2004 ALCS Roundtable – Game 2
October 14, 2004
GROUP DISCUSSION

Michael Walls: Sorry boys, but this series has just become a test for the infinitely faithful. Sure, the New York Spankees came from behind 0-2 in the ’96 World Series to beat Atlanta – but this is the Boston Red Sux. They’re fighting more than the Yankees, the New York crowd, the curse, and the 86 year drought. They’re fighting themselves.

Something happens to this team whenever they are in the presence of the Yanks. You can’t blame the pitching. Pedro pitched as good as anyone could expect. You can’t blame Schilling, as they had every chance to win that game as well. It’s all about hitting and all about attitude. There’s no fire. No passion. And watching last night’s last a bat, with Kevin Millar digging in, representing the tying run, with Ortiz on second base (showing the rest of the team that you can hit off Rivera), and the entire Red Sox team sitting on the bench, every one of them with the 1,000 yard stare – they have no interest.

How about lining up at the fence and cheering on your teammates? One lousy hit and the momentum changes, maybe even the series changes. The Sox gave up after Olerud effortlessly smacked that two-run homer off Pedro in the Sixth. Oh no, were down by three runs, we’ll never catch up… The Red Sox of the regular season would laugh at this concept.

Chris Orcutt: Absolutely. It's too painful to watch. The Sox have no confidence, the Yankees have tons of it. One of the most telling examples was when Jeter, after he walked in the first inning, went to steal second on the next pitch. That's balls, and it shows supreme confidence. Every time the Yankees were up I was thinking they would get a hit; when the Sox were batting it seemed like a longshot that someone would get on base.

BUT - the thing about this series is that anything can happen. If the Red Sox can get their heads into the game they have a chance.

David Brown: Friday night's game is suddenly HUGE. It's an absolute must win for the Sox. And you can bet that Joe Torre will treat it like a must win for the Yankees as well. Torre will do everything he can to win Friday night, knowing that it would essentially end the series as no team has ever rebounded to win a series after dropping the first three. He won't hesitate to yank Kevin Brown if he stinks. He won't hesitate to bring Rivera in to pitch the eighth. And you can bet his team will come out swinging.

The Sox are fortunate to have Bronson Arroyo pitching game three (or Brandon, as Tim McCarver continually called him during the game 1 telecast). Arroyo has quietly had a very good season despite a mediocre 10-9 record. He has been very effective for much of the season, picking up the slack for Derek Lowe's disastrous season.

Kevin Brown is still a question mark. But he has the ability to be very very good. He is also motivated by his own stupidity, desperate to prove himself to his teammates after breaking his left hand in frustration after a poor outing. He pitched well in the Twins series, and it's reasonable to expect he'll be sharp again Friday. Maybe not dominating, but he probably won't need to be. It's likely that this series will be decided in the late innings by the bullpens, as it has so far. And as Jim Caple pointed out on ESPN.com today, Francona has already used Foulke twice TO PROTECT YANKEE LEADS!

Two closing questions to ponder: Did Pedro pitch his final game for the Sox last night? (Surely the Boston media must be asking this question, though it didn't show up in the sports pages I read this morning.) And if the Sox lose this series, does Terry Francona get the axe? No Boston fans seem to have any confidence in him, and I doubt Young Theo has been impressed.

Brendon McCullin: What I don't get is after all the times that they've played there how the Red Sox can still seem to be psyched out playing the Yankees in New York. I mean, they play the Yankees all the time but at the start of both games it's looked like the Red Sox were overwhelmed by it all. Pedro Martinez looked like he was still throwing warm-up pitches while the first two batters were at the plate.

I understand that Yankee Stadium is an intimidating place though. I remember a Philadelphia sports radio guy – a native New Yorker – saying that the only time he was ever mugged in his life was in Yankee Stadium. Not around the area, inside the stadium. I don't have anything against the ballpark per se, but I get sick of hearing about its mystique. It's kind of like how the Ghosts of Boston Garden were really a roaming pack of ROUS's (that's Rodents of Unusual Size for you non-"Princess Bride" fans).

Did anyone catch Terry Francona's post-game press conference? You've got to like the feisty bald guys.

Wasn't it just a week ago that people were talking about the Red Sox lineup as though it was the modern day version of Murderers Row? They've got Bill "Batting Champion" Mueller hitting ninth! There are no easy outs at any spot! So far they've looked easier than Paris Hilton during a lost Vegas weekend.

I would guess that the Red Sox will settle down and make this a series once they get back to Fenway. Of course, I think it's just as likely that they'll keep spouting their "we're not worried about this" lines right up until they're swept. Maybe Sox fans should start rooting for the Cardinals now...they wear red, too, and they might actually have enough pitching to beat the Yankees.

Michael Walls: You know what’s really strange? Every single pre-series analysis about these teams has been turned upside down. The theory was, for the Red Sox to win, they needed to jump all over the Yankees starting pitching. After all, their starters were without a 15-game winner, and the Sox had the most potent offense in the AL. The Yankees strategy to victory was to hold on until they could get to the Red Sox bullpen, after all, the Sox had far superior starting pitching.

Yet, here we are. The Red Sox starters were rocked by the Yankee lineup, but the Red Sox bullpen held it close (except for Wakefield’s 2 runs). Meanwhile, the Sox deadly offensive lineup couldn’t touch John Lieber (at all) or Mussina (for the first six innings). But they were able to get to Sturtze and Gordon and even Rivera (no runs, but some hits).

Sports writers don’t know shit.