October 17, 2003
Sox's wild ride ends in the Bronx
Sox's wild ride ends in the Bronx
Yankees outlast Red Sox, 6-5, in dramatic Game 7
By Ian Browne / MLB.com
Pedro Martinez is taken out of Game 7 by manager Grady Little in the eighth inning. (Charles Krupa/AP)
# Game 7 wrapup: Yankees 6, Red Sox 5
(11 innings)
NEW YORK -- For much of the last two weeks, the Red Sox were teetering dangerously close to elimination. They came to the ballpark some five times over the last 13 days with the knowledge that a loss meant no more baseball this season.
Sox's wild ride ends in the Bronx
Yankees outlast Red Sox, 6-5, in dramatic Game 7
By Ian Browne / MLB.com
Pedro Martinez is taken out of Game 7 by manager Grady Little in the eighth inning. (Charles Krupa/AP)
# Game 7 wrapup: Yankees 6, Red Sox 5
(11 innings)
NEW YORK -- For much of the last two weeks, the Red Sox were teetering dangerously close to elimination. They came to the ballpark some five times over the last 13 days with the knowledge that a loss meant no more baseball this season.
Heading into Game 7 of this epic American League Championship Series against the Yankees, the Red Sox were 4-for-4 in those potential elimination games. And Thursday night, they were just five outs away from going 5-for-5, and getting the best reward of all: a trip to the World Series.
Instead, they were dealt a painful blow that sent their magical season to a crushing conclusion. Aaron Boone belted a leadoff homer in the bottom of the 11th, giving a classic series a classic ending, albeit a painful one for the Red Sox. The Yankees won by a score of 6-5.
Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who won Games 1 and 4 for the Sox, surrendered the homer to Boone.
Tim Wakefield / P
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 215
Bats/Throws: R/R
More info:
Player page
Stats
Splits
Red Sox site
"It hurts. All I have to say is, 'I'm sorry,'" said Wakefield as he tried to hold back tears. "It's disappointing to come in here knowing that we're going home tomorrow. I feel like I let everyone down."
Nobody else in the Boston clubhouse shared Wakefield's sentiments. Without his masterful victories earlier in the series, it's hard to believe there ever would have been a Game 7.
"Timmy never should hold his head down," said Sox catcher Jason Varitek. "We wouldn't have this opportunity if he didn't win two games and pitch outstanding."
Wakefield pitched a scoreless 10th before surrendering the season-ending blow on the first pitch of the next inning.
"I'm just proud of these guys," Varitek said. "I'm proud to be a Boston Red Sox. We just fell short."
Pedro Martinez / P
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 170
Bats/Throws: R/R
More info:
Player page
Stats
Splits
Red Sox site
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, ace Pedro Martinez couldn't hang on to a 5-2 lead. The Yankees rallied furiously for three runs to tie it up. The equalizer was a looping, two-run double by Jorge Posada.
Red Sox fans will undoubtedly second-guess Boston manager Grady Little all winter long, demanding to know why he didn't take Martinez out when he got in trouble in the eighth.
That's the way hindsight works. It's always 20-20.
"Pedro Martinez has been our man all year long and in situations like that, he's the one we want on the mound over anybody we can bring out of the bullpen," said Little. "He had enough left in his tank to finish off Posada. He made some good pitches to him, and (Posada) squeezed his ball over the infield and there's nothing we can do about it now."
Derek Jeter started the trouble in that eighth with a double to right-center. Bernie Williams followed by singling him home, cutting the lead to 5-3.
With dangerous left-handed hitter Hideki Matsui looming and lefty Alan Embree in the pen for the Sox, Little held a conference with Martinez. He opted to stick with his ace, a decision that ended up not working.
Matsui cranked a ground-rule double to right-center, making it second and third with still just one out. Posada then delivered that equalizing, two-run double, sending Martinez to his exit after 123 pitches.
Martinez had no regrets. And by no means did he want any one else to face Posada.
"He asked me if I had enough bullets in my tank to get him out and I said yes, I would never say no," said a somber Martinez. "I tried hard. I did whatever was possible to win the ballgame."
Alan Embree and Mike Timlin escaped the inning without further damage. With the bases loaded, Timlin induced Soriano into a grounder to second that took a wild hop by the mound before being snagged by Todd Walker, who flipped to Nomar Garciaparra for the force.
Walker made a defensive gem to end the ninth, diving toward the bag to get a Jeter grounder and gunning to first to force extra innings.
Mariano Rivera was simply marvelous for the Yankees, pitching three scoreless innings to earn the win.
Just like that, the wild ride was over for the Sox.
"It's something I can't really describe," Martinez said. "You had to live a whole season with this team and go out there and survive with this team, and do it day after day to understand exactly how you feel, how hurt you are."
The game started as a highly anticipated matchup between two of the great pitchers of this era, Martinez and Roger Clemens.
Trot Nixon / RF
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 200
Bats/Throws: L/L
More info:
Player page
Stats
Hit chart
redsox.com
The first blow was struck by the Red Sox. With one out in the top of the second, Trot Nixon hammered a 2-0 Roger Clemens offering into the bleachers in right-center field for a two-run homer.
It wasn't the first time Nixon victimized Clemens. In regular season play, the right fielder is 13-for-35 (.371) with three homers against the Rocket.
Varitek kept the pressure on Clemens in that second with a double to right. Johnny Damon followed with a grounder to third baseman Enrique Wilson that should have been the end of the inning. Instead, Wilson made a wild throw past first baseman Nick Johnson. The error allowed Varitek to score, making it 3-0.
Clemens got in trouble again in the fourth as Kevin Millar opened the inning with a first-pitch homer to left. It was Millar's first career long ball in postseason play.
While Clemens (three-plus innings, six hits, three earned runs) struggled, Martinez was masterful out of the gate. He allowed just two hits over the first four innings.
The Yankees finally got something in the fifth, when Jason Giambi, who was moved down to the seventh spot in the order, blasted a solo shot to right-center to slice the lead to 4-1.
Mike Mussina, working on two days' rest, gallantly kept the Yankees in the game. He fired three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out three.
After 400 career starts (including postseason), this was the first relief appearance of Mussina's career. And it wound up being huge.
While the Yankees struggled for hits most of the night, Giambi heroically kept them close. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, he went deep again, sending a blast just over the wall in center field to make it 4-2.
David Ortiz / DH
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 230
Position: DH
Bats/Throws: L/L
More info:
Stats
Splits
Hit chart
redsox.com
David Ortiz allowed the Sox to breathe a little easier in the eighth, slamming a solo shot to right to bump the lead back to three. That homer was the first pitch thrown by left-hander David Wells, who came out of the bullpen with just one day of rest after his win in Game 5.
At that point, things were looking good, real good.
"We felt pretty good going into the eighth inning that we were going to win this game," Damon said. "It just didn't happen. They just happened to get one more run than we did."
And so it was that the championship drought will extend back to 1918 for at least one more year. But nobody in the Boston dressing room wanted to hear about a curse.
"You saw a home run go in the 11th inning and that was the game," said Millar. "That was the ending of the game. There was no such thing as a curse. That was a great baseball game. You saw a great baseball game with two teams competing their butts off."
Ian Browne is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.