Rookies Take Red Sox Right to the Brink

Ellsbury, Pedroia Provide Offense, Matsuzaka the Arm for 3-0 Lead: Red Sox 10, Rockies 5

DENVER, Oct. 27 -- The fans at Coors Field, bless their hearts, still stood and screamed and waved their little white towels, as if there was still hope. The Colorado Rockies still dug in and strained and gave every appearance of a team still fighting for something tangible and attainable. And there were fleeting moments, the amount of time it takes a well-struck ball to sail from the barrel of the bat to a spot beyond the center field wall, 437 feet away, when it seemed ever so possible.

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But the first World Series home game in the 15-year history of the Rockies franchise was simply not going to tilt in their direction, and nor, for that matter, was the series itself. Even this close to the Great Continental Divide, rivers still flow to the east and the Boston Red Sox still cannot be stopped, only occasionally slowed.

Taking their October juggernaut to the land of the humidor and the mile-high air, the Red Sox accepted 5 1/3 strong innings and one shockingly clutch hit from starter Daisuke Matsuzaka, survived a middle-relief meltdown that momentarily trimmed a six-run lead to one run, then tacked on four late runs against the Rockies' bullpen for a 10-5 win in Game 3 of the World Series.

The Red Sox, who own a commanding three-games-to-none lead, can clinch their second World Series title in four years Sunday night, when left-hander Jon Lester faces Rockies right-hander Aaron Cook. Should the Rockies steal that game, Red Sox ace Josh Beckett would await them in Game 5 on Monday night.

The big lead "gives us time to relax," said Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, in his latest moment of truth that goes against the accepted baseball-cliché stylebook. "But the key is we've got to win four games. We have confidence in each other. That's the way it is."

It is true, of course, that 3-0 leads can no longer be considered fail-safe, ever since the New York Yankees blew that exact lead in the 2004 ALCS. But the team that came back to beat the Yankees that year was the Red Sox. And as we have seen over the past few nights, these Rockies are not the Red Sox, who have now outscored their opponents 55-12 in their last six games.

The Rockies, however, have performed their best work in their most dire of circumstances, having gone 13-1 down the stretch in September just to force a one-game playoff, then winning that play-in game with a three-run rally after falling behind by two in the top of the 13th. That experience is about all the hope they have remaining.

"We still have a chance. We still have a pulse," said Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs. "We've come way too far to have it end like this."

For a few moments Saturday night, in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Rockies appeared on the verge of seizing the lead -- and the series' ephemeral momentum -- when slugger Matt Holliday blasted a three-run homer to straightaway center on a first-pitch change up from previously untouchable Red Sox lefty Hideki Okajima. That made it a one-run game, and the crowd of 49,983 exploded in a frenzy of towel-waving and ear-splitting noise.

"It brought all kinds of momentum to our dugout," said Rockies reliever Matt Herges. "It was like, 'That's our guy!' It gave us some serious hope."

But the Red Sox got all three runs back in the top of the eighth, when rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia -- the first rookie tandem in history to bat in the top two spots in the lineup in a World Series game -- both hit run-scoring doubles off lefty set-up man Brian Fuentes. Ellsbury's was his third double and fourth hit of the night.

"They were on base the whole night," Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said of Ellsbury and Pedroia. "They did exactly what you would hope your one-two hitters would do. When they're on base like that, then you've got to face the middle of our order. It created a lot of opportunities."

In the last pressurized moment in the game, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon entered with two outs and two on in the eighth to face Holliday, retiring him on a deep fly ball to left, then set down the Rockies in the ninth to bring home the victory. One more lock-down performance like this and Papelbon will be performing his grotesque "Riverdance" routine on the Coors Field infield in the midst of another champagne-soaked celebration.

Perhaps nobody in a Red Sox uniform has had a better postseason than Francona, whose every move has turned to solid gold -- from the unusual, mid-October benching of Coco Crisp, to his expert button-pushing in deploying his bullpen, to the decision, back in the ALCS, to stay with the plan of pitching veteran Tim Wakefield in Game 4, rather than calling upon ace Josh Beckett on short rest.

Was it any wonder, then, Crisp's replacement, the rookie Ellsbury, would seize his first opportunity in the leadoff spot? Or that David Ortiz, the Red Sox's burly designated hitter, would prove to be a regular Gene Kelly at first base?

Ortiz, the former "best defensive first base prospect" in the Class A 1996 Midwest League handled each of his chances flawlessly and contributed an RBI double during the six-run third inning before departing for a defensive replacement -- regular first baseman Kevin Youkilis -- in the bottom of the sixth.

When Francona was forced to turn to his bullpen, after Matsuzaka issued back-to-back walks with one out in the sixth, he did not do so with the same cutthroat approach he used in Game 2, when he called upon ace relievers Okajima and Papelbon to collect the final 11 outs in a one-run game.

This time, with a six-run lead, Francona turned to his less gifted middle men -- lefty Javier Lopez, who immediately gave up run-scoring singles to Brad Hawpe and Yorvit Torrealba, then veteran right-hander Mike Timlin, who gave up a pair of rockets to pinch-hitters Ryan Spilborghs and Jeff Baker, both of which were caught for scary outs.

The Rockies found themselves in such a desperate situation because Rockies starter Josh Fogg failed to make it out of the third inning, in which Manager Clint Hurdle allowed him to absorb a six-run beating because the pitcher's spot was due up in the bottom of the inning and Hurdle did not want to burn two pitchers.

The key hit of the inning was Matsuzaka's, coming as it did with two outs, the bases loaded and the Rockies, naturally, assuming the damage would be stopped at three runs. Instead, Matsuzaka--hitless in four at-bats during the regular season, but a .250 hitter in Japan and a .370 hitter in his senior year of high school -- lined a single to left, bringing in two more runs.

"Yeah, we'll take RBIs from anybody," Francona said. "[But] I don't know that you can count on that [from Matsuzaka] coming into a game."

The sight of the ball splitting the left side of the Rockies' defense sent the Red Sox's dugout into spasms of laughing and high-fiving, and brought the slightest of smiles to the lips of Matsuzaka, as he reached a place -- first base -- where he had never visited all season.

Asked if he considers himself a great hitter, Matsuzaka said, through a translator, "I can't quite say that. I'm a confident hitter, but I love hitting."

For the Red Sox, then, the wonders may never cease, the kiss of destiny is upon their cheeks, and the champagne is chilling in the bowels of a mile-high ballpark, waiting to be uncorked.