At 12:44 a.m., 34 minutes after the last train was supposed to stop
running in Kenmore Square, Manny Ramirez stood transfixed at home
plate, his arms raised overhead, watching as his ninth-inning home
run, on a night as warm and clear as an Angel's teardrop, disappeared
over the Green Monster and into the mists of Red Sox history.
Daisuke
Matsuzaka may have been an unsatisfying first course as he failed to make it
through five innings, the familiar bugaboo (the gnats were in Cleveland) of
nibbling instead of attacking hitters, which drove his pitch count to 96 by the
time he was lifted for Javier Lopez with the Sox down, 3-2. The nightcap,
however, was epic: Ramirez driving a 1-and-0 pitch from closer Francisco
Rodriguez over the wall after the Angels elected to walk David Ortiz
intentionally for the second time in the game and the fourth time in the series.
Lugo,
leading off the ninth against Speier, was on the move when Dustin Pedroia,
playing with a shoulder he'd jammed earlier in the game, grounded to short.
Rodriguez entered and struck out Kevin Youkilis, then walked Ortiz, who ended
the Angels' October three years earlier with a walkoff home run. Ramirez took
one pitch, then unloaded, as a crowd of 37,706 erupted in joy that evoked
memories of the back-to-back walkoff wins in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees.
Both crafted, naturally, by Ortiz.
The Angels,
who have lost eight straight games to the Sox in the postseason since Donnie
Moore's meltdown in Game 5 of the '86 playoffs (All hail, Hendu), return home
uncertain of whether they will have their one bona fide slugger, Vladimir
Guerrero, who came out of last night's game in the eighth inning after being hit
by a fastball from Manny Delcarmen an inning earlier.
Mike
Lowell's second error since July 18, a span of 67 games, turned what could have
been a one-pitch exercise for Papelbon into a grueling duel of wills. Red Sox
manager Terry Francona, taking advantage of a fully rested bullpen, brought
Papelbon into a tie game with two outs and nobody on in the eighth. Second
baseman Howie Kendrick hit a routine grounder to Lowell, who took his time but
threw low to first, Youkilis unable to scoop the ball out of the dirt.
With a
1-and-0 count to Jeff Mathis, the ninth hitter in the Angels' order, Kendrick
easily stole second base. With the go-ahead run in scoring position, Scioscia
went tactical, sending up Juan Rivera to hit. With a 1-and-2 count, Kendrick
stole third, and Rivera worked his way to a full-count walk. That brought up
Chone Figgins, the majors' leading hitter after May 31 (.381) but slowed by a
sore wrist (0 for 22) the last couple of weeks of the season. Figgins fouled off
two 1-and-2 pitches before Papelbon put him away with a splitter that plate
umpire Dan Iassogna called strike three.
The
conditions couldn't have been more favorable for Matsuzaka. A warm night (79
degrees at game time), just the way the dome-conditioned pitcher likes it. A
team that had never set eyes upon him before, except on video. The opposition's
most dangerous hitter, Guerrero, genetically wired to swing at any pitch he can
reach, which with his long arms pretty much spans the compass. The security of
knowing that regardless the outcome, the Sox would head to Anaheim with no worse
than a split, thanks to the virtuosity of Josh Beckett, who with Schilling
already had headed to the coast before Tiger Okoshi, the flamboyant trumpeter
and Berklee College of music professor, had belted out the national anthem
accompanied by the booming percussion of Japanese drums.
The echoes
of those drums had barely subsided when Matsuzaka struck out Figgins, the
Angels' leadoff man, with a wicked slider, no doubt leading to the happy lifting
of cups of green tea in his native Yokohama. He walked the next batter, Orlando
Cabrera, and gave up a two-out single to Garret Anderson, the left fielder whose
bout of conjunctivitis led to questions of how well he could see. But another
sharp-breaking slider, this one to Maicer Izturis, went by unchallenged for a
called third strike to end the inning.
The Sox
expanded Matsuzaka's comfort zone when they scored twice in the first. Youkilis
worked a walk after falling into an 0-and-2 hole against starter Kelvim Escobar,
Ortiz followed with an opposite-field single to left, and Lowell drew a two-out
walk to load the bases. That brought up J.D. Drew, who statistically was
Boston's worst hitter with the bases loaded this season (2 for 17, .118) but
stroked a base hit up the middle, Youkilis and Ortiz scoring. The Sox could not
have known that for the next six innings, that would be their only hit with
runners in scoring position.
Matsuzaka,
meanwhile, could not carry the lead beyond the next inning. He lost Casey
Kotchman to a leadoff walk after being ahead, 0-2. Kendry Morales then hit a
smash to the right side that Pedroia knocked down with a dive, but the ball
dribbled away into short right field for an infield hit while Kotchman sped to
third and Pedroia writhed in pain.
Matsuzaka
struck out Kendrick, but a ground ball by Mathis brought home Kotchman to make
it 2-1. Figgins then sliced a hit to left that took a wacky bounce past Ramirez
for a double, tying the score at 2, and Cabrera followed with a fly to
left-center that fell on the track for another double.
After that,
Matsuzaka seemed to settle into a rhythm, but with two outs and nobody on in the
fifth, Izturis lined a single off the glove of Youkilis and stole second. When
Kotchman walked, Francona had seen enough and summoned Lopez, who retired
Morales on a force play.
The Sox
loaded the bases in the fifth on a ground-ball double down the line by Pedroia,
who took third on a checked-swing tapper by Youkilis. Escobar walked Ortiz
intentionally, then lost Ramirez on a base on balls, his fifth. Lowell scorched
a liner to center, but right at Figgins, though Pedroia scored on a sacrifice.
The Sox
committed a base-running gaffe when Coco Crisp, who had drawn a one-out walk in
the sixth, failed to tag second while returning to first on Lugo's fly to center
(Crisp was running on the play) and was doubled up.