Homer In First Postseason Game Helps Carry Red Sox To Victory
By JEFF GOLDBERG
October 2, 2008
ANAHEIM, Calif. — - Jason Bay's first two career postseason at-bats were
forgettable. The third one, he'll always remember.
After striking out his first two times — and looking badly doing it — Bay
delivered the game-winning blow Wednesday night, hitting a two-run homer to
left field in the sixth inning, carrying the Red Sox to a 4-1 victory over
the Angels in Game 1 of the Division Series at Angel Stadium.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Friday night in Anaheim, with 18-game
winner Daisuke Matsuzuka facing Anaheim's Ervin Santana.
"Any time you come into another team's ballpark and take the first game, it's
huge," winning pitcher Jon Lester said. "Hopefully we can do it again
[Friday] and go from there."
The Angels won eight of nine games between the teams this year. But the Red
Sox have now won 10 straight postseason games against the Angels dating from
1986. The ties the record for consecutive postseason wins over the same
opponent, set by the A's against the Red Sox in 1988-2003.
After Bay's homer staked Lester to a one-run lead, the Red Sox defense sealed
the victory late.
Behind rookie reliever Justin Masterson in the eighth, Jacoby Ellsbury made a
diving catch in shallow center to rob Mark Teixeira, also playing in his
first postseason game, for the first out.
Then, after Vladimir Guerrero singled, Kevin Youkilis turned a near disaster
into a critical out. Torii Hunter lofted a shallow fly down the right field
line that Youkilis could not catch on an awkward dive. But with the gimpy
Guerrero trying for third, Youkilis trapped the ball with his bare hand, then
gathered himself and made a perfect one-hop throw to Mike Lowell, who applied
the tag on a stunned Guerrero for the second out, killing the potential rally.
After Ellsbury and David Ortiz delivered insurance runs in the ninth with
singles, Jonathan Papelbon continued his postseason mastery with three
strikeouts, working a scoreless bottom half for the save and increasing his
career scoreless postseason streak to 15 2/3 innings.
Lester, making the Game 1 start after Josh Beckett was scratched with an
oblique injury, went seven innings, allowing one unearned run on six hits
with seven strikeouts. After Bay's homer in the sixth put the Red Sox ahead,
Lester struck out the side in the bottom half.
Bay was playing in the first postseason game of his six-year career, having
spent the majority of first 5 1/2 seasons with the lowly Pirates. And he
looked overmatched against John Lackey his first two times up, swinging
wildly at pitches out of the strike zone.
But with two outs in the sixth and Youkilis on first, Bay got all of a Lackey
pitch in the zone and crushed it to left field, erasing a one-run deficit
with his first career postseason hit.
"I was trying to get used to the game and I had never seen [Lackey] before,"
Bay said. "He threw me a couple of tough pitches, then left a fastball up and
I make a living on those. I'm glad I didn't miss it."
A year ago, the Red Sox rode the hot bats of a pair of rookies to a World
Series title. Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia carried the Red Sox past the
Indians and Rockies over the final six games of the postseason, with Ellsbury
hitting .438 in the World Series sweep.
Ellsbury picked up where he left off, starting the game with a double off
Lackey. But the other half of the tandem, Pedroia, failed to advance Pedroia
to third with a tapper back to the mound, meaning Ellsbury could only get to
third on Ortiz's groundout to second, and was left stranded when Youkilis
grounded out to third.
The Angels had their own chance to score in the bottom half off Lester,
another rookie 2007 postseason hero, but also failed to deliver the clutch
hit.
With one out, Garret Anderson and Teixeira singled, but Guerrero, swinging at
the first pitch from Lester, hit a routine fly to right for the second out.
Hunter walked to load the bases, but Lester got Howie Kendrick to hit an easy
grounder to Lowell at third, allowing Lowell to gingerly tag the bag for the
final out.
It was the first of four plays Lowell would have to make over the first four
innings, and he handled them all cleanly, but was clearly experiencing
discomfort in his right hip after each one.
The Red Sox left two runners in the third inning against Lackey, then the
Angels took advantage of a rookie mistake by shortstop Jed Lowrie in the
bottom half to score the game's first run.
With one out, Anderson singled, then Lester struck out Teixeira, Lester's
third strikeout in the span of six batters.
Guerrero was next, and he sent what should have been a routine inning-ending
grounder toward Lowrie ranging behind second base. But Lowrie booted the ball
and could not recover in time, allowing both runners to be safe.
The opportunistic Angels took advantage, with Hunter sending a soft liner to
left that Bay allowed to drop in front of him for a single, scoring Anderson
for a 1-0 lead.
Hunter would have another chance to pad the Angels' lead in the fifth,
batting with two men on and two outs. But this time Hunter tapped back to
Lester for the final out.
"I think I just got more relaxed, more confident," Lester said. "Once you go
deeper into the game, you start to get into a flow a little easier and start
to pound the zone."
The Red Sox then took the lead in the sixth on one big swing by Bay. The
former Pirate, who along with Teixeira was playing in his first postseason
game, had not looked good in his first two at-bats against Lackey, swinging
wildly at strike three out of the zone in both at-bats.
But after Youkilis walked with one out in the sixth and J.D. Drew struck out,
Bay got all of a Lackey pitch in the zone and sent it out of the park to left
for a 2-1 lead.
The sudden turn of events seemed to energize Lester, who was nearing 90
pitches entering the bottom of the sixth. But Lester started the inning by
striking out Kendrick, then Mike Napoli, before getting Gary Matthews Jr., on
a called strike three on a 3-and-2 breaking ball.
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