October 17, 2013: Red Sox put together second 1-run road win of ALCS

The pitching matchup for Game Five of the 2013 American League Championship Series was the same as in Game One, Aníbal Sánchez of the Detroit Tigers versus Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox. Both pitchers had been exceptional, with Sánchez throwing a no-hitter through six innings and Lester giving up only one run, in the top of the sixth. Detroit won at Fenway Park, 1-0.

Now Sánchez and Lester took the mound at Detroit’s Comerica Park. It promised to be an exciting game, and with the ALCS tied at two games apiece, whichever team won would be one win from the World Series.

Any possibility of another scoreless standoff into the later innings was dispelled in the top of the second inning.

The first inning was routine enough for Sánchez. He struck out Jacoby Ellsbury, got Shane Victorino to ground out, saw Dustin Pedroia ground a single to left, but then got David Ortiz to ground out to first base unassisted.

Lester had a more difficult time of it, but the end result was the same. After a one-out walk to Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder singled, Cabrera stopping at second.1 Victor Martinez flied out to center. Jhonny Peralta singled to left field, but the throw from Jonny Gomes in left to David Ross at the plate was on the money and Cabrera was out.2

The only run in Game Three, the series’ first game in Detroit, was a seventh-inning solo home run by Boston’s Mike Napoli. That homer was hit off Justin Verlander, and four Red Sox pitchers made it stand up for a 1-0 win.

In Game Five, Napoli was the first batter up in the Red Sox second inning and, on a count of 3-and-1, he homered well over the 420-foot sign in straightaway center field.

Gomes was up next and reached first on a fielding error by third baseman Cabrera. Shortstop Stephen Drew struck out, but 21-year-old rookie third baseman Xander Bogaerts doubled to left, Gomes stopping at third. Ross doubled off the front of the bullpen in left and Gomes scored.

Ellsbury singled off Sánchez’s glove; Bogaerts came home with the third Boston run and Ross went to third. With Victorino batting, Ellsbury stole second base. Victorino hit the next pitch to Omar Infante, playing in on the infield grass at second, and Ross attempted to score. There was a hard collision between Ross and Tigers catcher Alex Avila, who held onto Infante’s throw for the out. Pedroia hit into a force play at second, ending the inning, but the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Lester gave up a two-out single to Austin Jackson, then saw him take second base on a passed ball, but struck out Jose Iglesias.3

The Red Sox added an insurance run – one they needed, as it happened – in the top of the third.  After shortstop Iglesias made a running catch of Ortiz’s popup, Napoli hit a ground-rule double that hopped into the seats in the left-field corner.4 Gomes grounded out to Sánchez, whose throw was to first. Napoli took third. With Drew up and a 2-and-2 count, Sánchez threw a ball that hit in the dirt well in front of the plate and went astray – a wild pitch – and Napoli ran for home and scored what became the winning run in the game.5

Lester set down the Tigers in order in their half of the third.

The starting pitchers put up scoreless innings in the fourth, aided by double plays. Ross hit a one-out single but was quickly erased by a 4-6-3 double play. Martinez led off the bottom of the inning with a single. After a fly out to center, Detroit’s Infante worked a walk. Tigers manager Jim Leyland had Brayan Peña pinch-hit for Avila, who was perhaps subpar following the collision at the plate in the second inning. But Lester turned Peña’s grounder into an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.

Both Ortiz and Napoli (with his third hit of the game) hit two-out singles in the fifth, but Gomes grounded out, short to first. The Tigers then began their middle-innings campaign to chip away at Boston’s 4-0 lead. Jackson led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to center – reaching base for the seventh straight time after being moved down in the order from leadoff to eighth. Though down by four runs, Iglesias bunted – and almost made it, on a very close play at first base after Lester first bobbled the ball, then scooped it with his glove to Napoli.

Torii Hunter popped up foul behind the plate, but Cabrera lined a single into center, and Jackson scored. Fielder grounded out to second, the throw going to first.

After Sánchez struck out two Boston batters in the sixth, with a harmless popup to short in between, the Tigers scored another run. Victor Martinez’s leadoff walk was the rally starter, and Infante hit a one-out single to center.

Lester had thrown 98 pitches at this point, and the Red Sox had a 4-1 lead. Boston manager John Farrell felt it was a good time to bring in a reliever. Junichi Tazawa arrived from the bullpen. Peña hit his first pitch for a single to left, Martinez scored from second, and it was 4-2. There was still just one out, but Jackson hit into a 5-4-3 double play and that closed the sixth.

Leyland used two relievers – lefty Phil Coke and righty Jose Veras – for a scoreless seventh, and Detroit’s one-run-per-inning attack resumed its siege in the bottom of the seventh. With Tazawa still pitching, Iglesias became the fourth consecutive Tigers leadoff hitter to reach by singling to center. When Hunter singled to right, there were runners at the corners for Cabrera, who had led the majors in batting average (.348), on-base percentage (.442), and slugging percentage (.636) in 2013, on his way to his second consecutive AL MVP Award.

Pedroia, however, turned Cabrera’s grounder to second into a 4-3 double play as Iglesias scored Detroit’s third run. Lefty Craig Breslow relieved Tazawa and got left-handed batter Fielder to ground out, Pedroia to Napoli. It was a one-run game now, though, 4-3.

Veras retired the Red Sox in order in the top of the eighth. After Breslow retired Martinez on a groundout to first base, played unassisted, Koji Uehara was brought in from the Boston bullpen for the final five outs.  He got the first two in fine style, striking out both Peralta and Infante, both on swinging third strikes.

In the top of the ninth, Al Alburquerque took over for the Tigers, hoping to prevent the Red Sox from adding to their slim lead. Bogaerts got on base to start, with a base on balls. Will Middlebrooks took over as a pinch-runner. Ross laid down a sacrifice toward third base on the first pitch he saw, and was out, but (having seen that no one was covering third base) Middlebrooks was able to go all the way to third on the play, getting in just safely on a play that saw Peña taking the throw at third base. Ellsbury was intentionally walked. He then frustrated the force-play possibilities by stealing second base. The Red Sox had runners on second and third with one out, seeking an insurance run. Victorino, however, struck out. Just to be sure, on a ball that hit the dirt as he swung on strike three, Peña threw the ball to first base. Pedroia swung at the first pitch but hit a fly ball to center field.

The Tigers came up in the bottom of the ninth against Uehara, who had a 1.09 ERA in the regular season, with 21 saves and a 4-1 record.6 All three batters made contact, but all three balls were hit to Red Sox fielders. Peña flied out to Gomes in left field. Jackson flied to Ellsbury in center. Iglesias battled for eight pitches, but on the ninth, popped up to Pedroia at second base.7

The game was over, a 4-3 Red Sox win, their third one-run win in the 2013 ALCS. The two teams headed for their respective aircraft to play Game Six in Boston on October 19. If the Tigers won, the series would be tied at three wins apiece. If the Red Sox won, it was all over, and they would be the team heading to the World Series.

“We’re happy to be going back to Boston,” said catcher Ross. “We smell victory.”8

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Koji Uehara, 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 the game on YouTube. Thanks to Gary Gillette for providing access to Detroit newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET201310170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B10170DET2013.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikyc6y5imw&t=7268s

Notes

1 That Fielder singled was welcome, though it did not contribute to the scoring. Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press had been on him prior to Game Five, noting that his “career postseason batting average was .197 and he had a 16-game postseason streak without driving in a run. He’s impatiently giving away at-bats, too often swinging at the first pitch rather than grinding though the count.” Drew Sharp, “Prince’s Ransom, but Few Results,” Detroit Free Press, October 18, 2013: 10B.

2 Ross had suffered two concussions during the regular season. The collision at the plate was by no means a major one, but Ross still allowed, “I’m going to be sore tomorrow.” Nick Cafardo, “Ross Not Your Average Backup,” Boston Globe, October 18, 2013: D3.

3 Iglesias had begun 2013 with the Red Sox before going to Detroit in the three-team deal that brought pitcher Jake Peavy from the Chicago White Sox to the Red Sox in July.

4 On the Fox broadcast, available via YouTube, it was said Iglesias had run 133 feet to catch the popup.

5 The Boston Globe devoted a full article to an appreciation of Napoli’s work for the team in 2013. Christopher L. Gasper, “Powerful Statement,” Boston Globe, October 18, 2013: D2.

6 This was his fourth save of the postseason and he had whittled his  ERA down to 1.13.

7 Bob Hohler, “Bullpen Roared In to Save Day,” Boston Globe, October 18, 2013: D4.

8 Peter Abraham, “Motoring Home,” Boston Globe, October 18, 2013: D1. The Red Sox beat the Tigers in Game Six, 5-2, to win the AL pennant. They defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in six games for the World Series championship.