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Red Sox Roll, Make Date With the Rockies
Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon celebrates the final out of Boston's 11-2, Game 7 victory over the Indians Sunday night. Papelbon recorded the final six outs of the win, which sends Boston to the World Series.
(Al Bello - Getty)
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And there was an apparent mistake by Indians third base coach Joel Skinner, who held up Lofton at third base after Franklin Gutierrez followed by smashing a hit over the third base bag. It appeared Lofton would have scored easily, but Skinner, playing it conservatively, threw up the stop sign. The next batter, Casey Blake, grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]"It ricocheted [off the wall], and I couldn't tell exactly where it was going," Skinner said of Gutierrez's hit, defending the decision. "But with one out, [if you send him] you have to be sure."
And finally, there was Pedroia's home run -- a towering drive over the Green Monster in left-center -- that pushed a 3-2 lead to 5-2. It came off an untouchable Indians pitcher, Rafael Betancourt, who had faced 20 batters in the series entering Sunday night, and had retired 19 of them.
"People think he can't play, because he's too small and he swings too hard," Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein said of the 5-foot-7 Pedroia. "But none of that matters when you have his heart and his coordination."
Okajima had not thrown two innings in a game since July, yet not only did Francona leave him in for two full innings, the sixth and seventh, he also sent him back out in the eighth -- only to yank him in favor of Papelbon after the first two Indians batters singled.
Papelbon was in uncharted territory as well, having never been asked to lock down a six-out save in his career, but he blew away Travis Hafner on a 98-mph fastball to launch himself through the eighth inning, then, after the Red Sox' six-run explosion in the bottom of the eighth, performed what amounted to mop-up duty in the ninth.
Nearly an hour after the game, a begoggled Papelbon was still on the field, leading teammates and family members in a sloppy, loose-legged Irish jig. Several thousand fans remained in the stands, cheering and laughing.
"This is how we roll!" slugger David Ortiz yelled as he plunged into the madness on the infield, spilling champagne over red dirt that has seen other Game 7s before this one, but perhaps never a Red Sox team like this.
