Summary
It was known as the Curse of the Bambino. After playing in and winning five World Series from 1903 through 1918, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920. They lost in their next four appearances in the World Series, each time in seven games. They also developed the habit of losing to the Yankees in post-season play. In 1978, New York's Bucky Dent hit a 3-run home run to beat Boston in a one-game playoff for the pennant. Twice in a four-year period, the Red Sox lost to the Yankees in the League Championship Series, in 1999 and 2003.
Red Sox fans thought it might be different in 2004. Even though their team had finished behind the Yankees in the American League East, they'd won the head-to-head season series, 11 games to 7. So hopes were high with Red Sox ace Curt Schilling pitching against the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium.
But it quickly began to look as if the curse was as strong as ever. Because of a severely injured right ankle, Schilling wasn't able to push off as strongly as usual and, after three innings of throwing batting-practice fastballs, he was forced to leave with his team behind, 6-0. Then it became 8-0, while Yankee starter Mike Mussina was working on a perfect game. That ended in the top of the seventh, when the Red Sox scored five times to make the deficit manageable. Then they cut it to 8-7 in the eighth, but Yankee closer Mariano Rivera to strand the tying run on third base. New York scored two more runs in the bottom of the inning and Rivera closed it out in the ninth.
The second game was a pitchers' battle, with New York's Jon Lieber having the best of it over Boston's Pedro Martinez. Martinez gave up just one run in six innings, but yielded a two-run home run to John Olerud in the seventh, while Lieber was throwing a three-hit shutout over the same span. The Red Sox got their only run in the top of the eighth and then Rivera came in to record his second save.
The series then moved to Boston, where Game 3 was rained out on Friday, meaning the final five games, if necessary, would be played over a five-day period with no day off. When the game finally got underway on Saturday, it turned into a slugfest. The Yankees went ahead 3-0 in the first inning, the Red Sox scored four in the second, the Yankees re-took the lead with three more runs in the third, and the Red Sox tied it in the bottom of the inning.
From then, it was all Yankees. They scored five in the top of the fourth and romped to a 19-8 win. The curse looked worse than ever. Red Sox fans by now were just hoping their heroes could avoid being swept.
Boston gave them hope by taking a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth, but the Yankees immediately went back in front, 4-3, and it stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth. Three outs away from the dreaded sweep, the Red Sox got a leadoff walk from Kevin Millar and Dave Roberts came in to run for him. He promptly stole second. Rivera, who had pitched the entire eighth inning, yielded a single up the middle by Bill Mueller, tying the score. The Red Sox eventually loaded the bases but Rivera got out of that jam and the game went into extra innings. The score stayed at 4-4 until the bottom of the 12th, when Manny Ramirez led off with a single and David Ortiz hit the game-winning home run.
Game 5 was more of the same. The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead, the Yankees cut it to 2-1 and then went ahead 4-2. This time, the Red Sox didn't wait until the ninth inning to tie it. Ortiz led off the bottom of the eighth with a home run. Millar walked and again Roberts came in as a pinch runner. He moved to third on Trot Nixon's single. Rivera relieved Tom Gordon and gave up a sacrifice fly to Jason Varitek.
Extra innings again. This time, the game lasted into the 14th, when Johnny Damon and Ramirez walked. With two outs, Ortiz came through with a single to score Damon and end the marathon after 5 hours and 49 minutes. It was the longest post-season game in history.
So the series went back to New York for one of the most dramatic games ever. The Red Sox had said that Curt Schilling probably wouldn't be able to pitch for the rest of the ALCS, but he was back on the mound, the ruptured tendon sheath in his ankle patched together with three sutures. Schilling had a shutout until Bernie Williams hit a solo home run in the seventh.
Two reversed decisions played big roles in the game. The Red Sox were leading 1-0 and had two runners on in the top of the fourth inning when Mark Bellhorn hit a drive to left field. It apparently came off the wall, scoring a run and putting runners at second and third. But the umpires conferred and ruled that it was a home run, giving Boston a 4-0 lead.
The Yankees scored in a run in the eighth on Derek Jeter's single and Alex Rodriguez then hit a grounder to the left of Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who fielded it and ran toward the baseline to tag Rodriguez, who knocked the ball out of Arroyo's hand, sending it into right field. Jeter came around to score and Rodriguez went to second base. But again the umpires huddled. They called Rodriguez out for interference and sent Jeter back to first base. That brought a deluge of abuse and debris from Yankee fans. Order was finally restored after New York police came onto the field in full riot gear.
Arroyo got the final out of the inning and Keith Foulke came in to save the game in the ninth, despite walking two hitters to bring the winning run to the plate before his game-ending strikeout of Tony Clark.
The Red Sox had become the first team in major-league history to force a seventh game after having lost the first three. The World Series had come down to a one-game playoff, and that one game was anti-climactic. A two-run homer by David Ortiz in the first and a grand slam by Johnny Damon in the second gave Boston a 6-0 lead. The Yankees got one run back in the third, but Damon then hit a two-run home run to make it 8-1. The biggest drama came after Pedro Martinez relieved starter Derek Lowe in the seventh inning. To chants of "Who's Your Daddy?", a reference to a remark Martinez had made after losing to the Yankees in September. After giving up two quick runs, Martinez shut down New York and the Red Sox added single runs in the eight and ninth innings to make the final score 10-3.
For most Red Sox fans, the curse had been reversed, whatever the outcome of the World Series.
