2004 ALCS Roundtable – Game 5
October 19, 2004
GROUP DISCUSSION

Brendon McCullin: Show of hands...how many people were on the phone to their bookie trying to get odds on whether the Astros-Cardinals game would finish before the Yankees-Red Sox?

Every baseball fan in the country should send a gift to David Ortiz for making this series interesting when it could've been a complete wipeout. Although, Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek might deserve something as well for scaring the hell out of all of New England. Seriously, they might have killed a couple of people with bad hearts watching at home after Varitek started thinking too much about catching the knuckler. Halloween might be a couple of weeks away but I don't think Red Sox fans are going to find anything that gives them more of a fright than when Matsui took third on the third passed ball of the inning.

Did anyone notice that last year's Game 7 was on ESPN Classic while Game 5 was on? At one point, Mike Timlin was pitching the 9th inning of Game 7 on one channel while he was pitching the 7th inning, live, on the other.

There was another moment during the game that will live on in my memory as one of my new favorite moments in broadcasting. It came courtesy of Tim McCarver:

McCarver - You can't keep falling behind as a hitter. Only one hitter this year hit over .300 with two strikes.

(Long beat.)

Leiter - Well, who was it, Tim?

McCarver - I knew you were going to ask me that. I don't remember.

There's some topnotch preparation for you. Later someone finally passed him a note to tell him that it was former Red Sox and current Diamondbacks' infielder Shea Hillenbrand.

My only wish for Game 6 is that it manage to clock in at under five hours.

Michael Walls: Top of the 6th, Jeter has just hit a bases-clearing 3-run double and now the bases are loaded – again. Where’s Grady Little when you need him? At least Grady Little took the effort to make the long walk out to the mound and look like he was in charge. Terry Francona looks like a guy sitting at a craps table who keeps letting his life savings ride it out.

How the Sox won this game I’ll never figure it out, unless I watch the whole thing over again in slow motion. But I don’t have that kind of time. My only guess is that Francona is the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in baseball right now.

Pedro got out of that bases loaded jam (thanks to Trot Nixon’s diving catch). Johnny Damon redeemed himself for his awful steal attempt and doubly worse attempt at a bunt, by drawing a walk in the 14th which allowed him to score on Ortiz’ game-ending hit. If you (or Francona) had asked Varitek how he was doing behind the plate with Wakefield throwing the equivalent of greased monkeys at him, he probably would have screamed “get me the hell outta here!” and asked for Mirabelli to relieve him. Watching Matsui scoot from base to base each time Varitek watched a ball fly off his glove was excruciating. Thank goodness Wakefield finally threw a heater to get our Sierra.

There were so many opportunities for the Red Sox to screw it up, but somehow, someway, they pulled it out. And it wasn’t even like the Yankees screwed up and gave it to them. It was pure dumb luck or some other force.

It was also a good game. One to remember. And that’s not just a Red Sox fan talking. Any true baseball fan will tell you that, regardless of the outcome, it was an exciting, rollercoaster game. Some of those Yankees fans on this site will probably respond (if they respond) that it was an awful game – that the Yankees screwed up – that they don’t like games like this. That they would rather see another 19-8 drubbing of the hated Red Sox.

Fine. Be that way. My 4-year old son acts that way when his 3-year old brother gets the toy that they’ve been fighting over. For me, I can honestly say, that if the Yankees won it in the end, after all of the back-and-forth, after all of the excitement and fear – I still would have written in this space that it was a great game.

David Brown: I was shocked that Francona let Pedro pitch to Matsui in the 6th. It was practically the same situation as last year. Lucky for Francona, Pedro got him to hit the ball right at Trot Nixon. Otherwise Red Sox fans might be burning his house down today.

I can't take these games anymore. I appreciate the fact that the last two have been good games, but the tension is killing me. Especially given the fact that the Yanks were up 3-0 in the series. It's painful to watch them lose two games that they should have one. Now the Sox are back in the series, and tonight is a must win for the Yanks.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Yankee pitchers keep walking Manny in this series in the late innings. It's not intentional, they're just afraid to throw strikes. I understand how dangerous a hitter Manny is, but he hasn't been nearly as dangerous as Ortiz. Ortiz has KILLED the Yanks for the last two years. Manny hasn't been that great against the Yanks over that same time span.

The pitch that Loaiza threw to Ortiz last night was a good pitch. If you bust him up and in, you usually get him out. Loaiza threw a Rivera like cutter, and Ortiz hit a Luis Gonzalez-like bloop over the infield. At least he didn't crush it into the seats as I expected him to do.

Right now the breaks that went the Yankees way for the first three games are going the Red Sox way. The Yanks need a rainout tonight just like the Sox needed one last week. Game 6 will come down to the bullpens, as all these games ultimately do. The Sox pen has been great the last two nights, and the Yankee bullpen has been gasping and wheezing. Rivera no longer has that air of intimidation over the Red Sox. Gordon is on fumes. And Foulke has been stifling for the Sox. If this series gets to a game 7, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Stephan Finch: Is it me, or does Terry Francona's chaw keep getting larger and larger as the games wear on and the tension gets higher?