October 12, 2007: Red Sox hammer Cleveland’s Sabathia for eight runs to win ALCS opener

The two contenders in the 2007 American League Championship Series had identical 96-66 records during the regular season, but in their seven head-to-head meetings, the Boston Red Sox had won five, giving them home-field advantage over the Cleveland Indians.1 Boston had decisively swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL Division Series, while Cleveland took three out of four from the New York Yankees.2 The Indians had been in and out of first place in the AL Central Division all season until they began to pull away from the pack at the end of August and finished eight games ahead of the second-place Detroit Tigers. The Red Sox had been in first place since April 18 but had won the AL East by only two games over the Yankees.

Starting for Terry Francona and the Red Sox in the opener at Fenway Park was Josh Beckett, 20-7 with a 3.27 ERA. The 27-year-old right-hander had shut out the Angels in a Game One ALDS four-hitter. In 2003 he had helped the Florida Marlins to a World Series win with two postseason shutouts: a two-hitter in Game Five of the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs and the clinching Game Six of the World Series against the Yankees, a five-hitter that netted him the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.

Cleveland manager Eric Wedge’s starter was left-hander CC Sabathia (19-7, 3.21 ERA). A three-time All-Star, the 27-year-old Sabathia went on to receive the AL Cy Young Award in 2007. He had won Game One of the Division Series against the Yankees, 12-3. Against Boston earlier in the year, he had lost a 1-0 game on July 24.3 Of particular concern was Manny Ramírez, who had been with the Indians from 1993 through 2000, but with Boston since.4 He came into the game hitting Sabathia at .571 (12-for-21) with three doubles and four home runs.

The two teams seemed pretty evenly matched when taking into account, offense, starting pitching, the bullpens, and the backup players. Apparently wagering odds somewhat favored the Red Sox.5

Any thought of another postseason shutout for Beckett was gone in the first inning. He struck out the first two batters – Grady Sizemore and 21-year-old rookie second baseman Asdrúbal Cabrera – but DH Travis Hafner homered just over the visitors’ bullpen in right field, and the Indians had a quick 1-0 lead.

Dustin Pedroia led off for Boston, lining out – hard – directly back to Sabathia, but the next three Red Sox all singled to center field: Kevin Youkilis (past shortstop), David Ortiz (just to the right of second), and (to the left of the shortstop, earning a run batted in) Manny Ramírez. Mike Lowell hit into an inning-ending double play, but the game was tied.6

Neither side got a man on in the second; Sabathia struck out all three batters he faced.

Beckett struck out two of the three batters he faced in the third. Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo led off the bottom of the inning with a ground-rule double into the right-field corner. As runs were expected to be at a premium, Pedroia sacrificed Lugo to third. Youkilis walked on four pitches. Ortiz was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Ramírez walked, forcing in the go-ahead run.

Lowell hit a ground-rule double, driving in two more as it bounced off the warning track, then the tip of Franklin Gutierrez’s glove, into the seats near the right-field corner. With still just one out, right fielder Bobby Kielty was walked intentionally. Jason Varitek grounded to third base, and Casey Blake took the out at first as another run scored for a 5-1 Boston lead.

Neither side got a man on base in the fourth. In the fifth, Beckett hit first baseman Ryan Garko, but on the next pitch Jhonny Peralta hit into a double play. A two-base hit by Kenny Lofton followed, but then Beckett struck out Gutierrez.

The Red Sox added three more runs in their half of the inning. Ortiz walked. Ramírez singled to center. Lowell walked, loading the bases. After two balls to Kielty, Sabathia had to put one over the plate and Kielty singled to right, driving in two runs. Lowell was tagged out close to third base, though, while Kielty took advantage of the throw to move up to second.

After the game, manager Wedge stated the obvious: “This was not C.C.’s night.”7 He paused and added, “He never really got in synch.”8 Jensen Lewis relieved Sabathia. Kielty scored on Varitek’s double to right-center, making it 8-1.

The Indians scored once in the sixth inning on a leadoff double by Blake and a one-out single by Cabrera. The Red Sox lead had been cut to 8-2. They bumped up their lead by adding two more runs right away. Both Pedroia and Youkilis singled to right. Aaron Fultz relieved Lewis. He pitched to two batters – Ortiz and Ramírez, never an enviable task – and he walked them both. The walk to Ramírez forced in a run, his second RBI of the game earned by a base on balls.9 Tom Mastny relieved Fultz, and Lowell’s sacrifice fly to center produced yet another run.

With a 10-2 lead, Mike Timlin relieved Beckett in the seventh.10 It was a cold evening. The Red Sox starter had left after 80 pitches, observed the Boston Globe, “of his own volition … one that could prove fortuitous if the Sox need him to pitch on short rest in Game 4.”11 The only runner to reach was Garko on a leadoff single. Mastny gave up a leadoff double to Coco Crisp in the bottom of the seventh, but no other Red Sox reached.

In the eighth, Blake again led off an inning with a double, this time against new Red Sox reliever Javier Lopez. Blake tagged and went to third on a fly ball to right by Sizemore, then tagged and scored on Cabrera’s fly ball to left. Boston led 10-3.

Against Joe Borowski, Ortiz doubled to lead off the eighth, and Ramírez drew another walk, but Borowski then retired the next three Red Sox. Between the two of them – Ortiz and Ramírez – they had 10 plate appearances and got on base every one of the 10 times. Three times the sluggers had walked after starting the plate appearance with a 0-and-2 count.12 The 35-year-old Ramírez even got credit for stellar defensive play in left field.13

Eric Gagne finished up for the Red Sox. He gave up a one-out single to Peralta and a double to Lofton and, with two outs, a walk to Blake that loaded the bases. But he struck out Sizemore for the third out and the game was over.14

Sabathia’s “terrible performance” amped up the pressure on Cleveland’s Game Two starter, Fausto Carmona.15  

After the game, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote something no living Red Sox fan had likely ever envisioned before the franchise snapped its 86-year World Series championship drought in 2004: the team as “favorites to win the World Series … a sense of inevitability about their 2007 playoff march.”16

There were, though, more games to play. In yet another self-evident assessment, Kenny Lofton said, “It’s just one game. This is a seven-game series. Somebody had to lose Game 1.”17

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Madison McEntire 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 at YouTube.com. Thanks to Joe Wancho for supplying Cleveland newspaper accounts. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200710120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2007/B10120BOS2007.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx1yIw0um3w

Photo credit: Manny Ramírez, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 There was some playoff history between the two teams. Back in 1948, Cleveland had won a single-game playoff at Fenway Park for the American League pennant. In that year, they beat Boston’s other team, the National League Braves, in a six-game World Series. The Indians had swept the 1995 Division Series from the Red Sox. In 1998, they beat the Red Sox in the ALDS, three games to one. The following year – 1999 – the Red Sox turned the tables, winning the ALDS, three games to two, but lost to the Yankees in the ALCS.

2 Both Game One and Game Four were unfortunate losses by overmatched starter Chien-Ming Wang, who – despite leading the Yankees for two years in a row with 19 wins and with the best ERA among the starters in 2007 – wound up throwing a total of 5⅔ innings with an ERA of 19.06.

3 Daisuke Matsuzaka won that game for the Red Sox. The very next day, Cleveland’s Roberto Hernandez went the first eight innings as the Indians beat the Red Sox, 1-0.

4 Indeed, as Cleveland reporter Bill Lubinger pointed out, “Boston’s scorecard lists former Indians Manny Ramírez, Coco Crisp, Alex Cora and pitching coach John Farrell, who still lives here. Indians Trot Nixon, Kelly Shoppach and manager Eric Wedge once played for the other guys.” Bill Lubinger, “A Shared Faith in Curses, Failures,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 12, 2007: D1.

5 John Powers, “Sox Happily Shed the Underdog Label,” Boston Globe, October 1, 2007: A1. The bullpen was arguably where the Red Sox were strongest. See Nick Cafardo, “In the End, Sox’ Pen Is Mightier,” Boston Globe, October 12, 2007: C9.

6 Pedroia’s leadoff liner “almost knocked Sabathia’s hat straight,” quipped Cleveland columnist Bud Shaw. See “Indians Missing One of Two Aces Up Their Sleeve,” Clevland Plain Dealer, October 13, 2007: D1.

7 Paul Hoynes, “Behind 8 Ball C.C. Allows Boston 8 Runs in 4⅓ Innings,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 13, 2007: D1. “I don’t think it’s fatigue,” said Wedge. “He’s strong, really strong. I think sometimes C.C.’s heart gets in the way. He tries to do too much.”

8 Jim McCabe, “Shaky Sabathia Was Out of Control,” Boston Globe, October 13, 2007: D4. Before this game, Sabathia had walked 11 batters in 9⅓ postseason innings, in direct contrast to walking only 37 in a majors-leading 241 regular-season innings of work. Beckett had not walked anyone.

9 The two bases on balls issued by Fultz were the sum total of his work in the ALCS.

10 For an appreciation of Beckett’s work, see Jackie MacMullan, “Big-Game Beckett Strikes Again,” Boston Globe, October 13, 2007: D1.

11 Gordon Edes, “Onslaught: On and On It Goes; Ortiz and Ramírez Lead Red Sox Rout,” Boston Globe, October 13, 2007: D1.

12 Nick Cafardo, “Ortiz, Ramírez Reach Back for Extra,” Boston Globe, October 13, 2007: D2. Mike Lowell marveled, “I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re aggressive, they’re patient, they’re picking their spots. … It’s really special, going up against a pitcher like C.C., to get on every time is unbelievable.”   

13 Amalie Benjamin, “Slugger Also Made Sure to Have Field Day in Left,” Boston Globe, October 13, 2007: D2.

14 Gagne had struck out three opponents in the ninth, just as Beckett had in the first. In both innings, though, other Indians reached base.

15 Terry Pluto, “Carmona’s Job Just Got Harder,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 13, 2007: D13. Later in his career, Carmona was known as Roberto Hernández.

16 Dan Shaughnessy, “Sox Put a Chill on Indians in Opener,” Boston Globe, October 1, 2007: 1. And this from the author of The Curse of the Bambino (New York: Dutton, 1990).

17 Hoynes. The Indians won the next three games of the series to take a three-games-to-one lead, but the Red Sox won the final three, outscoring Cleveland 30-5, to reach the World Series, where they swept the Colorado Rockies in four games for the seventh World Series title in franchise history.