2007 American League Championship Series

[edit] Game 1, October 12

Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

In Game One, the Cleveland Indians took the lead when Travis Hafner hit a home run to deep right field in the first inning against Josh Beckett. Beckett retired the next 10 batters in a row, finishing by striking out seven while allowing only two runs in six innings pitched. Red Sox offense scored eight runs off of Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia.

[edit] Game 2, October 13

Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

Game Two was billed as a matchup of aces in 19 game winner Fausto Carmona and veteran postseason ace Curt Schilling. However, both starters were out by the 5th as both offenses took charge in what evolved into an 11 inning, run-scoring saga that clocked in at 5 hours and 14 minutes. Both sides exchanged leads in the bottom of the 3^rd and the top of the 4^th. Manny Ramírez hit an opposite field 2-run home run, followed by a Mike Lowell solo home run over the Green Monster, both off Indians reliever Rafael Pérez. In the top of the 4^th, Jhonny Peralta hit a 3-run blast into the camera well in center field off Schilling, giving the Indians a 4-3 lead. Each team’s bullpen put up scoreless frames after the 6^th inning, leading to extra frames with the score tied at 6. The 11^th inning proved to be a historic one as Cleveland took advantage by scoring 7 runs off a shaky Sox bullpen, a postseason record for runs in an extra inning by one team. One of the highlights was the go-ahead RBI single by former Red Sox right fielder Trot Nixon off Boston’s lefty specialist Javier López. What made the base hit significant is that Nixon has historically struggled against left-handed pitching, but manager Eric Wedge left Nixon in to hit against López, and the move paid off. A wild pitch allowed another run to score. After retiring Víctor Martínez, López gave up a single to Ryan Garko and was lifted for Jon Lester, the only pitcher left in the Boston bullpen. Lester did not fare much better; Peralta greeted him with a run-scoring double, which was immediately followed by Franklin Gutiérrez’s three-run homer, capping the scoring as the Indians took Game Two by a score of 13-6.

[edit] Game 3, October 15

Jacobs Field, Cleveland, Ohio

Coming off a lopsided 13-6 loss in 11 innings, Boston sent Daisuke Matsuzaka to the mound to face off with Jake Westbrook for Game 3 at Jacobs Field. Kenny Lofton’s 2-run home run gave the Indians a 2-0 lead in the 2^nd inning. Dice-K would be knocked out after allowing RBI singles to Asdrúbal Cabrera and Travis Hafner to make it 4-0 in the 5^th inning. Jason Varitek’s 2-run home run in the 7^th inning off Westbrook cut the lead to 4-2, but the Sox could get no closer as Cleveland’s closer Joe Borowski, who led the AL in saves during the regular season, shut the door on the Sox, giving the Indians a 2-1 lead in the series.

[edit] Game 4, October 16

Jacobs Field, Cleveland, Ohio

After being confounded for four innings by Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball, the Indians scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 5^th in Game Four. Casey Blake led off the inning with a homer off Wakefield, Franklin Gutiérrez singled, Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch, and Grady Sizemore reached on a fielder’s choice. After Kevin Youkilis bobbled and dropped a foul ball, Asdrúbal Cabrera reached on an infield single as Gutiérrez scored. Travis Hafner struck out, and then Víctor Martínez hit an RBI single to left. At that point, Boston skipper Terry Francona yanked Wakefield for reliever Manny Delcarmen, who gave up an opposite-field home run to Jhonny Peralta on a 2-1 pitch. Kenny Lofton followed with a single, then stole second—his 34^th career postseason stolen base, passing Rickey Henderson for first place on the all-time list—and scored on Blake’s second base hit of the inning. Gutiérrez struck out to end the inning, but the Indians had already scored seven runs—the second time in this series in which the Indians plated seven in one inning. This also marks the third consecutive game in this ALCS wherein Boston’s starter lasted only 4⅔ innings.
The Red Sox answered immediately when Youkilis and David Ortiz hit back-to-back homers, chasing Indians starter Paul Byrd in favor of rookie reliever Jensen Lewis. Manny Ramírez followed with another homer—the Red Sox’ third consecutive home run, something that had never before been accomplished in LCS history—in the top of the 6^th inning. However, that would be all the offense the Red Sox could muster as the Indians took a 3 games to 1 lead in the series behind Lewis and fellow reliever Rafael Betancourt.

[edit] Game 5, October 18

Jacobs Field, Cleveland, Ohio

Danielle Peck was invited by the Cleveland Indians to sing the National Anthem prior to game-5 of the American League Championship Series between the Red Sox and Indians.^[2] Beckett was the starting pitcher in that game, and some Red Sox fans theorized that her invitation was an attempt by the Indians organization to distract Beckett, since the pair had dated the previous summer. The Indians denied this claim.^[3] Facing elimination in Game Five, the Sox struck first with a solo home run from Kevin Youkilis in the top of the 1^st inning. The Indians answered right away, putting runners on 1^st and 3^rd with nobody out but could only muster one run on Travis Hafner grounding into a double play. The Red Sox regained the lead in the 3^rd on a Manny Ramírez RBI single, scoring David Ortiz from first. On the play, Ramírez stopped at first base believing the ball hit beyond the yellow line on the outfield wall, but after discussion among the 6 umpires, the home run was disallowed and Ramírez was left at first with a single. Meanwhile, Josh Beckett pitched 8 solid innings for the Red Sox, and collected 11 strikeouts, tying a career post-season high. Boston scored two more in the 7^th to make it 4-1 and broke it open with three additional runs in the 8^th to ensure a return trip to Boston for Game Six.

[edit] Game 6, October 20

Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

After Curt Schilling retired the Indians in the top of the 1^st, the Red Sox loaded the bases on infield hits by Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis plus a full-count walk to David Ortiz. Fausto Carmona struck out Manny Ramírez and got Mike Lowell to pop out, but J.D. Drew then hit a grand slam to center field to give Boston a 4-0 lead. Víctor Martínez got the Tribe on the board with a lead-off solo home run to cut the Sox lead to 3. The Sox had a chance to pile on more runs in the bottom of the inning but a key double play ended the threat. The Indians threatened in the top of the 3^rd after two hits lead off the inning but Schilling got the next three batters to work out of it. The Sox put the game away with a 6 run explosion in the bottom of the inning. JD Drew drove in his 5^th RBI of the game with a single in the 3rd inning that ended Carmona's pitching that night. Jacoby Ellsbury followed with another single driving in Boston's 6^th run. Julio Lugo then drove a double down the third-base line to make it 8-1. Youkilis added two more with a single compounded with a throwing error to make it 10-1. Ryan Garko started the top of the 7^th with a triple and scored on a Jhonny Peralta sacrifice fly, but that would be all the offense Cleveland could muster against Schilling on the night.

[edit] Game 7, October 21

Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

The pitching match-up for Game Seven was a rematch of Game Three, featuring Jake Westbrook for Cleveland and Japanese rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka for Boston. In the first 3 innings, Matsuzaka looked like the more dominant starting pitcher of the night retiring the first 8 batters he faced before giving up a base hit to number 9 hitter Casey Blake; he then struck out Grady Sizemore to end the inning. Meanwhile, during those same first 3 innings, Indians starter Jake Westbrook gave up 7 hits, 1 walk (intentionally), and 3 runs. Fortunately for Cleveland, Westbrook settled down and pitched 3 shutout innings, striking out 4, and their offense began to take advantage of Matsuzaka putting up single runs in the top of the 4^th and 5^th. Boston's top two relief pitchers took over after Matsuzaka's exit following the 5^th inning; Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon were able to hold Indians hitters scoreless over the final 4 frames, giving up just 4 hits combined, all singles. Game Seven was much closer than the final score would dictate as it was a 3-2 game going into Boston's half of the 7^th inning. Third base coach Joel Skinner held up Kenny Lofton at third base in the top of the seventh on a grounder down the third base line that it looked like Lofton could have easily scored on. Rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia were the center of the offense in the 7^th with Ellsbury reaching 2nd on a Blake error then Dustin Pedroia hit a 2-run home run into the Green Monster seats, giving the Red Sox some insurance runs—a 5-2 lead. The Sox put up a 6-spot in the bottom of the 8^th—highlighted by a 3 RBI double by Pedroia and a 2-run Kevin Youkilis monster shot—which cemented their victory and led to their second American League championship and World Series appearance in four years.

[edit] Quotes

[edit] References

1. ^ MLB names League Championship Series umpires (JSP). Major League Baseball (2007-10-10). Retrieved on 2007-10-21. “Randy Marsh, a 26-year Major League Umpire, will be the crew chief when the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox meet in the 2007 American League Championship Series. The Kentucky native has been assigned to the 18th postseason series of his career, including his eighth LCS. Marsh's crew will feature Kerwin Danley, Brian Gorman, Paul Emmel, Gary Cederstrom and regular season crew chief Dana DeMuth.”
2. ^ McIntyre, Michael K. "Anthem singer was special to Sox pitcher", The Plain Dealer, October 18, 2007. 
3. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21371547/

[edit] External links

• American League Championship Series 2007