September 19, 2013: Red Sox clinch a playoff berth behind John Lackey’s gem

At the end of play on September 18, 2013, the Boston Red Sox had played 153 games and held a record of 92-61. They were first in the American League East, eight games ahead of the second-place Tampa Bay Rays. There were nine games left to play.

Around the league, the 89-63 Oakland Athletics led the AL West and the 88-64 Detroit Tigers led the AL Central. The Baltimore Orioles (themselves still in contention for a wild-card slot) were in Boston and had beaten the Red Sox, 3-2, in the series opener on Tuesday, September 17. A win on Wednesday, September 18, would have clinched at least a wild-card slot for the Red Sox, but that possibility evaporated when the Orioles won yet again, 5-3, in 12 innings. 

The two teams had played each other 15 times in 2013, and Baltimore had won nine games to date. After the three-game set in Boston, there remained three games at Camden Yards to close the season. No one team had yet clinched a playoff spot. Though Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe noted, “While Boston, Detroit, and Oakland have for all intents and purposes wrapped up the division crowns, the wild-card spots are up for grabs.”1 The Orioles were just two games behind Tampa Bay; they had every reason to fight hard.

The Red Sox had their eyes on winning the division but were aware they had not yet clinched a playoff berth.

Starting for the Red Sox in the Thursday night game at Fenway Park was right-hander John Lackey (9-12, with a 3.56 ERA). He’d lost a lot of games due to poor (or nonexistent) run support. Six times during the 2013 season, Lackey had lost games in which the Red Sox had been shut out.2

Starting for Buck Showalter’s Orioles was Chris Tillman. A righty, too, he was 16-6 with a 3.70 ERA. He’d faced the Red Sox four times to this point in 2013 and was 3-0. The Baltimore Sun observed, “His 2.15 career ERA in nine previous starts against the Red Sox was the lowest career ERA against Boston for any pitcher who has logged at least 50 innings.”3

In the first inning, Lackey got two infield groundouts and struck out first baseman Chris Davis, who had belted his majors-best 51st home run of the season two nights earlier, on September 17. Tillman had a more difficult time in the bottom of the first. Leadoff batter and second baseman Dustin Pedroia hit a ground-rule double to right-center. He moved to third base on a groundout, and David Ortiz walked. Tillman struck out first baseman Mike Napoli and got left fielder Mike Carp to line out to left-center.

Lackey struck out the first two Orioles he faced in the second inning and got the third to line out to right. In the bottom of the inning, the Red Sox scored all the runs they needed. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia doubled to right. One out later, Stephen Drew, the shortstop, swung at Tillman’s first pitch and homered to left-center, into the first row of seats atop Fenway Park’s Green Monster.

Jackie Bradley Jr. hit an opposite-field double to left. Pedroia hit to the opposite field, too, singling to right field and scoring Bradley. Daniel Nava walked on five pitches, but Tillman struck out sluggers Ortiz and Napoli, both on swinging strikes. The Red Sox held a 3-0 lead.

Second baseman Brian Roberts worked a two-out walk off Lackey in the third but was the only Oriole to reach base. Tillman set the Red Sox down in order. Indeed, after walking Nava, Tillman retired 13 of the next 14 batters.

Not one Oriole reached in the top of the fourth. The only Red Sox batter to reach was Bradley, who singled up the middle.

In the fifth, it was three-up, three-down for both teams.

Left fielder Nate McLouth walked with two outs in the Orioles half of the sixth inning. Manny Machado, an MVP candidate at age 21, flied to right for the third out. The Red Sox got a two-out triple by Drew, swinging at the first pitch and driving a ball that glanced off center fielder Adam Jones’s glove, but he was stranded when Tillman struck out Bradley.

Lackey still had a no-hitter going as the seventh inning began. Both that and his shutout went away when Adam Jones hit a one-out home run over everything in left field and onto the street beyond. Nick Markakis struck out and Danny Valencia grounded out, short to first. Tillman set down the Red Sox in order.

It was thus 3-1 entering the eighth. With one out, shortstop J.J. Hardy singled between first and second, only the second hit off Lackey all evening. Roberts flied out to center and McLouth   grounded out, second to first.

Darren O’Day relieved Tillman to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Napoli swing at the first pitch and grounded out third to first. It was the only pitch O’Day threw in the game. Because Carp, a left-handed hitter, was due up next, Showalter had Brian Matusz come in to pitch. Red Sox manager John Farrell countered by having Jonny Gomes pinch-hit for Carp.4 It took four pitches, but Matusz stuck out Gomes. On the first pitch he saw, Saltalamacchia grounded out, third to first.

Lackey came back out to pitch the ninth inning. He hadn’t thrown a complete game all season, but he had a two-hitter going and a narrow 3-1 lead. Not a single batter other than Jones had gotten as far as second base. He’d thrown exactly 100 pitches. Farrell stuck with him. It was a good choice. Machado popped up foul to first base. Chris Davis struck out swinging. Adam Jones flied out deep to right. The game was over.

Lackey had a two-hitter, a complete game, and, as the ballpark videoboard proclaimed, “Red Sox have clinched a 2013 postseason playoff berth.” There was no celebrating by the players, though – “no wild postgame celebration on the field, just the normal shaking of hands and patting of backsides.”5 The Red Sox had guaranteed themselves a position in the playoffs, just the year after they had finished last in the division, 26 games behind the first-place Yankees; but their goal was to win the division.

Though it was just one loss, and the Orioles had won the previous three games, they were now two games behind in the wild-card standings with only 10 games left to play. Showalter said, “Mathematically, over a long season [winning two out of three] bodes well, but we’re in a different spot. Every game is either a gained opportunity or a missed one.”6

The Red Sox made the most of their playoff run, beating the Rays three games to one in the Division Series, the Tigers four games to two in the League Championship Series, and the St. Louis Cardinals in six games in the 2013 World Series, winning the championship at home for the first time since 1918. Lackey won Game Two of the ALDS, shut out the Tigers 1-0 in Game Three of the ALCS, and pitched three times in the World Series. He lost Game Two, 4-2, earned a hold with one inning of scoreless relief in Game Four, and started and won the clinching Game Six, throwing 6⅔ innings of one-run ball in a game they won 6-1.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Malcolm Allen for access to the Baltimore Sun.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201309190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B09190BOS2013.htm

Notes

1 Nick Cafardo, “Surging Orioles Have Been on One Wild Ride,” Boston Globe, September 19, 2013: C1.

2 The first five shutouts were on the road: April 6, July 7, July 26, August 5, and August 23. The Red Sox had been shut out on September 2 at Fenway Park. Lackey had missed all of 2012 due to Tommy John surgery.

3 Eduardo A. Encina, “Offense Can’t Muster Third Comeback,” Baltimore Sun, September 20, 2013: Sports 1.

4 Eduardo A. Encina, “O’Day Back for ‘Most Fun Time of the Year,’” Baltimore Sun, September 20, 2013: Sports 7.

5 Nick Cafardo, “Party Will Have to Wait,” Boston Globe, September 20, 2013: C1. If they won the division, that would be nice, too, but they wanted to win enough games to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

6 Encina, “Offense Can’t Muster Third Comeback.”