ALCS 2004 - Game 6: Here We Go Again

Mercifully, a normal after 8 PM start. Lieber pitching for the Yankees, Schilling for the Sox. The teams certainly needed the extra couple of hours of rest after the marathons of the past two days.

We got a call just before game time from a Red Sox fan. This Red Sox fan had sent me an obnoxious email message after last night's game, so when I recognized his caller ID, I answered the phone without the usual "Hello". I simply said "You're Going Down!", then I handed the phone to my daughter, because I knew that's who the caller really wanted to talk to, and she said "You're Going Down!"

Top of the first, the Sox go quietly, with the exception of Mueller being hit by a Lieber pitch. Ortiz was booed when he came up, of course, but it was the respectful sort, "you beat us, so we have to boo", not the malicious kind. Bottom of the first, after retiring Jeter on a fly to right, Schilling threw over Rodriguez's head.on the 0 and 1 pitch. The crowd, predictably, reacted to that, but there was nothing extracurricular on the field. The Fox announcers seem to be assuming that Schilling's ankle trouble is simply affecting his control. Uh huh. Schilling got Rodriguez to line out to shortstop, and Sheffield popped out to Millar to end the first.

I've spent the better part of the day trying to figure out how to get OLE drag-drop of Notes doclinks to work. So far, very little progress. There's no documentation of the clipboard formats. It's looking like I'm going to have to go down below the level of the .NET framework classes that abstract the OLE data, and dig into the old Windows SDK stuff, because the IDataObject class is telling me one thing with the GetDataPresent() method, and another with the GetData() method for the same format string. Baseball is a welcome relief from pounding my head against this.

Nixon grounded out to start the second, followed by a Millar single to right and a Varitek bunt single. The Sox threaten first. The Yanks are looking for the double play. Lieber gave Cabrera a slider down the middle, which he lined to left. Millar didn't get a good start -- thinking Rodriguez might snag the line drive -- so he only got to third. Bases loaded with one out, and Bellhorn at the plate. Bellhorn, who has had the Sox fans getting on his case all week, didn't help himself out this time around. He went 0 and 2, then grounded into a 4 - 6 - 3 double play to end the Sox half of the inning.

Matsui flew to the left center gap, where Damon ran it down, to open the bottom of the second. Schilling got Williams on a pop to third for the second out, then Jorge Posada hit a shot to right field that everybody thought was going out of the park, but the wind caught it and brought it down for Nixon to catch at the fence. Six Yanks up, six down in the first two innings.

Damon leads off the third with a single to left. The wind is clearly blowing hard tonight. The Sox probably wish that Wakefield were fresh for relief tonight, because his knuckler could be unhittable in the wind, as opposed to just uncatchable like it was last night. Damon is a threat to steal, but a ground ball by Mueller, handled easily by Jeter to erase Damon unassisted at second, over to Clark at first to double off Mueller, ends that threat. Ramirez hit a long looping liner to right, caught by Sheffield, to end the half inning. Lieber's up to 50 pitches already. He got through five innings in game two without that many pitches.

My wife commented about the iPod commercial that just ran on Fox. "Sad". U2 has sold out. They did a long time ago as far as I'm concerned, and it doesn't bother me.

Ruben Sierra leads off for the Yanks in the 3rd, striking out. Clark hit a huge fly ball to left, but the wind held it up, too, and Ramirez caught it easily. So, it's down to the 9th hitter in the order to try and break through against Schilling. Cairo misses a double down the right field line by a few inches in foul territory. The wind got that one, too. The long ball may not be a factor tonight. Ooops! Spoke too soon! Not a homer, but a double to the left field gap, well over Ramirez's head and bouncing over the wall for a ground rule double. It's probably a homer without the wind, but if the outfielders have to play more shallow to deal with the liners that the wind knocks down, the long balls will have a place to land even if they don't get out, so they can be a factor after all. Jeter comes up with two outs, and strands Cairo on second with a high fly to Damon in center.

With two out in the top of the 4th, after ground outs by Ortiz and Nixon, Millar hits a shot to the left field corner. The grandstand over there may be sheltering the ball a bit from the wind. Matsui played the carom perfectly, but his throw to second wasn't strong enough and Millar got in with a double. Lieber threw a wild pitch on the 0 and 2 count to Varitek Millar went to third. Varitek held on to a full count, and kept fouling balls off, until he lined the 10th pitch through the middle, scoring Millar and putting Boston up front 1 - 0. Cabrera looped a single to left, moving Varitek to second and keeping the inning alive for Bellhorn. Bellhorn hit what appears to be a home run, but was signaled in the park by the left field umpire. It clearly hit a fan in a black sweatshirt's body or outstretched arm, but the replays aren't making it clear where it hit or whether the fan was reaching over the wall. Another fan, wearing a yellow windbreaker, next to the fan in the black sweatshirt, was clearly reaching over the wall. Whether the fan in black was or not, the umpires conferred and reversed the call, declaring it a three-run homer. Damon finally ended the inning with a fly to Matsui, but the Sox lead 4 - 0. I guess the Sox fans might consider letting up on Bellhorn a bit now.

A-Rod opened the bottom of the 4th with a single to left center. Sheffield reached on an infield hit that bounced off the bag at third, handcuffing Mueller, and bringing up Matsui with 2 on and none out. Matsui hit a towering pop-up to Millar in foul ground at first for the first out of the inning, bringing up Williams. Williams ripped the first pitch down the right field line, but foul. A game of inches, it is. Bernie hit another one to the right side, but Millar blocked it and made the play to Schilling covering the bag for the second out. A-Rod and Sheffield advanced to third and second bases respectively. Posada also grounded to first, ending the inning.

Fox interviewed a fan, a 12 year old girl, who claimed to be the one who was hit by Bellhorn's ball. She said it was a home run. The camera angle blocked her, however, so you couldn't really tell if they had the right person. To me, it sure looked like the fan who was hit by the ball was bigger than I'd expect a 12 year old girl to be.

The Sox went quietly in the 5th. The highlight was a wind-blocked fly by Ortiz that Matsui ran down on the warning track to end the inning. Mueller grounded out to start the inning, and Ramirez flied out to Williams in center. Sierra opened the bottom of the 5th for the Yanks. The wind wreaked havoc on Sierra's towering foul pop, causing Varitek and Mueller to look like a couple of keystone cops, a possible break for the Yankees as Sierra stayed alive temporarily, but he struck out two pitches later. No break. Clark also struck out, on a 94 MPH fastball. I guess Schilling's ankle is ok, isn't. Can't use it as an excuse for that pitch over A-Rod's head back in the first, can we? Cairo grounded out to shortstop, ending the inning. We're through 5, and the Yanks are down 4 - 0.

Lieber's pitch count is 86 to start the 6th inning, and Trot Nixon took 10 pitches to strike out. Millar hit a sharp grounder to Rodriguez, who double pumped and threw inside first base, but Clark applied the tag to get Millar for the second out. Varitek hit a high pop to Williams in center to end the top of the 6th. The Yanks have the top of the order up in the bottom of the 6th, but Jeter grounds to second, Rodriguez flies to right, and Sheffield flies to left for a 1-2-3 inning.

This game is just flying by. It's the 7th inning, and the clock is tick only to 10:30 when Cabrera leads off with a fly out to center. Sheffield makes a circus catch, sliding backhand on the dead run in for a shallow flare by Bellhorn. Damon grounds out to second, and the Sox go out 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh.

And for the seventh inning stretch, it's Lotusphere 2003 closing ceremony entertainer Ronan Tynan, singing God Bless America. No lip synching tonight. My daughter says he looks like Wallace, from Wallace and Gromit.

Matsui grounded out to Millar at first to open the bottom of the 7th. The Yankees finally woke up, as did the crowd, when Williams jacked a down and in pitch for a towering home run into the right field upper deck just inside the foul pole. 4 - 1 Sox now. Posada popped out to Bellhorn for the second out. Sierra up next, and from the flight of a foul ball that he hit to left I'm wondering if the wind has shifted. No word on that from the Fox announcers, and Sierra strikes out to end the inning.

Top of the 8th and Mueller grounds out to Clark at first to start things off. Ramirez flared a single down the right field line, becoming the first Sox baserunner since the Bellhorn homer in the 4th. That's all for Lieber. Felix Heredia coming in to pitch for the Yankees and face Ortiz, and he got him to fly out to right for the second out. That's all Torre wanted from Heredia, so Paul Quantrill is coming in to pitch to Gabe Kapler, who is pinch hitting for Nixon. Kapler hit a ground ball into the hole, which Jeter dove to stop, but it got away for an infield hit, putting two on for Millar, but Millar grounds out to Jeter to end the inning. Bronson Arroyo, the starter in game 3 for the Sox, is coming in to take over for Schilling. Remember game 3?

Arroyo strikes out Clark to start off the bottom of the 8th, but Cairo hits his second double of the night, this one down the right field line, to bring up Jeter with one out. Jeter singles to left on the first pitch, a hanging slider, scoring Cairo. It's 4 -2 Sox now, and A-Rod is the tying run at the plate. A-Rod hit a little squibber between the mound and first, fielded by Arroyo, who attempted to tag A-Rod, but dropped the ball and Jeter scored all the way from first as the ball bounced into right field foul territory. But the replays show that A-Rod went out of his way to slap the ball out of Arroyo's hand, and after Francona came out and the umpires conferred on it A-Rod was called out, and Jeter was sent back to first. I can sort of understand A-Rod being called out on interference (one could argue that he was reaching up to extend toward the base for a headfirst dive... but he wasn't), but I guess I'll have to consult the rulebook to figure out why Jeter has to come back to first. He would have advanced without the interference, and I would have thought that that's an umpire's judgement call rather than being dictated by rule. Needless to say, the fans -- and Joe Torre -- didn't like the ruling at all. Sheffield popped out to the catcher in found territory to end the inning, so that's a moot point.

Varitek started the 9th with a single through the box into center field. Cabrera forced Varitek at second, bringing up Bellhorn. It's a close play at first on Cabrera, and the crowd doesn't like the call. The umpires have the NYPD put men in riot gear along the tarp. That's all for Quantrill, as Sturtze comes in to replace him, pitching for the third day in a row. Cabrera steals second after four pickoff attempts. Bellhorn walked to put men on first and second with one out. Pokey Reese pinch-ran for Bellhorn. Pokey is kind of a weird name for a pinch runner. Damon flew out to Jeter at short for the second out, and Mueller did too, to end the inning. We go to the bottom of the 9th with the Yanks down by two.

Foulke comes in to pitch for the Sox, the first time he's been in a game in his usual "closer" role during this series. He goes to a full count, then walks Matsui to start the inning. Bernie Williams is the tying run at the plate with no outs. But Bernie strikes out as the clock strikes midnight, and now it's up to Posada. Posada pops out to Mueller for the second out. It's all up to Ruben Sierra, who goes all the way to a full count and then fouls off a pitch before walking, to bring up Tony Clark. Second walk of the inning. Clark represents the winning run at the plate. Cairo, with two doubles tonight, is on deck. Clarke works Foulke to a full count. The runners will be going on the pitch. Sierra would score easily on a double, but Clark fans to end the game.

It goes to game seven, which I believe is what I said could easily happen back in game one, didn't I? It's the first time ever in post-season history that a team has come back from a 3 - 0 game deficit to force a seventh game.