Friday - September 30, 2005

Photo Finish

It’s no secret that I only root for two baseball teams ... the Chicago Cubs and whoever is playing the Yankees. The BoSox broke their curse last year and won the World Series. The Cubbies are still waiting for that damn goat to forgive us. I hope Boston beats the socks off the Yankees but of course whoever wins the American League championship will have to lose to the best team in baseball this year ... the St. Louis Cardinals. This year the Cards will take the Big Prize. Why? Because I freakin’ said so. Wanna bet on it?

BoSox Beat Yankees to Tie for AL East Lead
BOSTON (AP)

It’s all tied up in the AL East. Boston and New York. Two games to play. Jason Varitek homered, David Ortiz drove in another big run and David Wells pitched seven strong innings on Friday night to give the Red Sox a 5-3 victory over the Yankees, knotting the division on the season’s final weekend. Boston’s victory left both teams at 94-66 and guarantees that the AL East title won’t be decided until Sunday, what’s scheduled to be the final day of the regular season.

Or possibly Monday. If the teams split the last two games, there could be a one-game playoff at Yankee Stadium. If Cleveland also is tied at 95 wins, the loser of the Boston-New York game would play the Indians Tuesday for the AL wild-card berth. For now, the schedule has Tim Wakefield (16-11) facing Randy Johnson (16-8) on Saturday, with Curt Schilling (7-8) going against Mike Mussina (13-8) on Sunday.

Wells (15-7) won for the sixth time in seven decisions, with the only loss coming at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 9. But returning to Boston, where he’s now 8-1, served the former Yankee well; he allowed three runs, six hits and two walks, striking out five. Mike Timlin got the last four outs for his 12th save in 19 chances. It was his 80th appearance of the season, a career-high that matches the franchise record.

Rookie Chien-Ming Wang (8-5) gave up five runs — just three earned — on four hits and six walks. He struck out four in 6 2-3 innings. The voluble and voluminous Wells had demonstrated control this year — with his pitching, not with the mouth that earned him a suspension and a dressing down from the commissioner’s office. He allowed just 19 walks in his first 29 starts, but started off with two walks and a hit batter, loading the bases with one out in the first inning.

Still, the Yankees scored just once, when Hideki Matsui singled — his first of three hits — to score Alex Rodriguez. Jorge Posada struck out with the bases loaded and stranded six runners in his first three at-bats. Rodriguez, the Yankees’ Most Valuable Player front-runner, walked and scored to give New York a 1-0 lead in the first, but Boston promptly tied it. Johnny Damon walked to lead off the Boston first, stole second and scored when Ortiz singled for his major league-leading 147th RBI. Varitek homered to lead off the second, then Boston scored three more in the sixth to make it 5-1.

Damon singled and stole second and, one out later, Ortiz was intentionally walked — giving some words of encouragement to Manny Ramirez on deck. Ramirez singled, but too sharply for Damon to score, and the bases were loaded when Wang forced in a run by walking Trot Nixon. Varitek hit a grounder to first baseman Jason Giambi, whose throw home was in the dirt and everyone was safe. John Olerud hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Ramirez, then Giambi made a nice unassisted play on Bill Mueller’s hard grounder to end the inning.

Derek Jeter hit a two-run homer in the seventh, closing the Yankees within two runs. It’s the closest race between the longtime rivals since 1978, when Bucky Dent’s popup over the Green Monster won a one-game playoff and gave the division to the Yankees. They also faced each other in the AL championship series in 1999 and each of the last two years, with Boston finally breaking through in 2004 for its first World Series title since 1918. As if the series didn’t offer enough drama, Rodriguez and Ortiz entered as the AL’s two leading MVP candidates. The hometown crowd gives the edge to Big Papi and his penchant for game-saving hits — like the ones that tied and then won the game on Thursday night against Toronto.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/30/2005 at 10:47 PM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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