October 18, 2004

From SoSH

2004 ALCS Game 5 After an epic Game 4 win, the Red Sox looked to keep their season alive with a Game 5 win. Game 5 pitted Pedro Martinez, in his final start in Fenway as a Red Sox, against Mike Mussina. Coming off a 12-inning game, it appeared as if both bullpens were tired and that the managers would ride their starters rather than use the bullpen.

The Red Sox touched Mussina up early, scoring two runs in the first from a David Ortiz single and a Jason Varitek bases loaded walk. Leading off the 2nd inning, Bernie Williams homered off Pedro, cutting the lead to one. The Red Sox maintained this lead until the 6th inning when Pedro loaded the bases by giving up two singles and hitting Miguel Cairo. This brought up Derek Jeter who promptly hit a base clearing double, advancing to third on a throw to home. After hitting Alex Rodriguez and walking Gary Sheffield, Pedro got out of the bases loaded jam by getting Hideki Matsui to line out to Trot Nixon. This would prove to be Pedro's last pitch in front of the Fenway Faithful in a Red Sox uniform.

In the bottom of the 8th, David Ortiz led off the inning by hitting a homer over the monster against former Red Sox relief Tom Gordon. Gordon then walked Kevin Millar, who was pinch run for Dave Roberts. Trot Nixon hit a single, advancing Roberts to third, and was pinch run in favor of Gabe "The Hebrew Hammer" Kapler. At this point Joe Torre brought in Mariano Rivera. Facing Jason Varitek, Rivera gave up a sacrifice fly, blowing his second save in as many days. In the 9th inning, Keith Foulke, who came on in the bottom of the 8th with 2 outs and who threw 2.2 innings of relief the night before, walked Ruben Sierra and then gave up a ground rule double to Tony Clark, a hit that likely would have scored Sierra had the ball stayed in play. After that scare, Foulke got Cairo to foul out, ending the threat and ensuring extra innings for the second night in a row.

In extra innings, Bronson Arroyo, Mike Myers, and Alan Embree held off the Yankees with Terry Francona bringing in Tim Wakefield to pitch in the top of the 12th. The Yankee's Felix Heredia and Paul Quantrill held off the Red Sox until the bottom of 11th when Torre brought in Estaban Loaiza, who promptly got Orlando Cabrera to ground into an inning ending double play.

After an uneventful 12th inning, events got interesting as many Red Sox fans cringed as Jason Varitek tried to catch a knuckleball. After getting two quick outs, Wakefield struck out Matsui but Varitek allowed a passed ball. From this, Matsui advanced to second. After an intentional walk to Jorge Posada and another passed ball that put runners on 2nd and 3rd, Wakefield struck out Sierra to end the inning. Both pitchers managed a 1-2-3 bottom of the 13th and top of the 14th. In the bottom of the 14th, Mark Bellhorn struck out, dropping his postseason average to .129, followed by a Johnny, not yet Judas, Damon walk. Cabrera then struck out and Manny Ramirez walked, bringing up David Ortiz. After fouling off numerous pitches, Ortiz hit a short fly ball that fell short of Bernie Williams. Damon raced around from second and scored the winning run, giving Big Papi his second walk off in as many days.

After Games 4 and 5 it appeared as if the psyches of the Yankees were broken and the rest is the Greatest Comeback in Sports History.

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Outstanding Performances

David Ortiz - Home Run off Tom Gordon in the 8th to cut lead to 1, walk-off single in 14th, 3 RBIs, officially reached hero-status after this game
Tim Wakefield - 3.0 innings in relief, 1 hit, 1 BB, 4Ks, countless heartattacks watching Jason Varitek catching the knuckleball (3 passed balls)
Tony Clark - Hit a ground-rule double with a runner on first in the 9th inning preventing runner from scoring. Finally justified Red Sox $5 million dollar investment in him in 2002 during which he hit .207 with 3 HR and 29 RBIs in 85 games
Keith Foulke - Pitched 1.1 innings, got out of the jam in top of 9th after Tony Clark's double and after entering game with 2 outs in the top of the 8th, threw 50 pitches less than 24 hours before
Pedro Martinez - Average game by his standards but his final start at Fenway in a truly amazing Red Sox career

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