who Duquette called a genuine five tool player.

That may have been true, but Everett also acted at times as if amid those tools, a couple of screws had worked their way loose. Although Everett filled a need and was coming off the best season of his career, with 25 home runs and 108 RBIs, the trade did raise a few eyebrows. The Astros had payroll problems, but if Everett was so good, how come he been so cheap to acquire? The Red Sox would soon find that out.

But the Sox really, really, needed pitching. Winning as many games as they had with the pitching staff that Jimy Williams had to work with in 1999, was enough to earn him "Manager of the Year" honors. While Pedro Martinez had been magnificent and Derek Lowe had emerged as a top shelf relief pitcher, that was it. Bret Saberhagen was held together with bailing wire, and no one else could get anyone out. Duquette, after boasting that what the Red Sox really needed was a left-hander, to match up against the Yankees, then went out and signed washed up left-hander Jeff Fassero on December 22nd.

The 2000 season seemed the be the year to cash out and rake in the profits of optimism that always follow the season of surprising performance. That was the attitude from the start, even though the Red Sox were picked by Sports Illustrated to win everything. The front office didn't seem to make winning that much of a priority.

The Red Sox got off to a pretty good start against a bunch of really bad teams, as Nomar Garciaparra raked the ball all year. Everett had a tremendous first half and Pedro was Pedro.

In the season opener, Pedro struck out at least two in each of the first five innings, whiffing the side in the fourth, and set down the Mariners in order in the seventh, then gave way to the nouveau riche Lowe, whose four-year, $10 million contract with the club was officially announced by general manager Dan Duquette during the game.  The Sox won 2 to 0.

During November, John Valentin had undergone surgery to clear scar tissue from his patellar tendon and to repair a slight cartilage tear under his kneecap.  Valentin missed four games and headed to the DL at the start of the season.

In Pedro's second start on April 9th, he held the Angels scoreless until the eighth, when they ended his streak of 32 1/3 scoreless innings, counting postseason play.  Pedro won the game 5-2, but the Sox returned home having won only the two games that Pedro pitched and losing the other four on their West Coast trip.

In the home opener on April 11th, against the Minnesota Twins, Carl Everett hit two home runs, one from each side of the plate, and Nomar stroked four singles, driving in three runs, and scoring two, as the Sox scored twice in the first, eight times in the second, and three more times in the sixth while collecting 16 hits in their most lopsided home-opening win since they spanked the 1995 version of Tom Kelly's Twins, 9-0.

Pedro made it three straight wins in 2000 by beating the Athletics, 14-2, on April 15th. Pedro hadn't lost in 14 appearances, including a dozen starts, since falling to the A's and their prized young pitcher, Tim Hudson, last August. The rematch was all Pedro, as Hudson was chased with two outs in the second inning. Red hot Carl Everett (.400 BA) had four RBIs. He hit a sacrifice fly in the first, blooped a double to start the Sox' two-run sixth, and singled home a run and scored in the Sox three-run seventh. The next day, April 16th, Everett's 9th inning homer gave the Sox a 5-4 walk-off win. With seven home runs in just 69 at-bats in 18 games season, Everett was averaging one home run every 9.86 at-bats.

As April ended, Pedro won his 5th game in Cleveland.  Pedro became the first Red Sox pitcher to go 5-0 in April since Babe Ruth in 1917, and was named American League Pitcher of the Month.

It seems a loss by Pedro was a rare occasion, but when Pedro (5-1) suffered his first loss of the year against Tampa Bay, 1-0, on May 6th, he highlighted his effort by striking out 17 batters.

After going 6-3 in their beginning of May homestand, the Sox moved on to Baltimore and took two straight.  On May 12th, Pedro punished the Orioles. Pedro set down the first dozen Orioles and the last 14 in order, struck out 15, and allowed just one runner to second base in a two-hit, 9-0 demolition. Pedro tied an American League record for strikeouts in consecutive games with 32. The Sox ace, who recorded his first shutout of the season, had allowed just one run in his last 26 innings. He had not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his seven starts, and had just one inning out of 53 1/3 this season in which he has given up as many as two runs. And one of those runs was unearned.

The Sox ended up sweeping Baltimore, as Mike Stanley, Scott Hatteberg, and Donnie Sadler hit home runs in the span of six pitches on May 14th and won again the next day. The Sox took a 1/2 game lead in the AL East and headed up to Toronto.

In Toronto, stepping up in the absence of a disabled Nomar Garciaparra, Donnie Sadler led the Sox to an 8-1 victory. The Sox last five victories, all on the road, came by a combined score of 43-7, and in the absence of the big boppers, Garciaparra and Carl Everett.

On May 17th, behind Pedro (7-1), the Blue Jays were dismissed, 8-0, n the finale of the seven-game trip that came within one blown save by Derek Lowe the day before, of being a sweep. The Sox had 15 hits, three apiece by Carl Everett and Sadler, and went 6-1 on a trip during which they averaged a little more than eight runs a game.  Pedro lowered his ERA to less than a whole number (0.90) for the first time this season, for the major league lead. No pitcher ever had an ERA three runs lower than the league average. Pedro's was now better than four runs below the American League average, which was 5.12.

Pedro did not allow a run over 16 innings in his two starts, but he wasn't alone. In five of the seven games, the Sox held the opposition to one run or fewer. The bullpen ran off 12 1/ 3 consecutive scoreless innings.

Jose Offerman had hits in all seven games of the trip, including a four-hit game, and batted .379, going 11 for 29. Trot Nixon drove in a team-best 10 runs with four doubles and a triple and also stole two bases. Brian Daubach hit safely in all six games in which he appeared, batting .333 with two home runs and eight RBIs.

The Sox won 13 of their last 17 having engineered a 4 1/2-game swing in the standings. The Sox left home in second place, 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees, to first place and a one-game lead, as they headed back to Fenway.

The Red Sox unveiled plans for the inventively named, New Fenway Park in detail on May 19th in a splashy presentation that included an interactive website and a beautiful brochure shown in local newspapers. They planned to retain Fenway Park's footprint, and quirky on field features, and surround it with a park that looked a great deal like Camden Yards in Baltimore. It would cost nearly $627 million and all the Sox wanted, was local government to provide about 44% of it, some $275 million.

The new Fenway Park would be constructed 600 feet south of old Fenway Park, retaining the same footprint and other precious quirks while adding all the desired modern amenities, like luxury boxes, preferred seating, and expanded concessions. Unfortunately it also included a number of bad features like a cantilevered upper deck with thousands of new seats more remote than any in old Fenway Park. All this was being planned to be built on land the Red Sox didn't own, for a half $1 billion which they didn't have. The plan became controversial as the Sox management virtually ignored the people who live nearby and their own players during the design. But the Sox loaded up on high-priced consultants and sidestepped the local preservationists to grease the political skids.

Against the Tigers, at home, Jeff Fassero (5-1) and relievers Rich Garces and Derek Lowe marked the second consecutive shutout by Red Sox pitchers and their fourth in the last eight games. But the Sox were a miserable 4 of 24 with runners in scoring position in the series and ended up losing 2 out of the 3 games. And even Pedro couldn't help the Sox batters as they again lost, this time to the Blue Jays, for their third in a row, going 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position and stranding 10 base-runners.

Finallly, it was Brian Daubach who delivered salvation on May 24th.  His three-run, two-out, off-field homer into the left-field screen provided a 6-3 walk-off victory over the Blue Jays in 11 innings. The Sox ended up losing 2 of 3 to the Jays and fell into a tie with the Yankees for first place.

It was showdown time.  Into New York traveled the Sox, and in the first game of the series, and it was Ramon Martinez who delivered the opening act. On May 26th, displaying a command of the strike zone that would have made his brother jealous - 107 pitches, 77 for strikes - Ramon allowed just a run in 7 2/3 innings in a 4-1 win that vaulted the Sox out of a first-place tie with the Bombers.

But Ross Grimsley and two other relievers, Mike Stanton and Mariano Rivera, plus four home runs, put away the Sox in the second game of the series, 8-3.

So on May 28th, the Sox and Yankees met with first place on the line and Pedro pitching against Roger Clemens. For the first time since Clemens had joined the Yankees, he pitched against the Red Sox like the pitcher who once won 192 games for the Sox. But Pedro was just as effective, and the game entered the ninth-inning scoreless. Then Clemens failed to pick up Jeff Frye's ground ball and Trot Nixon came up. Earlier in the game, Clemens had caught Nixon looking, and when the outfielder started to argue, Clemens threw his weight around and barked out that it was a strike to Nixon. Now Nixon got his revenge by clubbing a home run to deep right field and beating Clemens 2 to 0.

The now Sox came home and lost John Valentin for the season with a ruptured tendon in his knee.  They then lost the next five games and fell out of first place.

After being named Player of the Week in the American League, in Florida, Nomar put on a show of his own (a two-run home run and RBI single) on June 6th.

On June 8th the Sox returned to Fenway, after losing 6 of 8, to make-up one game with the Indians.  Pedro pitched one of his best games of the year en route to a 3-0 shutout. Once again, Pedro delivered, resuscitating a team literally beaten by squandering numerous scoring chances the last two weeks. He threw no-hit ball for 4 2/3 innings. The numbers told the story. Pedro was now is 9-2 and his earned run average was back below that magical 1.00 line (0.95). Once again, he struck out at least 10 batters for the 60th time he has done that in his career, and the 33d time with the Red Sox. The 10 strikeouts stood out all the more starkly compared with one walk.

Back to the Bronx traveled the Sox and after the first game was washed out, the Sox beat the Yankees, 5-3, to put the two teams back into a first place tie. With Orlando Hernandez, looking at a fuel gauge that was hovering dangerously close to empty in the sixth inning, Jason Varitek broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth with a towering two-run home run into the upper deck on June 13th.

Tino Martinez's upper-deck solo home run off Tim Wakefield in the eighth inning gave the Yankees a 2-1 victory the next night and a split of their abbreviated two-game set. The Red Sox, who departed in first place by a game, went 5-7 on the road trip and returned home a game behind the Bombers. But more importantly, Roger Clemens went down with a groin pull, and the without him, the Yankees suddenly looked very beatable. Now was the time for the Red Sox to make their move.

But this was one of the reasons the Red Sox were the Red Sox. Duquette kept saying that Bret Saberhagen was on rehab, and going to come back in the second half and did nothing. But meanwhile, Yankees went out and signed David Justice and the Red Sox rotation, after Pedro, consisted only of a bunch of guys such as brother Ramon Martinez, Fassero, Brian Rose and Pete Schourek.

The Sox lost 4 of their next 5 and managed a total of just two runs in their last three games and were held to three runs or fewer in the 10 games since the beginning of May.  On the bright side, Nomar Garciaparra's hitting streak was at 11 games, during which he batted .452 (19 for 42) and raised his league-leading average to .394

Pedro now had a strained oblique, and both Trot Nixon and Mike Stanley went on to the DL, joining Troy O'Leary, as the Sox continued to lose, winning only 9 of 17 during the month of June and falling back to 3rd place. They were fighting to stay above .500 as the Yankees couldn't quite pull way. It was one of those seasons that beg for a bold move, or the acquisition of a player who could put them over the top. Needed was a pitcher who could pair with Pedro and give the Sox a top of the rotation 1-2 punch, that could take a team playing win one, lose one baseball, and help put together those three and four game winning streaks that deliver a pennant.

In Minnesota the Sox found their batting shoes and outslugged the Twins in a four game sweep.  The Sox returned to Fenway and lost two of three to Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and the Braves.  In the third game, on July 9th, Nomar Garciaparra hit two home runs for the second time in five games, as the Sox won 7-2.  The Sox went into the All-Star break at 43-41, 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

Pedro, Nomar, Carl Everett, and closer, Derek Lowe (19 SVs) all were named to the A.L. All Star team.

After the break, Pedro returned to the mound and struck out 10, as the Sox came from-behind with a 9th inning walk-off against the Mets on July 13th. With Pedro already departed, Mike Piazza lined a two-out RBI double to center off Rich Garces in the eighth putting the Mets up, 3-2. Despite leaving a runner at third in the eighth, the Red Sox got a second chance when Melvin Mora booted a surefire double-play ball with one out in the ninth. Two batters later, Brian Daubach laced a 1-and-2 offering from Mets closer Armando Benitez off the right-field wall, scoring Manny Alexander and Jose Offerman for the victory.

The next day, Nomar went 4 for 4 to raise his average to a major league-leading .400. He was the first player since Larry Walker (.402) in 1997 to hit .400 this late in the season.

Carl Everett, after a first half that sent him to the All-Star game, began a second half that seem destined to send him to the doghouse, as he was suspended for 10 days after going off and head-butting umpire Ron Kulpa on July 14th.

Against the Expos, on July 17th, Troy O'Leary hit a go-ahead, three-run home run; Nomar hit a home run, reached base five times with a 3-for-3 night. In his last 11 games, O'Leary was batting .356 (16 for 45), with 3 doubles, 3 home runs, and 13 RBIs. This was the fourth time he's knocked in three runs in a game, since coming back  from the DL.  The next night, July 18th, Pedro struck out 12 in earning his 10th win, and Derek Lowe picked up his 21st save.

On July 22nd, Troy O'Leary continued his hot streak against the White Sox, going 3 for 4, to raise his average to .453 in the 16 games since he returned from the disabled list. He had 21 RBIs in that stretch, more than the 17 he had before he went on the DL and more than in any month since last August, when he had 26. Nomar Garciaparra went 2 for 4 to improve to .395. He was hitting .440 at home.

Another controversy hit the Sox in July, when Dan Duquette released the well liked Sox veteran leader, Mike Stanley, after he spent three weeks on the DL.

On the field, Pedro (11-3) pitched one of his career best games on July 23rd. Winning 1-0 in the ninth inning, after a bad hop to Nomar put a runner on second with nobody out.  Pedro seized the moment and mowed down the last three Chicago batters, to preserve his shutout, striking out 15 batters. His third shutout of the season, was tops in the majors.

The Sox took two of three from Chicago, then lost two to the Twins. Ramon Martinez had given up 13 earned runs in the first innings of his last seven starts. The Sox were 3 games out of first on July 25th.

The Sox left for the west coast without Carl Everett, who was batting .194 since the All Star Game, but with returnees Trot Nixon, who missed a month with a strained hamstring, and reliever Rod Beck, who had been plagued most of the season with a pinched nerve in his neck.

The new stadium proposal was hindering the Sox on the field.  It was hard for the Red Sox to ask the state to pay a couple of hundred million dollars for a big ballpark and then go out and spend big money on some top players. And so as Duquette fiddled, the Red Sox got burned. He made moves at the trading deadline like acquiring pitcher Rolando Arrojo, infielder Mike Lansing, outfielder Dante Bichette, and a few others, the same kind of retreads the acquired in the spring. All that combined to make the Red Sox worse in the long run, during a season, in which the Yankees and a division title were clearly up for grabs.

But in Oakland, trailing, 4-3, the Sox rallied to tie the first game of the west coast road trip in the ninth. That took the game into extra innings. With one out in the 10th, Manny Alexander singled to left, Nomar was intentionally walked, and Troy O'Leary once again delivered, continuing his hot hitting since being activated off the disabled list, and stroked the game-winning single to center.

The second game of the series once again, belonged to Pedro. Flirting with his standard excellence, he silenced the A's for seven innings after yielding a home run to rookie Terrence Long, the first batter of the game, winning 4-1. Pedro had allowed only three runs in 24 innings since coming off the disabled list with the strained oblique muscle.

After the Sox split in Oakland and took the first game of the Seattle series with an 8-5 come-from-behind win, they headed home, splitting the road trip with a 3-3 record. Since the All Star Break, the Sox were playing a shade over .500 ball and not gaining ground on the Yankees, who were not playing any better. As the Sox came back to Fenway, Jose Offerman's troublesome left knee landed him on the 15-day disabled list.

At home, Brian Daubach scorched a decisive home run in the eighth inning in a Red Sox come-from-behind, 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on August 4th.

Carl Everett came off his 10-game suspension and immediately walked into the middle of a ruckus. Everett got into a loud, profane argument with Jimy Williams in the manager's office. They were cussing each other out with language that we've all heard before. Williams had mentioned Everett's frequent tardiness and that angered the outfielder.

Everett went out and capped his return with a ninth-inning home run that nearly propelled the Sox to their second straight come-from-behind victory against the Kansas City Royals on August 5th. But the rally died with the potential winning run at the plate, as the Royals spoiled Everett's release from baseball's penalty box, 7-5. But with his team slumping and some Red Sox fans wondering whether he was more trouble than he was worth, Everett complicated the equation, crashing two home runs and sparking the Sox to a badly needed 7-3 victory over the Rangers in Arlington on August 11th.

Meanwhile, Hipolito Pichardo had been working on a no-hitter-of sorts. The Dominican righthander, whose ERA of 1.79 was the lowest among American League relievers, had not allowed a hit in his last 9 2/3 innings, which were spread over seven appearances.

Troy O'Leary had become a non-factor in the offense since the series in Oakland, O'Leary was batting .190 (11 for 58) in 15 games, with no home runs and three RBIs. Nomar, as always, had held up his end, playing every day and batting .354, with five home runs and 14 RBIs, all team-leading numbers.

On August 14th, Pedro frightened every corner of Red Sox Nation, departed after four innings with a stiff right shoulder. It was utilityman Rico Brogna who came off the bench to give the concerned crowd a thrill, with a walk-off grandslam. The high left by Brogna's grand slam quickly faded the next night in a deflating loss to the Devil Rays, in a game which the Sox had nine hits, eight singles and a double, leaving 13 runners on base.  The Sox fell to 5 games behind the Yankees, going 6-6 since the 1st of August and still not being able to get on a winning streak of any consequence.

Newcomer Mike Lansing continued the walk-off drama on August 17th, when he stroked a bases loaded ball off the wall in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, giving the Sox an 8-7 victory. But it was a night when the Sox had seemed to invent ways to stymie themselves, leaving a staggering 15 runners on base and going 4 for 22 with runners in scoring position. They stranded 30 runners in the previous three games, and their playoff chances appeared more in jeopardy with each botched opportunity.

The win also gave Rich "El Guapo" Garces another win in relief. Garces became the first reliever in Sox history to start a season 8-0.

The Sox made in four straight when Pedro eased everyone's uneasy feeling by tossing a 9-0 shutout against the Rangers. Pedro struck out six of the first eight Texas batters, and was throwing his fastball with as much velocity (94 miles an hour) or more in the seventh inning as he did in the first. The shutout was Boston's league-leading 10th of the season.

Brian Daubach gave the Sox one of the best thrills of the season on August 21st. Daubach, crushed a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into overtime, then struck again with two outs in the 11th, flaring a two-run single that lifted the Sox to an exhilarating 7-6 victory over the Angels.

Jose Offerman was batting just .187 since the All-Star break, and incredibly had just one extra-base hit in that stretch, a triple against the Chicago White Sox on July 22nd. He had only two RBIs.  Nomar Garciaparra was hitting .200 (10 for 50) in his last 15 games, as he continued to fight through the longest slump of his career.

The Sox hit only 17 home runs in August.  In games in which the Sox have hit two or more home runs, they were 24-7. In games in which they hit no homers, they were 16-29. That couldn't cut it, especially for a team that couldn't run. Opposing pitchers were working around Everett, Nomar was in a slump, O'Leary's home run stroke had been MIA all season, Daubach was streaky, Nixon bounced around in the lineup, and the new guys didn't have "slugger" on their resumes.

The frustration of the season could be summed up by one night in Tropicana Field.  It was August 29th and it was a spectacle for the ages. Pedro Martinez lost a no-hitter to the first batter in the ninth inning but won an extraordinary showdown marked by a bench-clearing melee, the ejection of eight Devil Rays, and a Carl Everett slugging explosion, with four hits including a double, a triple and two homers.

The bizarre evening ended with an 8-0 Red Sox victory and two Boston players in the hospital: third baseman Lou Merloni for overnight observation after a concussion, and first baseman Brian Daubach for X-rays on his left elbow. Both were injured in a brawl that erupted after Pedro hit the first batter he faced, Gerald Williams, on the left hand, prompting Williams to charge the mound.  As Pedro stood his ground with his hands down, Williams shoved him, swung wildly, and hit him in the arm. When Pedro swung back, Merloni tackled Williams and settled at the bottom of a pile as more than a dozen players flung themselves into the fray. Catcher Jason Varitek also landed on top of Williams. Daubach was also among the first to reach the melee. And something he did in the scrum not only injured his left elbow but earned him the wrath of the Devil Rays. A group of them pulled him out and screamed at him, as Daubach tried to walk away, clutching his elbow in pain.

But this was as unforgettable as any game. A game that began with the crowd jeering at Pedro for hitting Williams, and ended with virtually every Rays fan cheering every pitch as Pedro approached the first Boston no-hitter since 1965.

At Fenway Park on September 4th, Carlton Fisk's No. 27 joined the numbers of Bobby Doerr (1), Joe Cronin (4), Carl Yastrzemski (8), and Ted Williams (9) on the facing of the right-field roof, a place reserved for the most select of Red Sox ballplayers. Fisk's No. 27 had barely been unveiled before Pedro then methodically resumed his role as the franchise savior, yanking the Red Sox back from the brink of ruin. Pedro spared the Sox from losing a third straight game to Seattle and dropping another full game behind the Yankees and in the American League wild-card race.

And finally over three days in early September, hopes for winning the division seemed to vanish, as the Yankees beat the Red Sox three in a row. Tomo Ohka, Pedro and Schourek fell to Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and somebody named Randy Keisler. Then on September 8th, a devastating incident happened at Fenway Park as Red Sox pitcher Bryce Florie suffered one of the most horrific on-the-field baseball injuries when he took a line drive hit to the face. The ball was hit by Ryan Thompson of the Yankees, and caused Florie to have multiple facial fractures and eye damage.

The Sox trailed by nine games with 22 to play, and it seemed clear to Red Sox Nation that the season was over. There was only one problem. The Yankees would finish the season in horrible fashion losing 16 of 19 games. But the Red Sox were ill-prepared to do anything about it. Manning the point was the sniper, Pedro Martinez, chosen the chief "warrior" by platoon leader Jimy Williams. Behind him were the foot soldiers, led by the incendiary Carl Everett. And there was the enemy, the Indians, as the Sox moved within two games of Cleveland in the American League wild-card race on September 14th, after winning 2 of 3 at Jacobs Field.

In a Fenway Park showdown, after winning the first game, the Sox and Pedro got taken down. The Indians relished their first victory over Pedro in 10 tries. The Indians attacked Pedro's fastball in the first inning, and they would not have their accomplishment diminished as they defeated him 2-1 in the first game of a doubleheader. They then took the day with a sweep, winning the second game, 5-4. Later, when second baseman Roberto Alomar heard that Pedro had complained about the size of the strike zone, he leveled one at the complaint. With mock seriousness, Alomar said, "There's no crying in baseball."

The doubleheader sweep was huge. The Sox only won 3 on the 8 game home stand. The Yankees lost their last seven games but ended up winning the division with a not too impressive 87-74 record. The Red Sox won four of their last six and finished only 2 1/2 games behind. It probably was one of the biggest 2 1/2 game margins in Red Sox history.

The Yankees went on to win the World Series.

The 2000 season ended as on October 6th, John Harrington announced that the "Yawkey Trust" was cashing in and the Red Sox were for sale.