April 25, 2004: Pedro Martínez, Scott Williamson blank Yankees as Red Sox complete sweep at Yankee Stadium

Coming off the 2003 season, which saw the New York Yankees come from behind in Game Seven of the American League Championship Series and – once again – beat the Boston Red Sox, there were more than a few people in Boston who hoped that someday, somehow, the Red Sox might come out on top.

Red Sox fans were pleased to see their team win three out of four from the Yankees from April 16 to 19 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox had then gone to Toronto and taken two of three from the Blue Jays. They arrived at Yankee Stadium on April 23 with a record of 9-6, in second place but behind the 9-5 Baltimore Orioles and a game and a half ahead of the 8-8 Yankees in the AL East. While the Red Sox were in Toronto, the Yankees had taken two of three from the White Sox in Chicago.

In the first of three scheduled games in New York, the Red Sox won on Friday, April 23, 11-2, scoring five runs off starter José Contreras to go ahead to stay. Derek Lowe got the win for Boston. Four Red Sox batters homered in the game.

The Saturday afternoon game was a close one, running 12 innings and just over four hours. The Red Sox went hitless in 19 at-bats with runners in scoring position but managed three sacrifice flies. The third run-scoring fly ball, by third baseman Mark Bellhorn, drove in Manny Ramírez. with the go-ahead run in the 12th. Mike Timlin, Boston’s fifth pitcher of the game, followed winning pitcher Keith Foulke’s two scoreless innings with a perfect bottom of the 12th to close out the 3-2 win.

Yankees manager Joe Torre certainly didn’t want to lose the Sunday afternoon game, which would make it a sweep for the Red Sox and six out of seven. He changed the team’s lineup for the 15th game in a row.1 Javier Vázquez, pitching on just three days’ rest, was New York’s starter. He had lost to Tim Wakefield at Fenway Park on April 16.

Pedro Martínez had the start for the Red Sox. It was Martínez’s first appearance against the Yankees since Game Seven of the 2003 ALCS. In that game, also played at Yankee Stadium, Martínez and the Red Sox had a lead after seven innings. It appeared that the Red Sox were going to the bullpen, but manager Grady Little sent the three-time Cy Young Award winner back out to the mound in the eighth, with disastrous (and pennant-losing) results.2

The Red Sox were playing without three of their regular starters: Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and right fielder Trot Nixon were out with injuries, and the reigning AL batting champion, third baseman Bill Mueller, was also out, given a day off. Ellis Burks, who had started a handful of games at designated hitter in his return to Boston, was about to go on the disabled list with torn knee cartilage.

Both pitchers performed exceptionally well. Vázquez worked six innings, allowing just four base hits and walking only one batter. Martínez worked seven innings, likewise allowing just four hits and walking one. There were two errors in the game – both by the Yankees – but they had no influence on the scoring.

DH David Ortiz dropped a single into center off Vázquez in the first but none of the other three batters in that inning got the ball out of the infield – there was a foul popup to catcher Jorge Posada and two strikeouts. In the second, Vázquez hit leadoff batter Kevin Millar, who was then erased on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play with Jason Varitek batting. First baseman Dave McCarty struck out to end the inning. In the Boston third, Vázquez retired the side in order on a bunt handled by Posada plus two K’s.

In the meantime, Martínez had no difficulty with the Yankees. The only batter to reach base in the first three innings was right fielder Gary Sheffield on a single to center in the second. In the top of the fourth, Vázquez walked Bellhorn on five pitches. After David Ortiz struck out looking, left fielder Manny Ramírez homered to left-center field, the ball landing in the netting above the retired numbers of Yankees greats in straightaway left-center. It was 2-0, Red Sox. Millar lined out and Varitek flied out to deep center.

With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Álex Rodríguez singled – and then stole second. But Jason Giambi flied out and Sheffield struck out.

After the Red Sox batted in the fifth, Posada reached on a 10-pitch walk. Left fielder Hideki Matsui struck out, but DH Rubén Sierra doubled to right. With runners on second and third and just the one out, second baseman Enrique Wilson – 10-for-20 lifetime against Martínez before this game – popped up to Pokey Reese at short and Pedro struck out Derek Jeter, who had come into the game riding an 0-for-21 slump.

The Red Sox got runners on first and third in the top of the sixth, but again Millar and Varitek made unproductive outs. Álex Rodríguez doubled in the Yankees sixth but got no farther than third base.

Paul Quantrill relieved Vázquez to start the seventh. He faced three Boston batters and retired all three.

Martínez did the same when the Yankees came to bat. In seven innings, he’d allowed four hits and walked one. He struck out seven. The Yankees were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

When Martínez returned to the dugout, with seven innings completed and a 2-0 lead, “David Ortiz embraced his countryman for a good 10 seconds.”3 Unlike Game Seven of the ALCS, the Red Sox were going to the bullpen to preserve the lead.

“The Sox led the Yankees after seven in Yankee Stadium and there’s no way Pedro was going back out to start the night,” noted the Boston Globe. “Not this time.”4

Gabe White took over pitching for New York in the eighth inning. Johnny Damon walked but White retired the next two on fly balls. Tom Gordon was called on to pitch to Manny Ramírez. He threw a wild pitch and Damon took second base. It was decided to walk Ramírez. It took seven pitches, but Gordon struck out Millar.

Boston manager Terry Francona called on Scott Williamson to relieve Martínez in the eighth. A day earlier, Williamson had pitched a scoreless inning in Boston’s 12-inning win. This time out, he opened by getting a foul popup from Travis Lee, pinch-hitting for Wilson. Jeter struck out on three pitches. Bernie Williams grounded out to first base, unassisted.

It was still 2-0, Boston. Wanting to keep it that close, Torre had Mariano Rivera relieve in the ninth. With one out, Rivera walked McCarty but none of the other three Boston batters did anything – groundout, strikeout, groundout.

Francona stuck with Williamson to pitch the ninth. A-Rod grounded out, third to first. Giambi grounded out, short to first. Sheffield struck out swinging.

The Red Sox had swept the three-game set at Yankee Stadium. They had taken six of the seven April games they played against their New York nemesis. The New York Times said the Red Sox weren’t so much rivals as they were “bystanders to a roadside wreck.”5

In the season’s first month, through the 25th, the Red Sox were in first place in the AL East at 12-6. The Yankees were third at 8-11.

Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy quipped that “Citizens of Red Sox Nation – and many were here over the weekend – already are calculating the Sox’ magic number and planning Yankee Elimination Day parties.”6

There were plenty of boos for Derek Jeter, but no one was writing off him or the Yankees. It was way too early for anything like that. Ramírez said, “The objective here [on the Red Sox] is to win the World Series, not to beat the Yankees. They’re the ones who got the rings. We don’t got nothing.”7

The two teams didn’t meet again until June 29 and 30 and July 1, again in New York. The Yankees swept those three games. Boston took two out of three at Fenway Park later in July, one of them an 11-10 walk-off.

There were two more three-game sets. New York won two of three at the Stadium on September 17-19, and Boston won two of three at Fenway on September 24-26. By the end of the 2004 regular season, the Red Sox had won 11 head-to-head games and the Yankees had won eight.

The two teams faced each other in the American League Championship Series again in 2004. The Yankees won the first three games, each team to that point having won 11 games against the other. Historians rate what happened next as worthy of note.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and a video of the game on YouTube.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200404250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B04250NYA2004.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlAFOCnGA9Y

Notes

1 Tyler Kepner, “Yankees Bat .152 and Lose 3 Straight,” New York Times, April 26, 2004: D1.

2 Yankees fans weren’t above a little taunting: “Yankees fans draped images of Grady Little from the upper deck to mark starter Javier Vazquez’s strikeouts.” Bob Hohler, “Very Few Bumps in the Road,” Boston Globe, April 26, 2004: D1.

3 Dan Shaughnessy, “All Bases covered in Making Case,” Boston Globe, April 26, 2004: D5.

4 Bob Hohler, “Sweet Sweep for Sox,” Boston Globe, April 26, 2004: D5.

5 Kepner.

6 Shaughnessy, D1.

7 Ronald Blum (Associated Press), “Red Sox Keep the Heat on Listless Yankees,” Quincy (Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger, April 26, 2004: 26. Jack Curry’s column placed focus on the game as Martínez’s follow-up to Game Six of the 2003 ACLS. Red Sox players preferred to steer clear of any such emphasis. Johnny Damon simply said, “This was the best I’ve seen Pedro pitch since I put on a uniform here.” Jack Curry, “Martinez Smartly Puts Debacle of October Behind Hm,” New York Times, April 26, 2004: D7.