ALCS 2004 - Game 5: The Sox are Mariano's Daddy

A 5 PM start after a 1:20 AM finish of game 4. The Yankees look like they took the worst of it. They wasted a one out walk in their half of the first, and with one out in the bottom of the inning Mussina gives up three singles in a row, to Cabrera, Ramirez and Ortiz. Cabrera scored to put the Sox up 1 - 0. Mussina's pitches are moving ok, and fatigue is certainly not the issue with him, but he's not spotting them well. He walked Millar, loading the bases for Nixon. He's up to 22 pitches already, still with one out in the first. Nixon went for the first pitch and hit a bouncer to first. Tony Clark threw home to force out Ramirez, but there was no chance for a double play. The ball had been hit too slow and too high. Varitek comes up with two outs, and Mussina walks him, forcing in Ortiz. Varitek switched from batting left to batting right in the middle of the at-bat! How often do you see that? It's 2 - 0 Sox. The Fox announcers just said "This is the first time in the series that the Sox have had a two run lead." Yeah, right, except for after Ortiz's two-run walk-off homer last night. Duh! Mueller is up now and (The Sox aren't going with the Millar - Mueller back-to-back line up tonight) Mussina gets him on strikes with a really nasty looking pitch to finally get out of the inning. Pitch count is 34 after just a half inning.

Early games used to be a real bummer for me, way back when, but as a consultant working mostly out of my home the only real inconvenience is that the games cross the dinner hour.

First pitch of the 2nd inning... Bernie Williams parks it in the right field seats! 2 - 1 Sox. It's Bernie's 8th RBI of the series. A fan threw the ball back on the field, and today the Sox outfielder didn't even bother to throw it back in the stands. They just gave it to the ball boy. Posada grounded out, but Sierra hit an opposite field single to left. It's a cool evening, and Pedro threw only a dozen pitches and then had a long break between the first and second innings. He got Clark to hit a lazy fly to left though, bringing up Cairo. Pedro is getting ahead of hitters, but his misses are looking really wild. Varitek just saved a wild pitch on the 1 and 0 count, snagging it in the dirt and about two feet outside. The next pitch rode up and in on Cairo, really sailing. Cairo got his bat on it -- which probably surprised him as much as it did me -- I thought that pitch was going to the backstop! It was a check swing though, right at the first baseman, and just fair. Inning over.

In the bottom of the 2nd, the Sox go down 1, 2, 3. Bellhorn grounded out to second, with Cairo making a nice play. Damon went down on strikes. He's 1 for 20 in the series. Cabrera flied to Bernie Williams in center, who took it on the run but made it look nonchalant.

Jeter struck out to open the top of the third. Nixon made a very nice play on the dead run and cross-handed to steal a double from A-Rod. Two outs and Sheffield draws a walk, followed by a single from Matsui (now 12 for 22 in the series), and bringing up Williams, but Williams strikes out, stranding runners at first and third. Manny Ramirez hit a solid single to left on the first pitch of the bottom of the 3rd. Ortiz struck out, but Millar reached on a Jeter error, sending Ramirez to second. Two on, one out. Nixon struck out and Varitek struck out. Mussina has five K's in three innnings. He's up to 57 pitches, though.

Posada swings at the first pitch and pulls a single to right, leading off the 4th. Sierra walked, but Clark struck out. Why wasn't Clark bunting??? I guess Torre doesn't figure that Cairo can lift a sac fly off of Pedro. Two on, one out, Cairo coming to the plate. And Cairo did lift a fly to right. It would have been long enough to score a runner from third. The runners were going on the pitch though, and had to go back, so Jeter's up with runners still on first and second, two outs. Make that three outs. Jeter grounded out to first. Still 2 -1 Boston. Mueller flied out to open the bottom of the 4th. Bellhorn lined out to second, bringing up Damon who struck out. So, let's see, that's 1-2-3 innings in the 2nd and 4th. If Mussina makes it through the 5th, he should be good for the 6th :-)

Dinner time is here. Beth and my youngest will be home from dance school any minute. I may miss a bit while getting everything ready. It's just leftovers tonight. Shouldn't take long.

Catching up... Top of the 5th, and Rodriguez gets a leadoff walk, but Sheffield grounds into a 5 - 4 - 3 double play. Rodriguez couldn't break it up. Pedro got a strike on Matsui, and then went way up and in, sending Matsui to the ground and getting a huge cheer from the crowd. Matsui lined the 2 and 2 pitch to Millar at first, ending the inning. Despite the leadoff walk, this is Pedro's strongest inning so far. He really seemed to be in command. Cabrera singled to right opening up the bottom of the inning, bringing up Ramirez with one on and no outs, but Manny flied out to Williams in center. Ortiz is next, with one out and Cabrera still on first. Mussina gets Oritz for his 7th strikeout, Ortiz's second in a row. Like Pedro, Mussina seems to have gotten stronger. Millar grounded to Jeter, who tossed to Cairo forcing Cabrera at second, ending the inning.

OK... now the real challenge. Blogging the game details (I know at least one person is actually reading these posts!), eating dinner, and debugging a program I'm working on, all at the same time :-)

The pitch counts have evened out. 84 for Mussina, and 82 for Pedro, through 5 innings. Williams opened the 6th with a fly to Ramirez in left field. Posada beat out an infield single, bringing up Sierra with the tying run at first and one out. Sierra singled into the left field gap, not quite far enough for Posada to go to third. Clark is up now, two on with one out. (Clark is playing in place of Olerud, who bruised his foot in game 3.) Martinez got him looking -- his sixth strikeout. Then Pedro hit Cairo with a fastball on the left shoulder, bringing up Jeter with the bases loaded, and Jeter hit a base-clearing double down the right field line! Jeter, who got his first three RBIs of the series, went to third on the throw to the plate. Cairo just barely evaded Varitek's tag with a perfect slide. Pedro then hit Rodriguez on the elbow. The umpires aren't doing anything, and the Yankees aren't protesting, but the Fox announcers have decided that it was an intentional hit. Sheffield walked to load the bases, still two outs, bringing up Matsui. Pedro still in, but there's action in the bullpen. Matsui crushed a line drive to right, but it sank and Nixon made a sliding catch to end the inning. 4 - 2 Yankees in the middle of the sixth. Martinez' pitch count is up to 111.

Nixon opened up the bottom of the sixth with a hard line drive to center, but Williams ran it down for another sliding catch. Varitek, still batting right handed against the right-handed Mussina, by the way, grounded out to Rodriguez. Mueller flied out to left, keeping the Red Sox's streak of going down 1-2-3 in even numbered innings alive.

Martinez is out, and Timlin is in for the top of the 7th. Timlin got both Williams and Posada to fly out. Sierra beat out an infield hit, proving once again that he still has legs, but Tony Clark forced him at second, ending the inning.

Seventh inning stretch. Lip synch on God Bless America! Way out of synch! It couldn't have been more obvious

Leading off the bottom of the 7th, Bellhorn hit a shot down the right field line. Bellhorn would have stopped at first, but Sheffield misplayed the carom so Bellhorn went to second. They gave him a double, but it should have been a single and an error. That's it for Mussina. Tanyon Sturtze comes in to pitch. Sturtze gets Damon to pop to Jeter, but Cabrera draws a walk. Torre goes to the bullpen to bring in Tom Gordon to face Ramirez. We're at the three hour mark. On the 2 and 2 pitch, Gordon gets Manny to hit into a 5-4-3 double play, ending the threat.

Cairo opened the 8th with a double off Timlin, and Jeter sacrificed him to third. Timlin got Rodriguez on strikes for a big, big out, bringing up Sheffield. With two bases open, Timlin can be careful with Sheffield, of course Matsui is up next and that's certainly no reprieve. After going to 3 and 0, then 3 and 2, Timlin walked Sheffield. That brought out Francona to yank Timlin and bring in Foulke to face Matsui. Matsui, who I saw show empotion for the first time ever when Jeter hit his triple earlier, flew out to Ramirez, ending the Yanks' threat to add some insurance runs. Leading off the bottom half of the inning, Gordon served up a gopher to Ortiz, who sent it way over the green monster. 4 - 3 Yankees now, with Millar up, and he goes to a full count, and gets a walk. Still none out. Roberts comes in to pinch run, just like last night, when he stole a base to get into scoring position for the tying run. Gordon gets a strike on Varitek, and I'm thinking: pitch out! Gordon is keeping a close eye on Roberts. Two pickoff attempts, two head-fakes, and acouple of hesitations, then a visit to the mound by Posada and another pickoff attempt. Roberts doesn't go, and Nixon takes ball 1, low and inside. Not a pitch out. Ball 2 is also low. Ball 3 low as well. 3 and 1 count. This is clearly the pivotal moment in the game. Roberts goes on the pitch, and Nixon puts a belt high fastball on the outside corner into right center for a single, moving Roberts easily to third. Kapler comes in to run for Nixon at first now, so there is speed on first and third, no outs, and Varitek coming to the plate. Gordon is gone, and in comes Rivera -- once again in the 8th, with a one run lead. Varitek lifts the 2 and 0 pitch to deep center, and Roberts scores easily. Tie game, 4 - 4. Rivera blows his second save in a row. Boston is the only team that owns Rivera. New York is Pedro's daddy. Boston is Mariano's. Mariano gets Mueller to ground out to first, but Kapler moves up to second. Bellhorn goes down swinging, stranding Kapler though, so the score stays tied.

Kapler stayed in the game to play right. Mientkievicz came in for Millar at first. Foulke stays on the mound, and Williams swings at the first pitch and pops out to first, bringing up Posada... also pops out to first. Sierra, who is 3 for 3 tonight comes to the plate to try and give the Yanks a lead going into the bottom of the 9th. Sierra walks, bringing up Clark. The Fox cameras have picked up on the fact that Schilling has a glove on, possibly about to get ready to pitch if we go to extra innings. Clark comes through with a ground rule double to the right field corner. Sierra, despite the fact that he's shown some legs, has to stop at third. Cairo comes up with runners at second and third, two outs. The Fox announcers are sure that Sierra would have scored if the ball stayed in the park. But Cairo pops up to... you guessed it... first! Side retired, still tied up. In the bottom of the 9th, Damon leads off with a single, but is caught stealing on a great throw by Posada. Cabrera grounds out to shortstop, and Ramirez flies out to center, so we go to extra innings.

The Sox bring in Bronson Arroyo for the 10th. He started, and didn't go long (2 innings and 6 runs) on Saturday. He gets a quick 0 and 2 count on Jeter. He takes a ball, then pops out to shortstop. If Arroyo had pitched like this on Saturday, the whole series would be different. He struck out Rodriguez and Sheffield to end the top of the 10th. The Yanks bring in Felix Heredia to pitch in the bottom half -- not exactly their most consistent performer. He got Ortiz to strike out chasing a bad pitch. Ortiz didn't like the call on the check swing by the third base umpire. That brings up Mientkievicz, whose name I have no idea whether I'm spelling correctly, by the way. After a long battle to a full count, M10z hit a ground rule double to right. That's all for Heredia. Quantrill, last night's loser, comes in to pitch to Kapler with one out and M10z in scoring position. Kapler grounds out to second, advancing M10z to third, and bringing up Varitek. Fox factoids: the Yankess have never lost back-to-back post-season extra inning games, and the Sox have never lost a post-season extra inning game at Fenway. One of those records will fall. Varitek pops to Jeter in shallow left behind third base, to end the 10th.

Arroyo looked strong in the 10th, but Myers, who came in to face one batter yesterday and walked him, comes in to pitch to Matsui. Matsui took him deep on Saturday. Go figure. Or not. The Sox's pitching decisions so far are incomprehensible. But they're still in this series. The game is still tied. And this time, Myers sweeping submarine sidearm delivery strikes out Matsui. But that's all for Myers. Embree comes in to face Williams. It's 9:38 now. They're apparently trying to break the record for the longest post-season game, which they set last night. Williams looped the 0 and 1 pitch to right center for a single. Kapler let it drop rather than dive and possibly let it get through to the wall. Posada fanned for the second out, bringing up Sierra, who is still perfect tonight: 3 for 3, with two walks. Until now. Sierra strikes out to end the top of the 11th.

Quantrill is still on the mound for the Yanks, and Mueller leads off the bottom of the 11th with a flare that falls in between Cairo and Sheffield in right. It's a bunting situation and Bellhorn is up, The Yankee infield is in, and Bellhorn pops the first bunt attempt foul and out of play. The second attempt is also foul, but he rips the 0 and 2 pitch for a single to right. Mueller stops at seconds, but now Damon is up in another obvious bunting situation. But Damon pops it up just a few feet in fair territory and Posada catches it for the first out. Quantrill is out injured. Guess he must have twisted something going for the bunt. Esteban Loaiza comes in to replace him, facing Cabrera. A double play here would be really nice. Ramirez is on deck. And Holy Cow! 6 - 4 - 3 double play! The Yanks get out of it. On to the 12th.

Top of the 12th, and Wakefield comes in to pitch for the Sox. After Clark strikes out against Wakefield's knuckleball, Cairo lines one to left and Ramirez mis-plays it. The short hop gets past him and Cairo gets to second on single and an error. But Jeter follows with a liner to right that is run down by Kapler, and Rodriguez flies out to Damon in deep center, so it's a quick inning anyhow, Ramirez leads off the bottom of the 12th against Loaiza with a sky-high pop-up that Rodriguez takes near the mound. Ortiz comes up. Will it be deja vu all over again? Loaiza goes to a full count, and then walks Ortiz. Could be worse. M10z comes up, and Loaiza almost throws the first pitch away. Amazingly, Ortiz, who isn't fast, tries to steal second. A good throw would have had him by a mile, but it was such a surprise that Posada threw it about four feet over Jeter's head. Jeter came down and made the tag... or at least that's the way the umpire called it. The replays made it look like Ortiz could easily have been safe, but as the football referees say, "it's inconclusive". M10z struck out to end the inning.

Sheffield leads off the Yankee 13th, with Wakefield still pitching. Sheffield reached first on a strikeout that sailed right past Varitek. Mirabelli normally catches Wakefield, but the Sox have elected to keep Varitek in for his bat. This series is crazy enough that it figures that a runner who reaches on a dropped third strike just might be the most poetic way for it to end. Matsui comes to the plate and I'd say that this is an obvious bunting situation, but how can you bunt a knuckleball? Matsui grounded the 3 and 1 pitch to second, forcing Sheffield, and bringing up Williams. Williams flies to deep right, leaving it up to Posada. We're now at the five hour and 25 minute mark. Another passed ball (poor Varitek!) and Matsui is at second. Posada walked, bring up Sierra. Another passed ball! Both runners advance. Full count on Sierra, with runners at second and third and two outs, but Sierra fans. The Yanks have left 18 runners on base, so far. So we go to the bottom of the 13th, and we're past five and a half hours. It's an endurance contest now. Loiaza is still the pitching for the Yanks in the bottom of the 13th, facing Kapler. Kapler lined the 2 and 2 pitch straight back to Loaiza for the first out. Varitek grounded out to shortstop, bringing up Mueller. Jeter and Matsui nearly collide in short left field, but Matsui catches Mueller's flare to end the inning. It kind of looked like a move from an Bruce Lee movie. We go to the 14th!

Clark leads off against Wakefield, and he lifts a long long foul ball to right, but then gets caught looking for strike three. Cairo jacked the 1 and 1 pitch out of Fenway, but way foul, and then flew out to Damon in center. So, it's up to Jeter to try and start something up, but he grounds out to shortstop to end the half inning. Loaiza starts out the bottom half by striking out Bellhorn. Damon followed with a walk, however, putting the winning run at first base with one out. Cabrera strikes out, leaving it up to Ramirez. The Yanks haven't seemed to be too concerned about a possible steal by Damon here, but after the first pitch is a ball Loaiza makes a couple of moves to first. Ramirez works Loaiza to a full count, and then walks, bringing up Ortiz. Deja freaking vu!? He jacks the 1 and 2 pitch deep to right, but foul. After a ten pitch battle, Ortiz hits one off the hands, a single to center, scoring Damon. Red Sox win again, 5-4.