September 7, 2004: Johnny Damon hits his third leadoff home run of the year for Red Sox

It came on the second pitch of the game. Left-hander Mark Redman (10-10, 4.50 ERA) started for the Oakland A’s. He hadn’t pitched well at home in 2004, with an ERA that climbed to 7.25 after this game. His first pitch was low and outside – ball one. Boston Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon pulled the second pitch over the right-field wall to the left of the foul pole at the 330-foot mark and maybe seven rows into the seats.

It was Damon’s 15th home run of the 2004 season, and the 15th leadoff home run of his career. He’d missed the four previous games with a sprained pinkie finger on his right hand. The Red Sox were on their way to a 7-1 win, their 19th in 21 games and 13th in 14.

Righty Derek Lowe started for the Red Sox. He was 13-10 with a 5.15 ERA. It was his first time pitching at Oakland’s Network Associates Coliseum since he came out of the bullpen to secure the Red Sox’ series-clinching win in Game Five of the 2003 American League Division Series. Oakland center fielder Mark Kotsay swung at Lowe’s first pitch in the bottom of the first and singled. Lowe walked the next batter, but then retired three in a row.

First baseman Kevin Millar doubled into the left-field corner to lead off Boston’s second inning. Two outs followed, but then right fielder Gabe Kapler homered to left – maybe 10 rows deep and about 15 feet fair – to give the Red Sox a 3-0 lead and provide all the runs the team ultimately needed to win the game.

Lowe put up scoreless innings in the second and third. Outstanding Red Sox defense – shortstop Orlando Cabrera ranging up the middle to field Kotsay’s grounder and third baseman Bill Mueller’s diving catch of Mark McLemore’s liner – aided Lowe’s cause.

Oakland got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. An Erubiel Durazo double off the wall in left field on the 12th pitch of a lengthy at-bat started the inning, followed by an Eric Byrnes single, also to left. The Red Sox turned a 5-4-3 double play on catcher Damian Miller, but Durazo scored from third, cutting the deficit to 3-1.

Neither team scored in the fifth.

The first batter in Boston’s sixth inning, David Ortiz, the designated hitter, struck out. Catcher Jason Varitek, batting right-handed, doubled to left-center with a ball that one-hopped the wall. Millar walked. Cabrera doubled to left-center, driving in both baserunners, to give Lowe and the Red Sox some breathing room at 5-1.

One out later, Justin Duchscherer replaced Redman. Kapler singled to left, scoring Cabrera. When the ball glanced off Kotsay’s glove, Kapler thought he had a shot at taking second base but he was thrown out. It was, however, “the third time in three games he had delivered with two outs and runners in scoring position.”1 

The next run scored was again by the Red Sox, in the top of the eighth. Duscherer had retired five in a row, including the first two batters of the inning, but Millar hit the first pitch he saw to left field for a solo homer off the top of the wall at the 362-foot mark. That made it Boston 7, Oakland 1. It was Millar’s 15th homer of the season, capping a 3-for-3 game (he also had a base on balls.)

Lowe had pitched 6⅓ innings, allowing one run on five hits. It was, wrote the Boston Globe, a “rock-solid outing.”2 Alan Embree had relieved Lowe in the seventh and secured the final two outs. Mike Myers took over from Embree and worked the bottom of the eighth, throwing six pitches and inducing three infield groundouts.

Kapler doubled with one out in the top of the ninth, off new A’s pitcher Justin Lehr. Trot Nixon pinch-hit for Damon and grounded out to the first baseman, former Red Sox catcher Scott Hatteberg, who fielded the ball and threw to Lehr covering the bag. Lehr then struck out the final Boston batter, second baseman Mark Bellhorn.

Curtis Leskanic pitched the ninth for the Red Sox. Byrnes grounded out, short to first. Miller struck out. Shortstop Bobby Crosby flied out to left field, ending the game.

The Red Sox remained 2½ games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East Division race. Manager Terry Francona said, “Every night we’re patting somebody else on the back. I think that’s how winning teams play.”3 Starter Lowe said, “We’ve got so much confidence, we feel like we’re going to win.”4 A’s manager Ken Macha could say little more than “They’ve pretty much handed our hats to us.”5 

Boston had several hitting heroes in this game – Kapler and Millar’s homers and three-hit games, Cabrera’s game-breaking two-run double – but Damon’s first-pitch home run had set the tone for the night. It was Damon’s third leadoff home run of 2004, following his June 29 homer against Javier Vázquez of the Yankees at Yankee Stadium and August 17 blast against Ted Lilly of the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park.6 This homer gave him 67 RBIs from the leadoff spot, and he added another 27 in the final 22 games. For his career, he was 11-for-20 against Redman, with two of the hits homers.

The loss cost the A’s a game in the standings. Coming into the game, they had been in first place in the AL West, 2½ games ahead of the Anaheim Angels. Because the Angels beat the Blue Jays, 5-2, Oakland’s lead was trimmed to a game and a half. The Red Sox beat Oakland again on September 8, 8-3, to complete the three-game sweep.

The two California teams battled throughout the month, with Anaheim finally earning a tie for first place on September 28. They remained tied heading into October and a three-game series in Oakland. Anaheim won the first game, 10-0, and the second, 5-4. It was moot who won the final game; the Angels had won the West.

The Red Sox finished three games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East, but their overall 98-64 record earned them the wild-card slot. They swept the Angels in the American League Division Series, beating them twice in Anaheim, 9-3 and then 8-3, and winning the finale at Fenway Park, 8-6 in the 10th inning on a two-run homer by David Ortiz. After losing the first three games of the League Championship Series to the Yankees, the Red Sox won Games Four and Five – both on extra-inning walk-off hits by Ortiz – and then won the next two games as well advancing to the World Series, where they swept the St. Louis Cardinals.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, and a video of the game on YouTube.com

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200409070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B09070OAK2004.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GJQMmjm-0M

Notes

1 Bob Hohler, “West Coasting: Sox Win Again,” Boston Globe, September 8, 2004: D5. He had done so once on September 5 and twice in this September 7 game.

2 Hohler, D1.

3 Janie McCauley (Associated Press), Quincy (Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger, September 8, 2004: 21.

4 Susan Slusser, “A’s Red-Faced Redux,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2004: D1.

5 Slusser.

6 At Yankee Stadium on June 29, Damon had hit Vázquez’s 1-and-0 pitch to deep right field to open that Tuesday evening game. Lowe, the Red Sox starter that night, got banged around for nine runs, however, and the Yankees won the game, 11-3. At Fenway Park on August 17, Damon hit Lilly’s 2-and-1 pitch out, this time to deep left. That tied the game with the Blue Jays, 1-1. That game was tied, 4-4, heading into the bottom of the ninth. Damon was on first with one out when Cabrera doubled to center field, deep enough that Damon could circle the bases and score the winning run.