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No Beckett? No Problem
October 2, 2008
10.2.
08, 1:52 AM
ALDS Game 1: Red Sox 4, Angels 1
No Beckett? No Problem
Lester Pitches Gem, Bay Saves The Day, Ellsbury Shines
By: Jared Carrabis
Welcome to October baseball. It’s a new season, which means forget the regular season. Forget the records, everyone starts at 0-0. Forget the stats, everyone is batting .000. Forget the past, Dave Henderson can’t pinch hit for the Sox this year and Manny Ramirez won’t be hitting any bombs off of K-Rod in this series. It’s a new year, two new teams but all the same excitement.
Jacoby Ellsbury picked up this October right where he left of the last one with a drive out to right-center that nearly got out of Angel Stadium. The 94 MPH fastball from John Lackey hit high off the wall as Jacoby Ellsbury cruised into second with a leadoff double. Lackey did not let the ringing double off the bat of Ellsbury faze him as the right-hander went on to retire the next three batters consecutively on groundball outs via the sinking fastball.
Jon Lester took the mound in the bottom of the first inning for the first time in October since October 28, 2007. The last game that the Red Sox appeared in postseason play, because it was the last game that they would need to win the 2007 World Series title. Lester was calm and collected in his previous postseason appearance in Game 4 of the 2007 World Series giving up three hits over 5.2 innings, but in Game 1 of the 2008 ALDS the left-hander looked a bit shaky in the first inning.
It took eighteen pitches for Jon Lester to weave his way through the first six Angels batters that came to the plate in the first inning but none would touch home. Lester pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam in the first to set himself up for a much more settled down three up, three down inning in the second for Lester. The Game 1 replacement for Josh Beckett opened the bottom of the third the same way he opened the second by striking out Chone Figgins.
Garret Anderson poked a single into left field to put a man on first and with two outs, Vladimir Guerrero came to the plate. Guerrero hit a dribbler out to short and Jed Lowrie booted the ball to put two men on, an error that would prove to be costly. The very next batter, Torii Hunter dropped a soft liner into left and with two outs, Garret Anderson scored with ease putting the Angels on top, 1-0.
The unearned run was only the fourth allowed by Jon Lester in 2008. As the game went on, Jon Lester got noticeably stronger and commanded all four of his pitches with excellent precision. Jason Varitek and Jon Lester had a plan going into this game to pick apart the Angels lineup that has consistently been putting up runs all season long. Jon Lester settled in perfectly after the unearned run and in true May 19, 2008 fashion, he was nearly unhittable the rest of the way.
The top of the sixth inning marked the official initiation of Jason Bay into Soxtober. Having struck out in his first two at bats of the night, Jason Bay came to the plate with two outs and Kevin Youkilis standing at first base. The man that was asked to fill the shoes of Manny Ramirez (who homered earlier against the Cubs in Game 1 of the NLDS) made his presence felt in his first postseason game in his career. John Lackey was cruising all night against the Red Sox, that was until he delivered an 0-1 fastball to Jason Bay that Bay hammered to deep left. A no doubter indeed, Bay dropped his bat and began his home run trot almost instantly.
Jon Lester needed 100 pitches even to make it through his first six innings of work. In that sixth inning he rang up Howie Kendrick, Mike Napoli and Gary Matthews Jr. to open and close the inning while striking out the side in the process. The Red Sox would threaten in the top of the seventh when Jacoby Ellsbury hit a line drive out to right field that Gary Matthews Jr. misplayed or lost in the lights. The ball sailed over the glove of Matthews and rolled all the way to the wall allowing Ellsbury to reach third base. Later in the inning the Red Sox would send David Ortiz to the plate with Ellsbury at third and Dustin Pedroia at first who reached on a walk. After a pitching change to end the night of John Lackey, Dan Oliver came on and got the job done striking out David Ortiz on a 92 MPH fastball.
To no fan’s surprise, manager Terry Francona sent Jon Lester out to pitch the seventh even with his pitch count at 100 pitches. Lester has been a workhorse for this team all season long and he wasn’t going to stop when it mattered the most. Lester got Erick Aybar to pop out to Dustin Pedroia to start the bottom of the seventh inning and in doing so he retired the seventh straight leadoff man sent to the plate by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Lester capped off his outing in the seventh inning by retiring his seventh straight batter just after recording his seventh strikeout of the night.
Jason Bay continued his impressive October debut by leading off the top of the eighth with his second extra base hit of the evening by doubling down the line to the opposite field but would not score. Justin Masterson came on for the bottom of the eighth inning to face Mark Teixeira. The Angels first baseman blooped a 3-2 fastball into shallow center field reminiscent of Jorge Posada’s bloop hit in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS but there would be no Posada comparisons tonight. Jacoby Ellsbury ran full board and made a spectacular diving grab to rob Teixeira of a base hit.
Vladimir Guerrero came to the plate and hit a laser through the left side for a base hit. Bloops were the theme in this inning as Torii Hunter hit a bloop base hit into shallow right field out of the reach of Kevin Youkilis. Vlad Guerrero took notice that the ball dropped in and made the worst base running mistake since Jeff Suppan’s base running blunder in the 2004 World Series. Vladimir Guerrero made the poor choice of rounding second to head for third. Kevin Youkilis got the ball and quickly got to his feet and with no hesitation he gunned down Guerrero by fifteen steps at third base. The Angels would miss out on a big opportunity to score a run.
Jed Lowrie singled to left to lead off the top of the ninth to collect his first hit in the postseason. Jason Varitek followed up Lowrie’s single with his first sacrifice bunt in two years to put a runner in scoring position for the red hot Jacoby Ellsbury. On the seventh pitch of his at bat, Ellsbury delivered his third hit of the night to drive in Lowrie for a huge insurance run. Jacoby swiped his second bag of the night and advanced to third on a groundout by Dustin Pedroia. It was then that David Ortiz extended his League Division Series to twelve straight games with a base hit back up the middle to drive in Ellsbury making it, 4-1 Red Sox. The RBI single for Ortiz was his fourth hit off of Scott Shields in the last six times the two have faced each other. The previous three hits were all home runs.
Terry Francona handed the ball to the man that closed out the 2007 World Series on a blazing fastball and he opened his 2008 postseason the same way punching out Mike Napoli on a 96 MPH fastball. Kendry Morales would not fall victim to the same pitches singling to right with one down. Papelbon recovered beautifully by striking out Erick Aybar on three pitches. Jonathan Papelbon didn’t let up one bit against Chone Figgins as he blew third baseman away on 95 MPH heat to give the Red Sox a 1-0 series lead.
The Red Sox have now defeated the California—Anaheim—Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ten straight times in the postseason to tie a Major League record. Of course that stat means nothing unless the Red Sox can win just two more games against those very same Angels. Winning Game 1 on the road is huge for any team. Now the Red Sox will send Daisuke Matsuzaka to the mound in Game 2 on Friday night against Ervin Santana. With Josh Beckett being pushed back to start Game 3, Daisuke will instead be pitching on the road where he was an incredible 9-0 with a 2.37 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 76 innings pitched.
-Jared Carrabis
-Jared Carrabis
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