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ALCS Bound!
October 7, 2008
10.7.
08, 12:12 AM
ALDS Game 4: Angels 2, Red Sox 3
ALCS Bound!
Dominant Lester Sets Up
Clutch Lowrie To Propel Sox Into ALCS
By: Jared Carrabis
Just moments before the Game 4 between the Red Sox and Angels at Fenway Park, the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Chicago White Sox to advance to the American League Championship Series in the Rays very first trip to the postseason. From there, the focus turned to Game 1 starter, Jon Lester, as the left-handed ace looked to punch the Red Sox ticket to a trip to the ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays (no that wasn’t a typo). Of Jon Lester’s sixteen wins during the regular season, eleven on them came at Fenway Park. His ERA at Fenway Park during the regular season (2.49) was significantly better than his ERA on the road (4.09) and his effectiveness at home continued in his second postseason start.
Jon Lester took the mound on full rest and if he delivered a win he would propel the Red Sox into the American League Championship Series for the second consecutive year and for the fourth time in the past six seasons. Lester has been nothing but consistent for the Boston Red Sox at home in 2008. As a matter of fact, the last time he lost at home was his first start at Fenway Park in 2008 on April 9 and went on to win every decision for the rest of the season at the Fens.
The Red Sox roster had been depleted of Mike Lowell at the start of the game when the Red Sox made the decision to remove the third baseman from the ALDS roster. The transaction makes Lowell ineligible for the ALCS roster if they were to advance. Kevin Youkilis shifted over to play the hot corner in place of Lowell and the lefty Mark Kotsay got the nod at first base to start the night. JD Drew also returned to the Red Sox lineup after not starting in Game 3 but pinch-hitting in the bottom of the ninth against Scot Shields.
Jon Lester looked really strong to start the game retiring the first five batters out of the shoot before walking Mike Napoli and giving up a single to Juan Rivera. No damage would be done as Lester punched out Howie Kendrick on three pitches to end the top of the second. Vladimir Guerrero came to the plate in the top of the third with two men on and turned in one of the more impressive at bats of the entire series battling it out with Jon Lester for nine pitches. Lester would prevail getting Guerrero to ground out to Dustin Pedroia who turned in a nifty play to end the inning. Of the nine pitches, seven were strikes.
While Jon Lester was battling to get his outs and keep the halos from scoring, John Lackey was making things look easy. Lackey scorched his way through the Red Sox lineup the first time around giving up a lone hit to JD Drew while retiring everyone else. With the Angels fighting to send the series back to Anaheim and the Red Sox fighting to send their team to Tampa Bay, the two teams found themselves scoreless after four frames thanks in part to another one-two-three inning turned in by Jon Lester.
In the bottom of the fourth inning the Red Sox put two men aboard with two outs. In that run scoring opportunity, the key pitcher-batter match up came when Jason Bay strolled to the plate to face John Lackey. In Game 1, Jason Bay hit a bomb off of Lackey beating him on the fastball. This at bat, not so much. Four pitches, four curveballs resulting in a fly ball to left field to end the inning. Lackey had a game plan for Jason Bay in Game 4 and that game plan didn’t take a genius to figure out: Jason Bay is getting no fastballs from Lackey anymore.
Not to be outdone by Lackey, Jon Lester continued to blank the halos in the top of the fifth. With two runners on, Mark Teixeira came to the plate looking to break the scoreless tie but Lester had other plans. Teixeira who was hitting .467 following the at bat saw nothing but fastballs from Lester and was caught looking on 91 MPH fastball that painted the outside corner to end the top half of the fifth to preserve the scoreless tie.
The Red Sox first big scoring opportunity of the night against Lackey came in the bottom of the fifth when Mark Kotsay led of the inning with a line drive base hit into center field to start the inning. With one down, Jason Varitek worked the count full and with the hit and run on, Varitek delivered a base hit into right field moving Kotsay to third. Jacoby Ellsbury came up with runners at the corners and hit a grounder to second baseman Howie Kendrick that would have been a perfect double play ball but he bobbled it and was only able to get the out at first.
Mark Kotsay came in through the back door to score breaking the scoreless tie and giving Boston the lead. With Jason Varitek at second base, Dustin Pedroia came to the plate looking for his first hit of the series. Pedroia hammered a 1-1 curveball high off the wall in left bringing Varitek around from second as Pedroia traded places with the captain on his RBI double to up Boston’s lead to 2-0. Pedroia snapped out of his postseason slump and gave Jon Lester a two-run cushion.
Lester did exactly what he needed to do in the bottom of the sixth. He went out there and shut down the Angels three up and three down once again and got his team right back up to bat without letting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim retake any momentum whatsoever. Jon Lester needed 97 pitches to make it through six innings but just as he has performed all season long, the left-hander only got stronger as the game went on.
I don’t even think that ‘dominance’ is enough of a word to describe Jon Lester in Game 4 of this series. Nearing one hundred pitches, Jon Lester came right back out for the seventh inning and did what he does best, get outs. Lester retired Juan Rivera, Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar consecutively to record yet another one-two-three inning as Jon Lester had thrown 109 pitches to complete seven innings of shutout baseball.
Lester’s last pitch was thrown in that seventh inning and he did not allow a leadoff batter all night. He retired the last eight batters that he faced to conclude his outing giving up four hits overall and striking out four over his seven shutout innings of work. Hideki Okajima took to the mound in the top half of the eighth to protect the Red Sox two run lead. Okajima continued the trend of no leadoff men reaching base for the Angels by getting Chone Figgins to ground out to Dustin Pedroia to start the inning and got Garret Anderson out the same way. A four-pitch walk ended the night for Okajima as the bullpen gate opened for Justin Masterson with Mark Teixeira on first base to face Vladimir Guerrero.
Going into the at bat, Masterson had faced Guerrero three times and had given up a hit in two of those three at bats but the most recent at bat, Justin Masterson whiffed Vladimir Guerrero. Masterson got ahead of Vladimir Guerrero in the count 0-2 in arguably the most significant at bat of the night but Guerrero battled back and worked a walk bringing Torii Hunter to the plate representing the go-ahead run. A cross up between Masterson and Varitek resulted in a fastball that Varitek expected to be a slider shooting to the backstop to put two runners in scoring position. The miscommunication between the two was costly as Torii Hunter lined a base hit into right field scoring two runs tying the game up at two. Certainly makes you wonder if Jon Lester the way he was pitching in the seventh inning if he could have at least came out for the eighth inning to prevent something like this happening.
The base hit silenced the Fenway faithful to the point where you could hear a pin drop. The two walks by both Okajima and Masterson gave new life to the Angels not only in the game but in the series. Justin Masterson prevented any further bleeding getting Mike Napoli to fly out to right but the damage had been done. The game was tied at two but if the Red Sox were going to battle back right away, they had the right part of the lineup coming to the plate in the bottom half of the eighth inning with Pedroia, Ortiz and Youkilis set to lead off the inning and if anyone got on, JD Drew and his .308 series average was ready to roll.
Scot Shields took the mound in relief of John Lackey after throwing 2.1 scoreless innings the night before with three strikeouts. Shields was just as impressive shutting down the heart of the Red Sox lineup getting Dustin Pedroia to line out to second followed by back-to-back strikeouts to David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis on filthy breaking balls. The two teams would head for the ninth inning all tied up for the second night in a row to the displeasure of Red Sox fans and to the exuberance of Angels’ fans as well as their team.
Justin Masterson came back out for the ninth inning and continued to struggle by giving up a leadoff double to Kendry Morales. Reggie Willits replaced Morales on the base paths as Howie Kendrick bunted Willits over to third for the sacrifice. Terry Francona came out of the dugout to come get the ball from Masterson before handing it over to Manny Delcarmen with the go-ahead run standing at third base. On one of the most rare plays you will ever see in the postseason, Erick Aybar squared around to bunt for the squeeze bunt but missed the bunt entirely on a 96 MPH fastball from Delcarmen. Varitek shot to his feet and caught ran down Reggie Willits who was halfway down the third base line and tagged him out to erase the threat. Hands down, the biggest play of the game. Two pitches later, Delcarmen threw Aybar an 80 MPH changeup resulting in a harmless ground out to first base, inning over.
Scot Shields came back out for the ninth inning to face JD Drew and struck out his third consecutive Boston hitter in the process. Jason Bay would not fall victim to the same fate as he sliced a ball into right field that hopped up into the stands for a ground rule double. If that ball stayed in the field of play, there was a good chance Bay would have had a stand up triple. On the first pitch of the at bat to Mark Kotsay, the former Atlanta Brave smoked a line drive cruising towards the right field corner but the line drive was intercepted by former Atlanta Brave, Mark Teixeira, robbing Kotsay of a sure game-winner.
Jed Lowrie then came to the plate and just like Mark Kotsay before him swung at the first pitch and shot a base hit by the dive of Howie Kendrick and into right field. Jason Bay sprinted around third base and headed for home. The throw by Reggie Willits was on the money but not in time! The Red Sox are going back to the American League Championship Series once again. The previous three postseason series that the Red Sox have defeated the California-Anaheim-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in have led to a World Series appearance in all three seasons including two World Series titles.
So here we go Red Sox Nation. We all knew it was going to come down to this. Ever since the brawl at Fenway Park on June 5, this is the match up that the fans wanted to see for the American League pennant. The Tampa Bay Rays took the season series 10-8 with the Red Sox taking seven of nine games at Fenway Park and the Tampa Bay Rays winning eight of nine at Tropicana Field. Needless to say, these two teams play their best baseball when they are at home but both teams have really stepped it up on the road so far this postseason. The 2008 American League Championship Series figures to be a very close and intense series with every game coming down to the wire thanks in part to the great starting pitching and defense that both team possesses.
Both Boston and Tampa Bay are equipped with potent offenses with multiple ways to score runs. Both teams can attack you with power, they can attack you with small ball and both teams certainly have a great deal of speed on the base paths. With the perfect mix of speed and power from Crawford to Coco, from Ellsbury to Upton, from Papi to Pena from Youk to Longoria this series figures to be one of the most exciting best of seven series that this game has seen in recent history. Game 1 of this best of seven series is set to be played on Friday, October 10 at the Trop. So strap on your safety belts Red Sox Nation because we’re all in for a ride in the American League Championship Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
-Jared Carrabis
-Jared Carrabis
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