A late-night delivery
BOSTON — Just like the game that seemed it would never end, Boston’s season just won’t end.
David Ortiz’s RBI single on the 471st pitch of the game with two outs in the 14th inning capped a second amazing comeback in less than 24 hours Monday night and gave the Red Sox a 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees in the A.L. championship series.
The Red Sox, one inning away from elimination Sunday night, now are one game away from climbing out of a 3-0 deficit and forcing an anything-can-happen Game 7.
“The last two nights shows the depth, the character, the heart, the guts of our ballclub,” winner Tim Wakefield said. “It took every ounce of whatever we had left to win tonight’s game and to win last night’s game.”
This time, Boston was six outs from elimination before Ortiz’s leadoff homer off Tom Gordon and Jason Varitek’s sacrifice fly off Mariano Rivera tied it 4-4 in the eighth.
The next six innings were agonizingly tense, filled with a double play, three passed balls in the same inning, two Red Sox runners thrown out trying to steal second and 10 runners left on base.
When it was over, the teams had played back-to-back marathon games that totaled 26 innings and almost 11 hours — 5 hours, 2 minutes on Sunday and 5 hours, 49 minutes Monday — the longest by time in postseason history.
The Yankees had taken a 4-2 lead off Pedro Martinez in the sixth inning, but were shut out over the last eight by Mike Timlin, Keith Foulke, Bronson Arroyo, Mike Myers, Alan Embree and Wakefield. Boston’s bullpen has gone 14 1-3 innings without allowing a run.
In one pass through the Yankee lineup, Boston pitchers struck out Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Ruben Sierra and Tony Clark.
Sheffield struck out leading off the 13th but reached on a passed ball, and two more passed balls by Varitek on Wakefield’s knuckler left runners on second and third.
But after the ball nearly got away from Varitek again, popping out of the catcher’s glove but staying near the plate, Wakefield struck out Sierra on a 70 mph knuckler, leaving the Yankees 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Wakefield, the loser in Game 7 last year, followed with a 1-2-3 14th.
“In the last inning, he was on fumes,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “He pitched the last inning on heart.”
Johnny Damon started the winning rally by drawing a one-out walk, and Manny Ramirez walked with two outs. Ortiz, who won Game 4 with a two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning, then fouled off eight two-strike pitches, including one that just missed being a home run down the right-field line, before dumping a soft single into center field.