Red Sox 5, Yankees 4, 14 innings
Red Sox 5, Yankees 4, 14 innings
BOSTON (AP) — David Ortiz had just lifted the 471st pitch of the night into center field for the winning hit, setting off another wild celebration, just as improbable as the one he started the night before.
Boston had rallied to beat the Yankees again, needing 14 innings in this one, a 5-4 victory that took 5 hours, 49 minutes, a postseason record.
Now, as the jubilant Red Sox and dejected Yankees came off the field at Fenway Park late Monday night, knowing they were scheduled to play again in New York in just 21 hours, they started to wonder: Who can even pitch Tuesday night after Boston starter Curt Schilling and the Yankees' Jon Lieber leave Game 6?
”Schilling's pitch count might be 180,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
Think everyone was exhausted after Aaron Boone's 11th-inning homer won Game 7 for the Yankees last year? Both teams are dragging themselves to Yankee Stadium.
”Everybody's tired,” New York catcher Jorge Posada said. ”Their team, our team.”
Rain is forecast for Tuesday night. Both teams could surely use the rest after three games in Boston that saw 1,298 pitches, 82 hits and 29 pitching changes over 35 innings.
”I think it will be good to go back home and gain some energy from the home crowd,” Alex Rodriguez said. ”Three days here, it feels like we've been here a month.”
None of the other 25 teams that fell behind 3-0 in a postseason series has ever come back to win — and only two of them pushed it to six games.
”We're going out there with no pressure,” Boston's Johnny Damon said. ”We've done stuff we're not supposed to be doing right now.”
Turns out last October's epic was only a prequel, with this year's series mirroring the season. New York burst out to win the first three games, now Boston is desperately trying to catch up.
Just 21 1/2 hours after Ortiz's 12th-inning homer off Paul Quantrill at 1:22 a.m. gave Boston a 6-4 victory in Game 4, the Boston slugger fouled off six pitches before singling to drive in the winning run off Esteban Loaiza.
”The last two nights shows the depth, the character, the heart, the guts of our ballclub,” winner Tim Wakefield said. ”It took every ounce of whatever we had left to win tonight's game and to win last night's game.”
This time, Boston was six outs from elimination before Ortiz's leadoff homer off Tom Gordon and Jason Varitek's sacrifice fly off Mariano Rivera tied it 4-4 in the eighth.
The next six innings were agonizingly tense, filled with a double play, three passed balls in the same inning, two Red Sox runners thrown out trying to steal second and 10 runners left on base.
When it was over, New York had stranded 18 runners and the Red Sox 12. The back-to-back marathons totaled 26 innings and 10 hours, 51 minutes.
Just a night after throwing 50 pitches, Boston closer Keith Foulke threw 22 more. Rivera, who blew a save for the second straight night and the third time this postseason, pitched two innings for the second straight game.
The Yankees took a 4-2 lead in the sixth when Derek Jeter poked a three-run double to right on Pedro Martinez's 100th pitch but were shut out over the last eight innings by Mike Timlin, Foulke, Bronson Arroyo, Mike Myers, Alan Embree and Wakefield.
Gary Sheffield struck out leading off the 13th but reached on a passed ball, and two more passed balls by Varitek on Wakefield's knuckler left runners on second and third.
But after the ball nearly got away from Varitek again, popping out of the catcher's glove but staying near the plate, Wakefield escaped by striking out Ruben Sierra on a 70 mph knuckler.
Wakefield, who gave up Boone's homer last year, followed with a 1-2-3 14th.
”In the last inning, he was on fumes,” Francona said.
Damon started the winning rally by drawing a one-out walk, and Manny Ramirez walked with two outs. Ortiz then fouled off six pitches, including one that just missed being a home run down the right-field line, before blooping a single.
”There's nothing you can do,” Loaiza said. ”It was a great pitch, a broken bat, and it floated over second base.”
Half the Red Sox ran to greet Damon coming home; the others mobbed Ortiz halfway to second base.
”I was thinking I'd better get it done right here,” Ortiz said. ”They've got too many hitters that can change the game with one swing.”
The Yankees, who got a solo homer from Bernie Williams in the second, could have broken the game open after Jeter's double, but Trot Nixon prevented even more runs with a sliding catch on Hideki Matsui's sinking drive to right with the bases loaded.
New York, 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, missed a chance to take the lead in the ninth when Tony Clark's two-out drive to right hopped over the low fence for a ground-rule double that left runners at second and third. Foulke then retired Miguel Cairo on a foul pop.
Boston tried to change its perennially bad luck, with switch-hitter Varitek hitting right-handed against right-hander Mike Mussina and Kevin Millar trimming his billy-goat beard.
Mussina allowed Ortiz's RBI single in the first and a bases-loaded walk to Varitek, then pitched five shutout innings before six relievers followed. The Yankees sent Lieber home during the game to get rest for Tuesday.
”We were going to play until there was nobody left standing,” Mussina said. ”You've got starters going out there. You've got guys throwing three and four innings one day and throwing two or three again the next day.” Notes: Yankees 1B John Olerud, on crutches Sunday after injuring a foot in Game 3, was walking Monday but was not available. … The 1998 Braves against San Diego and 1999 Mets against Atlanta are the only other teams down 3-0 to force a sixth game.
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