Thursday, September 29, Fenway Park, Section 14, Box 110Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 4
I was back on Thursday (my fourth straight day at Fenway, counting Monday's rainout!) and this time I was in a great seat in the infield behind first base. I had gotten the seats from a business associate a couple of days earlier, and brought my aunt. The game was, of course, crucial. The Red Sox had fallen a game behind the Yankees in the A.L. East after leading most of the summer, and were tied with Cleveland for the wild card. They couldn't afford to fall any further back. I heard on the radio on the way in that the Red Sox had acquired Mike Stanton from the Washington Nationals in a trade for two low-level minor leaguers. It was funny to acquire someone with only four days left in the season, since he wouldn't be eligible to pitch in the playoffs, but they were desperate for pitching help - especially in the form of a lefty - for the weekend series.
Matt Clement went against Scott Downs. Clement set the Jays down in order in the first. It was so important for him to have a good start, because the Sox were going to need him in the playoffs. He had a reputation in past years of fading down the stretch, but we hoped that being on the Red Sox where he could pitch to Jason Varitek would stop that trend. True, he hadn't been as good in the past two months as he had been in his All-Star first half, but I wasn't sure how much of it was due to the beaning he had suffered at the end of July. With one out in the second, Eric Hiske doubled. He stole third, and Varitek's throw went into left field, allowing the run to score. Toronto got another in the third, when Frank Catalanotto (who hits like Babe Ruth against the Red Sox and like, well, Frank Catalanotto against the rest of the league) doubled home Aaron Hill. The Red Sox got one run back in the bottom of the inning. Tony Graffanino doubled, Johnny Damon singled, and Edgar Renteria's groundout knocked in a run. David Ortiz came to the plate to thunderous "MVP, MVP" chants. It looked like the vote would come down to him and Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees. A-Rod didn't make much sense to me as a candidate, because I didn't even think he was the most valuable player on his team. (In my opinion, that would be Mariano Rivera. If the Red Sox had had a healthy closer all season long, they wouldn't be in this predicament now.) But MVP voters are always biased against pitchers, so they pick the guy with the best offensive stats, even if he may not bring as much value as someone else. Both players would finish the season with gaudy stats (.300-47-148 with a 1.001 OPS for Papi; .321-48-130 with a 1.031 OPS for A-Rod) but only one defined the word clutch. A-Rod tacked on plenty of RBIs when his team was already in the lead, but Big Papi had single-handedly carried his team to victory several times, and as the games got bigger he only got better. Ortiz struck out to end the third, but it was still too early in the night for heroics.
The mighty Catalanotto hit a two-run homer in the fifth, giving the Jays a 4-1 lead. Now I was getting concerned. The Yankees and Indians were leading in their games, and we could not lose any additional ground. What was it with these Blue Jays, anyway? The Red Sox had struggled against them all year long. Clement gave up a single to the number nine hitter to open the sixth, and Terry Francona didn't waste any more time lifting him in favor of Mike Myers. Myers was able to get out of the inning, even retiring Catalanotto on a groundout. In the sixth, the players knew they were running out of time and decided to do something about it. Big Papi led off with a single, chasing Downs fom the game. Jason Frasor entered, and Manny Ramirez greeted him with a home run, making it 4-3. The urgency and importance of the game and the chill in the air gave us in the stands a postseason intensity. I was already getting hoarse from yelling "MVP" and cheering, but I now felt like they were going to find a way to win the game. They just needed to keep the Blue Jays from scoring any more runs.
Myers got the first out of the seventh, and Jonathan Papelbon entered. The rookie had beome a favorite of mine when he had excelled under the pressure of the crazy trading deadline day when he made his major league debut. Since then he had shown no fear in a number of high-pressure situations in the stretch run. And he showed plenty of poise in the intense game tonight, finishing up the seventh and pitching a 1-2-3 eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, M-V-Papi did what he does best - he homered to lead off the inning, tying the game. We went crazy, jumping up and down and screaming. Was there any further proof needed? No one brought more value to his team than our own Big Papi! (It was his eleventh homer in September, a new club record for the month.) I knew we'd win the game now, it was just a matter of working out the details of how we'd win. Manny walked and Tek singled him to third with no outs, but John Olerud flied out, Bill Mueller struck out, and Trot Nixon flied out to end the threat.
Papelbon stayed in and pitched the ninth, allowing only a harmless two-out double. Big Papi was due up fourth in the bottom of the ninth, meaning someone would have to reach base to get him to the plate. Graffanino led off the inning by popping out to third, but Damon singled and stole second. Renteria walked, and up came Papi. It had become almost cliché to just predict, "Don't worry, Papi will come up with something." I mean, he had done it so many times already. Even tonight, he already had two hits, two runs scored, and the game-tying RBI. Could he really be expected to come through again?
Of course he could! He worked the count full, just to make it interesting. We had been standing for the whole inning, and chanting "MVP, MVP" for the whole at-bat. Finally, he lined one into left-center, out of reach of the diving shortstop, and Johnny raced around with the winning run. MVP! MVP! MVP! We high-fived everyone around us and stuck around as the players surrounded Papi. His post-game interview played on the scoreboard, but we couldn't hear it because we were all still cheering. It was an exhilarating win, but the Indians and Yankees won their games, too, so we were all in the same position we had started the night in.
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