October 13, 2007: Cleveland explodes for 7 unanswered runs in 11th inning to beat Red Sox in Game 2

Any thought of the inevitability of the Boston Red Sox winning the 2007 American League pennant and World Series was likely dispelled by the way Game Two of the AL Championship Series turned out. Yes, the Cleveland Indians had been thrashed in Game One, a 10-3 defeat, but they turned the tables in Game Two.

The starters for Game Two on October 13 at Fenway Park were Curt Schilling for the Red Sox and Roberto Hernández – then known as Fausto Carmona – for the Indians. The 40-year-old Schilling came into the game with the best career won-lost record in major-league postseason history (9-2). Though he had ended the season at just 9-8 with a lackluster 3.87 ERA, he had thrown seven shutout innings in Game Three of the Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Indians manager Eric Wedge’s starter was Hernández, who went by Carmona until after the 2011 season.1 The 27-year-old native of the Dominican Republic was 19-8 with an ERA of 3.08 in his second season in the majors. It turned out to be, by far, his best year in a big-league career that took him into the 2016 season. His work in 2007 had been quite a turnaround after he went 1-10 in 2006, with a 5.42 ERA.

Neither pitcher made it through five innings.

Grady Sizemore led off for Cleveland. After a 0-for-5, three-strikeout night in Game One, he doubled to center. Schilling got outs from the next two batters, but catcher Victor Martínez then doubled off the left-field wall, driving in Sizemore with the first run of the game.

Hernández struck out the first batter he faced, Dustin Pedroia, then walked both Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. Manny Ramírez – who reached base in all five of his Game One plate appearances – hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Jhonny Peralta led off the Indians second with a single, but an out and a double play followed. It was three up/three down for the Red Sox in the bottom of the inning.

Likewise, the Indians were three up/three down in the top of the third. The Red Sox fared better in their half. First up was Coco Crisp. He singled to right. While Julio Lugo was batting, Crisp stole second. Lugo struck out, but Pedroia walked on four pitches. After Youkilis struck out, Ortiz reached on a single back to the pitcher and the bases were loaded, albeit with two outs.

Ramírez walked on four pitches – for the second game in a row picking up an RBI on a bases-loaded walk.2 Mike Lowell followed with a single to right that drove in both Pedroia and Ortiz and gave Boston a 3-1 lead. J.D. Drew grounded out, second to first. Hernández threw 39 pitches in the inning.

In the fourth inning, Cleveland went back ahead, 4-3, on a single to right by Martinez, a single to center by Ryan Garko, and a three-run homer by Peralta that “banged off the back wall of the triangle in center.”3

The Indians added a run in the fifth on a one-out solo home run by Sizemore, his second extra-base hit of the game.4 After Schilling struck out Cabrera, Martinez and Travis Hafner singled. Manager Terry Francona called on Manny Delcarmen in relief; it was only the second time in Schilling’s 19 postseason starts that he did not complete at least five innings. Garko grounded into a force play.

The Red Sox responded in their half of the fifth. On Hernández’s 100th pitch of the game, Youkilis singled to left, and Wedge called in lefty Rafael Pérez from the bullpen.

Pérez, who had a 1.78 ERA in 44 regular-season appearances, got Ortiz to ground into a force play at second base. He got ahead of Manny Ramírez with two strikes, but Ramírez drove the next pitch into the Boston bullpen for a game-tying two-run homer. It was the 23rd postseason home run of Ramírez’s career, eclipsing Bernie Williams for first place all-time.

Three pitches later, Lowell made it back-to-back homers with a blast off the Sports Authority billboard atop Fenway Park’s left-field wall. Boston now held a 6-5 lead. After Drew singled to left field, Wedge summoned Jensen Lewis to take over from Perez. Varitek hit into a 5-4-3 double play.

The Red Sox were up by a run, but only for a few minutes. Cleveland tied it in the sixth with a walk to Peralta, a single to right (Peralta going to third) by 40-year-old Kenny Lofton, and an RBI groundout to short by Franklin Gutierrez. Hideki Okajima relieved Delcarmen and – despite loading the bases on an intentional walk to Sizemore and an infield single by Cabrera – got the two outs he needed.

From the bottom of the third through the top of the sixth, the teams had combined for 11 runs on 15 hits, but the bullpens restored order over the next few innings. Cleveland’s Lewis and Rafael Betancourt teamed up for three straight one-two-three innings from the sixth through the eighth. Boston’s Okajima retired the Indians in order in the seventh, and Mike Timlin did the same in the eighth.

In the top of the ninth, with the score still 6-6, Jonathan Papelbon became Boston’s fifth pitcher of the evening. After a pair of infield popups made it nine Indians retired in a row, Hafner singled. Pinch-runner Josh Barfield stole second, but Papelbon worked his way out of the inning with an intentional walk and a force play at second.

The Red Sox more or less replicated the scenario against Betancourt in the bottom of the inning. Two outs to start the inning extended Boston’s string of hitless plate appearances to 12. Then a single by Pedroia, a pinch-runner, and a stolen base by pinch-runner Jacoby Ellsbury put the potential winning run in scoring position, but Youkilis flied to center for the third out.

Papelbon set down Cleveland on order in the top of the 10th and the stage was set for more late-inning heroics by Ortiz or Ramirez, or possibly Lowell, but Tom Mastny retired all three.

The Indians blew the game open in the top of the 11th. The Red Sox had turned to Éric Gagné, who was acquired from the Texas Rangers at the July 31 trading deadline. In Game One, he had come in with a seven-run lead in the top of the ninth. He faced six batters, loading the bases on two singles and a walk and striking out the other three.

In a tied Game Two, Gagné struck out Casey Blake, but Sizemore singled and Cabrera walked. Left-hander Javier López relieved Gagné. A Boston Globe writer dubbed the outing as “Gagné’s rocky horror pitcher show.”5 López, who had worked in 61 games with a 3.10 ERA during the season, had it worse. Trot Nixon, with Boston for the first 10 seasons of his career before signing with Cleveland as a free agent in January 2007, pinch-hit. He dropped a single into center, scoring Sizemore. Cabrera ran to third base on the throw to the plate.

With Martínez at bat, López threw a wild pitch and Cabrera scored for an 8-6 lead. Martínez was then walked intentionally. Garko skipped a single over the mound and into center, giving Cleveland its third run.

Another call to the pen brought it Jon Lester. Lester was 4-0 in the regular season, with a 4.57 ERA in 12 appearances (11 of them starts).6 Peralta doubled over third and into the left-field corner, driving in Martínez. Lofton flied out to center, but Gutierrez capped off the inning with a three-run homer into the Green Monster seats in left-center. Cleveland led, 13-6.

Joe Borowski was asked to hold the seven-run lead.7 While he gave up a pair of singles, a strikeout and a double play ended the night at 1:37 A.M. In a game that had become a battle of the bullpens – seven relievers for the Red Sox and five for the Indians – the Indians clearly came out on top.

The seven extra-inning runs for Cleveland were the most any postseason team had scored in one extra inning.8 It was also the first extra-inning postseason game the Red Sox had ever lost at home. They had been 7-0, with a tie in Game Two of the 1912 World Series.

Cleveland had evened the best-of-seven series at one win apiece, with the next three games to be played at its home ballpark, Jacobs Field.9  

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Jhonny Peralta, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and a video of some highlights of the game on YouTube.com. Thanks to Joe Wancho for supplying Cleveland newspaper accounts of the game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200710130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2007/B10130BOS2007.htm

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

Notes

1 He was known as Fausto Carmona during the 2007 season and pitched under that name. His birth name, and one he reverted to after the 2011 season, is Roberto Hernandez. Thus, in 2012 the Cleveland Indians right-hander named Roberto Hernandez is the same pitcher who was – through 2011 – known as Fausto Carmona. Hernandez was arrested in his native Dominican Republic in January 2012 due to a doctored birth certificate (one which also claimed he was three years younger than he really was). He served a suspension and returned to the Indians as Hernandez in August 2012. See Casey Drottar, “Indians Lookback: The Strange Saga of the Man Once Called Fausto Carmona,” Sports Illustrated, si.com, April 6, 2020. https://www.si.com/mlb/guardians/opinion/indians-lookback-the-strange-saga-of-the-man-once-called-fausto-carmona. Accessed January 7, 2023.

2 Indeed, it was his third bases-loaded walk in two games, setting a new postseason record. Mary Schmitt Boyer, “Ramirez Altering Record Books,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2007: C4. Terry Pluto pointed out that the Red Sox led the league in taking bases on balls, while Indians pitchers had walked the fewest. He added, “The patience of the Red Sox hitters is frustrating the Tribe’s two aces – something that never happened during the regular season.” Terry Pluto, “Few Have Won Down Two to None,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2007: C5.

3 Dan Shaughnessy, “Red Sox Get Caught into Another Classic,” Boston Globe, October 14, 2007: A1, C9.

4 Sizemore had been very effective for Cleveland, playing in every regular-season game and leading off in 150 of them, fourth in the league with 118 runs scored. In this game, he doubled, homered, got an intentional walk, and singled, scoring three runs. Joe Maxse, “Leadoff Hitter Takes the Lead,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2007: C6.

5 Kevin Paul Dupont, “Lesson Learned after an All-Nighter,” Boston Globe, October 15, 2007: F5.

6 Lester had beaten back cancer in the interim. In late August 2006 (with a record of 7-2), he had been diagnosed with cancer, undergone treatment, and only returned in late July 2007. His story is told in the SABR book Overcoming Adversity: Baseball’s Tony Conigliaro Award, Bill Nowlin and Clayton Trutor, eds. (Phoenix: SABR, 2017).

7 The seven runs for Cleveland were the most by a team in one extra inning in postseason history.

8 Paul Hoynes, “Trot’s Delight/Nixon’s RBI Ignites 7-Run 11th,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 14, 2007: C1.

9 The Indians won the next two 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.