It All Comes Down to This
By Joe Davis
In a playoff atmosphere Friday night, the Red Sox squared off with the Yankees to try to tie for first place in the American League East.
Chien-Ming Wan faced off versus David Wells in which would be an emotional and hardly fought game (at least for the Red Sox). The stage was Fenway Park. A stage where the Boston Red Sox have dominated this season.
The beginning of the game was very frustrating for David Wells. He started off by dominating Derek Jeter on three straight strikes. From there, he walked A-Rod and Jason Giambi. A-Rod would end up stealing third base and a few pitches later, Sheffield was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Red Sox killer, Hideki Matsui, came up to the plate and precisely hit a ball in front of Johnny Damon that scored A-Rod. Wells settled down and struck out Jorge Posada and popped up Ruben Sierra.
The Red Sox fire right back in the bottom of the inning. Johnny Damon led off with a walk, follow by a stolen base. David Ortiz came up with one out when he singled to center field to drive in his league leading 147th RBI.
Jason Varitek led off the bottom of the second with a homerun to give the Red Sox the lead.
The score would remain 2-1 until the bottom of the 6th when Damon singled to start of the inning, and then stole his second bag of the night. After Edgar Renteria struck out, the Yankees decided to intentionally walk Ortiz. With 1st and 2nd with 1 out, Manny Ramirez lined a single into center field which would set the table for Trot Nixon. Nixon would force in a run with a walk.
The defense of the New York Yankees was impressive as Varitek lined a ball down to Jason Giambi. Giambi (who had inertia on his side) stuck out his left hand and snagged the ball. He then proceeded to “throw” home. I cannot describe how horrific this throw was. Just think of a man on THG, trucking his way towards home, putting all of his weight on his right leg, and side arming a ball towards home plate. It bounced before Posada and the sad part is, Ortiz beat the throw.
John Olerud would later hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-1.
Over? Far from it...
After Bernie Williams lined out, Robinson Cano worked a walk to set up Derek Jeter. In typical Jeter fashion, he hit a two run homerun to make it 5-3.
In the top of the 8th, Chad Bradford replaced David Wells and Sheffield grounded out. Mike Myers relieved Bradford and proceeded to strike out Matsui. Terry Francona apparently liked walking to the mound this particular inning, and made another pitching change. Closer, Mike Timlin, who was awarded the Red Sox’ Tenth Man award earlier that evening, came into the game and struck out Jorge Posada.
Timlin would go on to strike out Sierra and Williams in the top of the 9th and Jeter ended the game with a ground out.
Game Notes: Mike Timlin made his 80th appearance of the year. This tied the franchise record
The Red Sox and Yankees are tied for AL East division lead. They also are tied for the Wild Card lead as well, as the Indians lost in extra innings to the Chicago White Sox, 3-2. The game went 13 innings.
Randy Johnson will pitch against Tim Wakefield tomorrow. The game will start at 1:15 EST and will be televised on Fox. Make sure you cancel any plans you had, because it should be a close game. I’ve already called out of work, you can make the sacrifice as well.
Jake Westbrook will pitch against Cy Young candidate, Jon Garland, in the middle game of the Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago White Sox series. The game will be at 1:15 EST as well.
