Red Sox sweep aside Angels
BOSTON – The frat house full of fools will play for a pennant for the second year in a row.
David Ortiz’s 10th-inning homer gave the Boston Red Sox an 8-6 victory over the Anaheim Angels on Friday, completing a three-game sweep that sent them into the A.L. Championship Series.
The Red Sox have three days to sleep off their celebration while the hated New York Yankees play the Minnesota Twins for the right to meet Boston.
“We’ll need a few days after tonight,” said outfielder Johnny Damon, who proclaimed the team a band of “idiots” trying to rewrite the record book and ignore Boston’s miserable baseball history. “It could have been different, but now we get to relax for a couple of days.”
Damon got three hits, Ortiz had four and Boston rode starter Bronson Arroyo to a five-run lead after six innings. But Vladimir Guerrero hit a grand slam off Mike Timlin to tie it 6-all in the seventh and send the game to extra innings.
Derek Lowe, who was bounced from the playoff rotation after a horrible stretch run, got out of a first-and-third jam in the top of the 10th and earned the win. Losing pitcher Francisco Rodriguez gave up Damon’s leadoff single in the bottom half; two outs later, Angels manager Mike Scioscia brought in Game 1 starter Jarrod Washburn for the lefty-lefty matchup.
Ortiz hit the first pitch over the Green Monster to send the Fenway Park crowd – so quiet since Guerrero’s homer – into pandemonium. In the Boston clubhouse, with the lockers covered with plastic, a soaking of beer and champagne mixed with the smoke from victory cigars completed the frat house feel.
“There are a lot of guys in this clubhouse who thought, ‘Hey, this might be an easier ride than we thought,’ ” outfielder Gabe Kapler said. “But we have a lot of guys who are comfortable biting their nails.”
With the sweep – just the second in their postseason history – the Red Sox have three days off before starting the ALCS on the road Tuesday night. The Yankees took a 2-1 series lead with an 8-4 victory Friday night at Minneapolis. Minnesota plays host to game four today.
“We want to get to the World Series,” Arroyo said. “Whichever way we have to.”
Last year’s Red Sox used the theme “Cowboy Up” in the regular season, before they went belly up in the playoffs against the Yankees. This week, Damon declared they were down on “Cowboy Up” and instead were just “idiots” with bad hair and slovenly uniforms who were out for fun on the field.
“We’re all idiots here,” Ortiz said. “We all have fun. We all hug, kiss, grab, whatever.”
Ortiz, Boston’s happy-go-lucky MVP candidate – one of two, with Ramirez, actually – could be chapter chairman. He doubled and scored when Boston took a 2-0 lead in the third, then doubled in a run in the fourth when Boston made it 5-1.
It was 6-1 in the seventh before Timlin walked Darin Erstad with the bases loaded. Guerrero, also a leading MVP candidate after propelling Anaheim to the A.L. West title, tied the game with a dramatic shot to right-center.
Rodriguez pitched two scoreless innings and struck out Ramirez for the second out in the 10th, but Scioscia went with Washburn, who allowed seven runs in 3 1/3 innings to take the loss in the series opener.
Anaheim has lost seven consecutive games to Boston.