October 18, 2007: Beckett, Red Sox stave off elimination and send ALCS back to Boston

Once again, a “7” figured in an American League Championship Series game in 2007. The Boston Red Sox had won Game One by a seven-run margin, 10-3. In Game Two, the Cleveland Indians won by seven, thanks to seven runs scored in the top of the 11th inning. In Game Four, the decisive inning was another seven-run Indians’ inning, the bottom of the fifth.

In Game Five, played on October 18 at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field, the final score was 7-1, Red Sox, keeping alive the possibility of a Game Seven back in Boston. There certainly would be a Game Six. The win in this one reduced Cleveland’s three-games-to-one lead to three to two.

The Game Five matchup pitted the Game One starters against each other – winning pitcher Josh Beckett for Boston and losing pitcher CC Sabathia for Cleveland. Most agreed they were the leading contenders for the 2007 AL Cy Young Award, but Sabathia had been driven from the mound in Game One, giving up eight runs in 4⅓ innings. It was more than he’d given up at any time in the regular season, which he finished with a 3.21 ERA.

In some regards, the circumstances mirrored Game Five of the 2003 National League Championship Series, when Beckett was with the Florida Marlins. The Chicago Cubs led that series three games to one. Beckett threw a two-hit shutout, and the Marlins won the next two games as well, getting into the World Series against the New York Yankees. Beckett threw a shutout in the clinching game, winning the World Series for the Marlins.1

On the fourth pitch of this Game Five, Sabathia surrendered a one-out solo home run to Kevin Youkilis, onto the plaza deck in left field. It was the first time the Red Sox had scored first in an ALCS game in 2007.2 Manny Ramírez hit a two-out double to left-center and motored around third on Mike Lowell’s single to right, but Franklin Gutierrez threw him out at home plate. Ramírez’s hit had brought him to .500 in the ALCS. The hit also marked the 15th consecutive LCS game in which Ramírez had hit safely, tying Pete Rose for first on the all-time list.3 (The record holder through 2024 is Miguel Cabrera, who hit safely in 19 consecutive LCS games, through Game Two of the 2013 ALCS.) 

Beckett, the only 20-game winner in the majors in 2007,4 gave up one run in the first, too. Grady Sizemore led off with what the Cleveland Plain Dealer described as an “excuse-me double down the left-field line that fell among three Boston defenders.”5 Asdrúbal Cabrera singled to right, sending Sizemore to third, and the Indians tied the game when Travis Hafner grounded into a double play. Victor Martínez singled for Cleveland’s third hit of the inning, but Beckett struck out Ryan Garko for the final out.

After a scoreless second inning, Dustin Pedroia singled to start Red Sox third, but Youkilis hit into a double play. David Ortiz walked and then scored from first base when Ramírez hit a ball that bounced off the yellow line on the top of the fence in right and back into play. The umpires ruled that it was not a home run.6 Ramírez would have had a double had he run hard on contact, but it was a 390-foot RBI single and a 2-1 Red Sox lead.

Beckett, who had recorded two strikeouts around a walk in the second inning, struck out two more Indians in a one-two-three bottom of the third. He put up another perfect inning in the fourth.

Both teams had two-out threats in the fifth. Boston loaded the bases with single by Ortiz, a walk to Ramírez, and Lowell being hit by a Sabathia pitch, but Bobby Kielty flied out. Beckett retired nine batters in a row before Casey Blake and Sizemore singled with two outs in the Indians’ fifth. Cabrera struck out to end the inning.

It was three-up, three-down for both sides in the sixth. Both starters were still in the game. Pedroia led off the seventh with a two-base hit that bounced to the wall in center-right. Youkilis followed with a ball to right-center that glanced off the glove of a diving Sizemore and shot behind right fielder Gutierrez. Youkilis got a triple out of it, and Pedroia scored, increasing the Red Sox’ lead to 3-1.

Cleveland manager Eric Wedge beckoned in Rafael Betancourt from the bullpen. David Ortiz was up and the television broadcast informed viewers that in 45 postseason games, Ortiz had hit for a .442 batting average with runners in scoring position. Against a shift to guard against a ball pulled to the right side, Ortiz hit a fly ball to the warning track in left and Youkilis tagged and scored.7

After a scoreless bottom of the seventh for the Indians, the Red Sox faced left-hander Rafael Pérez. He walked J.D. Drew. One out later, Coco Crisp hit a high hopper right back to Pérez, who threw the ball into the dirt at second base. With runners at first and second, Julio Lugo attempted to sacrifice – and reached on a well-placed bunt toward third, fielded by Pérez. The bases were loaded on the bunt single.

Tom Mastny was waved in to relieve Pérez. Catcher Victor Martínez let a ball get past him – a passed ball, and another run scored. Pedroia walked. On four pitches, Youkilis walked, forcing in another run. Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to left-center and it was 7-1.

Beckett had thrown only 96 pitches so he remained in to work the bottom of the eighth. He got Sizemore to fly out to left. With his 11th strikeout of the game, he disposed of Cabrera. Hafner grounded out, shortstop to first. “Given the stakes,” wrote Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe, Beckett’s was “an even more impressive performance than the four-hit shutout of the impotent Angels. … The Indians team has some serious hitters, but they were pretty much mesmerized by Boston’s ace right-hander.”8

Jonathan Papelbon, who hadn’t pitched for five days, took over from Beckett in the ninth. Martinez struck out. Garko doubled and moved up third base on a groundout to shortstop. Kenny Lofton walked. Gutierrez flied out to center and the game was over.

Beckett improved to 3-0 in the 2007 postseason, with a 1.17 ERA and 26 strikeouts. After Cleveland’s three-hit first inning, wrote Paul Hoynes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Beckett “handled the Indians like they were a spring training split squad in early March,” limiting them to just three hits and a walk.9

Francona said, “We’ve leaned on him all year. … Once he settled down [after the first inning], he really became the guy[,] the dominant pitcher we rely on so much.”10

The Boston Globe’s Gordon Edes wrote that, adding in Beckett’s work for the Marlins, “he now belongs in the same conversation as Curt Schilling and Pedro Martínez when it comes to October mythmaking.”11

The Red Sox had prolonged the League Championship Series and forced a return to Fenway Park for Game Six. They were still at a disadvantage, down three games to two, but they were ready to turn things over to Schilling.

Bob Ryan wrapped it up in the Boston Globe: “The Red Sox would have taken any kind of win in order to extend their season, but Beckett gave them more than just a victory. He put a little spring in all their steps. This wasn’t about luck or chance or a disputed call that would have allowed the Indians to rationalize their inability to close out the Red Sox in their own stadium. Beckett sent the Red Sox back to Fenway feeling very good about themselves.”12

There was, as a subhead read on one Boston newspaper column, “A little October magic in the air.”13

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte 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. Thanks to Joe Wancho for supplying clippings from Cleveland newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE200710180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2007/B10180CLE2007.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eTFES9P8OU

Photo credit: Josh Beckett, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Beckett also earned a hold in Game Seven of the 2003 NLCS. He had shut out the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Game Three of the 2007 AL Division Series.

2 From the moment of the Youkilis home run, wrote columnist Bob Ryan, “the Red Sox had the look and feel and bounce of a team that, yup, really has been here before.” Bob Ryan, “More Than a Few Hearts to Support the Ace of Club,” Boston Globe, October 19, 2007: F1.

3 The 15-game run dated back to Game Five of the 2003 LCS. It was snapped in Game Six of 2007.  

4 Beckett’s 2007 slate: 20-7, 3.27 ERA.

5 Paul Hoynes, “Still Up for Grabs/Beckett Sends Indians on Way Back to Fenway,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 19, 2007: D1.

6 Red Sox manager Terry Francona argued, but after the game ultimately agreed with the umpires’ call. “The hard thing is, there’s so much emotion. … They hustled. They talked about it. From my understanding, even on replays, it’s a little bit hard to distinguish. So seeing it live and happening quick like that … I think there’s a point as a manager where you don’t care if it’s right, you want the run.” Mary Schmitt Boyer, “Manny’s World No Fun for Tribe,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 19, 2007: D7. There was some thought expressed at the time that Major League Baseball might begin to implement video review of such close calls. Instant replay was implemented beginning in the 2008 season, originally limited to questions involving possible home runs. In 2014 instant replay was expanded to include other calls. 

7 Youkilis had three RBIs in the game, and when combined with Pedroia, Ortiz, and Ramirez, the quartet at the top of the order were 7-for-14 with six RBIs and four runs scored.

8 Ryan.

9 Hoynes.

10 Jodie Valade, “As Boston Leans on Ace, Beckett Stands Tall,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 19, 2007: D7. Valade also pointed out that the Indians – perhaps trying a psychological ploy, had arranged for Beckett’s “ex-girlfriend, country singer Danielle Peck, to sing Thursday’s national anthem.” He “used an expletive to describe that he doesn’t get paid to make decisions on who sings” and said, “She’s a friend of mine. That doesn’t bother me at all. Thanks for flying one of my friends in for free so she could see the game.”

11 Gordon Edes, “Bring It Home,” Boston Globe, October 19, 2007: F1.

12 Ryan.

13 Dan Shaughnessy, “Mighty Turnaround,” Boston Globe, October 19, 2007: F1, F6. The Red Sox won the final two games to reach the World Series, then swept the Colorado Rockies in four games for the seventh World Series title in franchise history.