October 19, 2004

ALCS Game 6: Boston 4, New York 2. No baseball team has ever been down 3 games to 0 in a best-of-7 series and won three straight games to force a Game 7 -- until now. ... The 2004 Boston Red Sox have done it -- against the New York Yankees.

Curt Schilling went above and beyond anything and everything that was expected of him -- 7 innings, 4 hits, 0 walks, 1 run -- and Keith Foulke was nails in the 9th, striking out Clark after having walked the tying runs on base. Mark Bellhorn broke out of his series-long slump with a 3-run, opposite field home run in the 4th inning. Boston scored all of its runs in that inning off Jon Lieber.

The biggest play of the game came in the 8th inning. Bronson Arroyo relieved Schilling and struck out Tony Clark, but allowed a double to Miguel Cairo and an RBI-single to Derek Jeter, which cut the Red Sox's lead to 4-2. Alex Rodriguez tapped the ball down the first base line. Arroyo fielded it and went to tag Rodriguez and as he did, Rodriguez slapped the ball out of his hand. The ball rolled down the right field line, Jeter scored (4-3) and Rodriguez took second. After some discussion, the umpires ruled interference -- Rodriguez was the second out and Jeter was sent back to first. Arroyo then got Sheffield to foul out to Jason Varitek to end the inning.

The story so far:

Game 1: Yankees 10, Red Sox 7
Game 2: Yankees 3, Red Sox 1
Game 3: Yankees 19, Red Sox 8
Game 4: Red Sox 6, Yankees 4 (12 innings)
Game 5: Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 (14 innings)
Game 6: Red Sox 4, Yankees 2
Game 7: ?

ESPN's scroll: TBA v. TBA at 8:00 pm. ... Sounds like Lowe/Brown, with Wakefield/Hernandez waiting in the wings. Theo says Pedro is available -- shades of 1999? A pennant-clinching save in the Bronx? ... Less than 19 hours to go...

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