Sox Curse Broken
ST. LOUIS — Curses foiled, finally.
The Boston Red Sox didn’t take any chances this time.
They didn’t wait for seven games.
They dominated the St. Louis Cardinals from start to finish in the 100th World Series.
They completed a sweep of the Cardinals with a 3-0 victory in game 4 at Busch Stadium on Wednesday night, claiming the franchise’s first world championship since 1918. They became only the fourth team in World Series history to never trail an inning, finally putting to rest the Curse of the Bambino, a part of baseball lore stemming from the Red Sox sale of Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees after that 1918 season so that owner Harry Frazee could finance the Broadway production of “No, No Nannette.”
The play didn’t last long.
The futility of the Red Sox did.
A franchise that won the first World Series made only four World Series appearances during it’s 86-year championship drought and lost a deciding Game 7 in each, including against the Cardinals in 1946 and 1967, when Bob Gibson pitched complete-game victories in Games 1, 4 and 7.
There was no Game 7 this time.
“I don’t believe in no curses,” said World Series MVP Manny Ramirez, who hit safely in all 14 Red Sox postseason games. “You make your own destination with hard work and desire.”
Heck, it didn’t even get to Game 5 against a Cardinals team that was held to just four hits in 32 at-bats with men in scoring position, none in 10 at-bats the Cardinals had in the two games they lost at Busch Stadium.
And the 4-5 men in the St. Louis lineup, hitless Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds were a combined 1-for-15.
“They deserve a lot of credit,” said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. “We were ready to play. We didn’t play good enough. We just got outplayed, out pitched.”
Four different Red Sox pitchers drew the starting assignments in the four games, and the final three, Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe combined to allow one unearned run in 20 innings. Keith Foulke got the final out in all four games, winning Game 1 after being charged with a blown save and saving the final three to put the finishing touches on a postseason in which he allowed only one run in 14 innings.
The Cardinals never had a chance in the four games, and Lowe put the final exclamation point on the season to celebrate, finishing a personal trifecta. He won all three of the Red Sox postseason clinching victories, an upbeat moment for a pitcher wasn’t originally even in the Red Sox playoff rotation.
Lowe worked an inning in relief to get the win in the third and final game of the Red Sox sweep of Anaheim in the American League Division Series on Oct. 8.
He worked six innings, allowing one run, in the Game 7 victory against the New York Yankees in an American League Championship Series in which the Red Sox became the first baseball team ever to lose the first three games of a best-of-seven series and then win the series.
And one week later, he worked seven shutout innings in the deciding Game 4 of the World Series, allowing only three hits and a walk, pitching out of his only serious threat in the fifth when he struck out John Mabry and got Yadier Molina to ground to second, stranding Edgar Renteria on third base with no outs.
“This is an unbelievable feeling,” said Lowe. “Ten days ago were down three games to the Yankees and trialing 4-3 (in Game 4) against the ultimate closer, (Mariano) Rivera, and now this.”
Johnny Damon got the game started with the 17th leadoff home run in World Series history, and the Red Sox added two more runs in the third off a struggling Jason Marquis, who threw only 58 strikes among 121 pitches over six innings.
With one out in the third, Manny Ramirez singled and went to third on a David Ortiz double. After Ramirez was thrown out attempting to score on a Jason Varitek ground ball to first, and Bill Mueller walked, Trot Nixon delivered a two-run double, and the Red Sox had all the runs they needed to exorcise the demons of the franchise’s past.
“Our fans have waited all their life for this,” said Red Sox owner John Henry. “Now, they have it.”
•Thousands of giddy fans gathered in the streets near Fenway Park shortly after Boston’s win.
“It doesn’t get better than this,” said Eric Imhof, 23, of Boston. “And to be alive during this is one of the greatest things to happen to us, because you never know when it’s going to happen again.”
— Associated Press