2007 Red Sox
From SoSH
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General Information
- W-L Record: 96-66
- Finish: 1st in the American League East
- Pythagorean W-L: 101-61
- Runs Scored: 867
- Runs Allowed: 657
- Manager: Terry Francona
- Ballpark: Fenway Park
- Attendance: 2,970,755 (4th out of 14)
Season Summary
The Red Sox started the 2007 with something to prove after a painful 2006 season in which they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2002. The offseason was highlighted by the acquisition of Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Free agents JD Drew and Julio Lugo were added to the roster.
The team had initially planned to go into the season with Jonathan Papelbon in the starting rotation, and a cast of misfits in the closers role. After a talk with manager Terry Francona, Papelbon returned to the closers role, much to the reilief of the manager and the fans.
Newcomer Julio Lugo was paired with rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia would struggle mightily in April, batting just .182. Though occasionally spelled by Alex Cora, Pedroia remained in the lineup and would end the season batting .317; the highest of any rookie second baseman in baseball history.
Among other surprises were Japanese reliever Hideki Okajima, who was more of a footnote in the offseason. Okajima would become the key setup man to Papelbon, and earned a spot on the All-Star team.
Josh Beckett bounced back from a disappointing 2006 campaign to Cy Young-caliber form, finishing in the top 10 in ERA and strikeouts, in addition to being the only 20 game winner in major league baseball in 2007.
Mike Lowell concluded the season with 120 RBI, the most ever by a Red Sox third baseman.
The team got off to a 36-15 start, putting themselves 11.5 games ahead of the Orioles, and 14.5 games ahead of the Yankees. Though the division lead would be trimmed to just 1.5 games in September, it was never relinquished. This would be the first time since 1995 that the Red Sox would win the American League East, breaking a string of 9 straight wins by their rivals in New York.
The 2007 Red Sox never had a winning streak of more than 5 games, which they managed to accomplish on three separate occasions. Similarly, they were not prone to extended losing streaks, losing a season-high 4 games in a row just once. But in one extraordinary stretch beginning on May 10, the Red Sox played so well -- and the Yankees so poorly -- that the lead expanded from 7 games to 11.5 games over the Baltimore Orioles, and 14.5 over the last-place Yankees, on May 29, 2007.
Despite a second-half rally by the Yankees that pulled them to within 1.5 games on September 19, the Red Sox never surrendered that lead. On September 22, 2007, the Red Sox clinched a playoff berth with a win against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when Jason Varitek tied the game with a home run off of Rays' closer Al Reyes and Julio Lugo followed that up with a 2 run bomb to left field and 2 postseason-clinching RBI's.
On September 28th, 2007, the Yankees were eliminated from division contention by a combination of a dominant 8-inning performance at Fenway against Minnesota by Daisuke Matsuzaka and late-inning heroics by Baltimore Orioles left fielder Jay Payton, who tied their game on a liner that got by New York right fielder Bobby Abreu, and a daring 2-out squeeze play by Baltimore third baseman Melvin Mora that scored Baltimore reserve outfielder Tike Redman from third when Yankee utility infielder Wilson Betemit, playing at third base, could do nothing with the ball. They would get into the postseason as the Wild Card winners, but the string of nine straight Yankee American League division titles was snapped.
Playoffs
- 2007 American League Division Series Won 3-0
- 2007 American League Championship Series Won 4-3
- 2007 World Series Won 4-0
Remarkable Moments
- April 11, 2007: Daisuke Matsuzaka makes his Fenway Park debut against Ichiro Suzuki and the Seattle Mariners.
- April 22, 2007: Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek hit four consecutive home runs off of New York Yankees lefthander Chase Wright.
- May 13, 2007: In what became known as the 'Mother's Day Miracle', the Red Sox rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the 9th to defeat the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie was inexplicably pulled with 2 outs to go after a Coco Crisp pop up was dropped by catcher Ramon Hernandez. Six straight Red Sox then reached base, including a David Ortiz double, a Kevin Youkilis walk, and a Jason Varitek double to cut the lead to 5-4. With the bases loaded, Julio Lugo reached on a bobble by closer Chris Ray, and the Red Sox had their first walkoff win of the year, 6-5.
- June 7, 2007: Curt Schilling has a no-hit bid against the Oakland Athletics broken up with two outs in the 9th by Shannon Stewart.
- July 23, 2007: Jon Lester made his return to the Red Sox after beating cancer. He pitched six innings, giving up 2 runs in a victory over the Cleveland Indians, 6-2.
- July 31, 2007: On trading deadline day, the biggest acquisition in Boston wasn't Eric Gagne, it was new Celtic Kevin Garnett, who threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park the next day.
- August 17, 2007: Lightning rod Wily Mo Pena was traded to the Washington Nationals, for infield prospect Chris Carter.
- September 1, 2007: In only his second career major league start, Clay Buchholz pitches a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park.
- September 12, 2007 David Ortiz ended a mortal stretch of close and late plate appearances to hit his only walkoff home run of the season against Tampa Bay.
- September 21, 2007: Josh Beckett wins his 20th game of the season becoming the first 20 game winner since 2005 and the only 20 game winner in 2007. He pitched 6 innings, allowing only 1 run. The Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-1.
- September 28, 2007: Daisuke Matsuzaka pitches the Red Sox to a win over the Minnesota Twins. Many fans remain in the park to see the conclusion of the New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles game. Trailing 9-6 in the 9th inning with the bases loaded, former Red Sox Jay Payton hit a bases-clearing triple off Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. The game remained tied into the 10th. The Orioles loaded the bases again with 1 out. Former Red Sox Kevin Millar struck out looking for the second out of the inning. Melvin Mora then laid down a surprise bunt single to end the game, and sent Fenway Park into a wild celebration.
External Links
- 2007 Team Page - Courtesy of Baseball Reference
- 2007 Transactions - Courtesy of SoSH
Roster
| REGULARS | G | BA | AB | HR | RBI | BB | SB | OPS+ | |||
| C | Jason Varitek | 131 | 0.255 | 435 | 17 | 68 | 71 | 1 | 106 | ||
| 1B | Kevin Youkilis | 145 | 0.288 | 528 | 16 | 83 | 77 | 4 | 120 | ||
| 2B | Dustin Pedroia | 139 | 0.317 | 520 | 8 | 50 | 47 | 7 | 115 | ||
| 3B | Mike Lowell | 154 | 0.324 | 589 | 21 | 120 | 53 | 3 | 128 | ||
| SS | Julio Lugo | 147 | 0.237 | 570 | 8 | 73 | 48 | 33 | 68 | ||
| LF | Manny Ramirez | 133 | 0.296 | 483 | 20 | 88 | 71 | 0 | 129 | ||
| CF | Coco Crisp | 145 | 0.268 | 526 | 6 | 60 | 50 | 28 | 86 | ||
| RF | JD Drew | 140 | 0.270 | 466 | 11 | 64 | 79 | 4 | 108 | ||
| DH | David Ortiz | 149 | 0.332 | 549 | 35 | 117 | 111 | 3 | 176 | ||
| BENCH | |||||||||||
| BN | Alex Cora | 83 | 0.246 | 207 | 3 | 18 | 7 | 1 | 78 | ||
| BN | Eric Hinske | 84 | 0.204 | 186 | 6 | 21 | 28 | 3 | 86 | ||
| BN | Wily Mo Pena | 73 | 0.218 | 156 | 5 | 17 | 14 | 0 | 75 | ||
| BN | Jacoby Ellsbury | 33 | 0.353 | 116 | 3 | 18 | 8 | 9 | 135 | ||
| BN | Doug Mirabelli | 48 | 0.202 | 114 | 5 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 66 | ||
| BN | Bobby Kielty | 20 | 0.231 | 52 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 63 | ||
| BN | Kevin Cash | 12 | 0.111 | 27 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | ||
| BN | Brandon Moss | 15 | 0.280 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 114 | ||
| BN | Jeff Bailey | 3 | 0.111 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 37 | ||
| BN | Royce Clayton | 8 | 0.000 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -100 | ||
| BN | David Murphy | 3 | 0.500 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 398 | ||
| _ | |||||||||||
| STARTERS | G | ERA | W | L | SV | GS | SO | ERA+ | |||
| SP | Josh Beckett | 30 | 3.27 | 20 | 7 | 0 | 30 | 194 | 139 | ||
| SP | Daisuke Matsuzaka | 32 | 4.40 | 15 | 12 | 0 | 32 | 201 | 104 | ||
| SP | Curt Schilling | 24 | 3.87 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 24 | 101 | 118 | ||
| SP | Tim Wakefield | 31 | 4.76 | 17 | 12 | 0 | 31 | 110 | 96 | ||
| SP | Julian Tavarez | 34 | 5.15 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 23 | 77 | 89 | ||
| BULLPEN | |||||||||||
| CL | Jonathan Papelbon | 59 | 1.85 | 1 | 3 | 37 | 0 | 84 | 246 | ||
| SU | Hideki Okajima | 66 | 2.22 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 63 | 206 | ||
| RP | Manny Delcarmen | 44 | 2.05 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 41 | 223 | ||
| RP | Javier Lopez | 61 | 3.10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 147 | ||
| RP | Mike Timlin | 50 | 3.42 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 134 | ||
| RP | Kyle Snyder | 46 | 3.81 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 120 | ||
| SP | Jon Lester | 12 | 4.57 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 50 | 100 | ||
| SP | Kason Gabbard | 7 | 3.73 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 29 | 122 | ||
| SP | Clay Buchholz | 4 | 1.59 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 22 | 287 | ||
| RP | Brendan Donnelly | 27 | 3.05 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 150 | ||
| RP | Eric Gagne | 20 | 6.75 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 68 | ||
| RP | Bryan Corey | 9 | 1.93 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 236 | ||
| RP | Devern Hansack | 3 | 4.70 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 97 | ||
| RP | Joel Pineiro | 31 | 5.03 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 91 | ||
| RP | J.C. Romero | 23 | 3.15 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 145 | ||
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