In Wednesday night's first inning, to cite one mere example, after Tony Womack's single set the table for the Cardinals' big hitters, Larry Walker decided it would be a good time for his first sacrifice bunt in 13 years. Two batters later, Womack was stranded at third when the inning ended. La Russa later said Walker was trying to bunt for a single.
"I'd give up a hit to Womack every inning," Lowe said, "if Walker is going to bunt."
Boston wins its first World Series title since 1918 by sweeping the Cardinals with a 3-0 victory Wednesday. Red Sox starter Derek Lowe shuts down the Cardinals for seven scoreless innnings to earn the victory.
(Al Behrman - AP)
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The loudest the crowd ever got came in the top of the eighth, when closer Jason Isringhausen pitched his way masterfully out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam. For an instant, the Cardinals had a molecule of momentum. But the Red Sox bullpen never let them sustain it. The final out in the bottom of the ninth was a comebacker to the mound, which closer Keith Foulke flipped to first base, initiating euphoria.
The Cardinals did not lead for a single one of the series' 36 innings. On Wednesday night, they found themselves trailing after only four pitches, when Damon tattooed a fastball from Marquis into the Cardinals' bullpen in right. Marquis survived that, plus Nixon's two-run double in the third, to throw six serviceable innings, the Cardinals' longest start in the series.
Meantime, Lowe, a free-agent-to-be making perhaps his final Red Sox start, retired 13 straight batters at one point, and he was the winning pitcher in all three of Boston's clinchers this postseason.
The degree of Boston's domination was staggering. In Games 2, 3 and 4 combined, starters Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez and Lowe held the Cardinals to no earned runs in 20 innings. Cardinals sluggers Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds -- likely to be three of the top five vote-getters in league MVP balloting -- batted a combined .133 in the series, with one RBI.
"That," said second baseman Mark Bellhorn, "is world championship pitching."
As the late innings flew by, amazingly, there was scarcely a whiff of danger for the Red Sox, nary a disaster in sight. And as the end drew near, instead of collapsing, the Red Sox played as if overtaken by a focused calm, as if all at once they understood what transcendence they had achieved and what misery they had ended.
