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Jimcs50
10-29-2004, 11:10 AM
Curses are real: Sox pitching leaves Cards muttering to themselves
By Jeff Horrigan
Friday, October 29, 2004

The decisiveness of the World Series sweep notwithstanding, it can now be acknowledged that curses played a role in the Red Sox [stats, schedule]' first title in 86 years.

Of course, the type of curse we're referring to had nothing to do with grudges or contrived crutches meant to explain 8 decades of futility. No, these curses were the ones best left unprinted that were uttered in frustration by the likes of Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and the rest of the St. Louis Cardinals sluggers who were completely stifled by Red Sox pitching during the 18th sweep in World Series history.

Sox hurlers stepped up when they were needed most and held St. Louis hitters to a minuscule .190 batting average in the Series, including a ridiculous .121 stretch covering the final three games. The Nos. 4-6 hitters in the Cardinals lineup - Rolen, Edmonds and Reggie Sanders - hit a combined .026 (1-for-39). Rolen fell flat on his face and went 0-for-15, Edmonds was a woeful 1-for-15 and Sanders finished 0-for-9.

No. 3 hitter Albert Pujols hit .333 (5-for-15) but did not drive in a single run in the Series.

``We might look like idiots to a lot of people but we know what we're doing,'' Game 3 starter Pedro Martinez [stats, news] said. ``We knew what we wanted and we were serious about it.''

Red Sox pitchers got off to a slow start in the franchise's first World Series appearance since 1986, surrendering nine runs on 11 hits and six walks in an 11-9 Game 1 victory started by Tim Wakefield [stats, news] last Saturday at Fenway Park. St. Louis hurlers, however, were worse. In a trend that would continue for the remainder of the Series, starting pitcher Woody Williams was hammered for seven runs on eight hits and three walks in only 2 innings, but miraculously avoided getting the loss. The Sox squandered leads of 7-2 and 9-7 and allowed the Cardinals to twice tie the score before Mark Bellhorn [stats, news] belted a two-run home run off the Pesky Pole in the bottom of the eighth to win it.

It proved to be the decisive blow of the Series because the next three Sox starters - Curt Schilling [stats, news], Martinez and Derek Lowe [stats, news] - completely shut down the Cardinals the rest of the way. Each had command of his entire repertoire of pitches, had no difficulty finding a comfortable rhythm and kept batters off balance.

``I thought we had a great scouting report, very in-depth,'' manager Terry Francona said, lauding the advance work of Dave Jauss, Jerry DiPoto, Galen Carr and the entire scouting department. ``But what it comes down to is having really, really good pitchers, able to follow the game plan.''

Schilling started things in Game 2 with a performance that was nothing short of heroic. With a dislocated peroneal tendon in his right ankle kept in place by Dr. Bill Morgan's novel procedure of suturing skin to deep tissue, Schilling went out and held the Cardinals to an unearned run on four hits over six innings. Schilling, who was in such pain earlier in the day that he nearly had to be scratched, may not have been available to make his next start if the Cardinals stretched the Series to a Game 6.

When the Series shifted to St. Louis, Martinez completely neutralized the Cardinals for seven shutout innings in a 4-1 Game 3 win that put the Sox on the precipice of an overdue celebration. Lowe equaled Martinez' feat Wednesday with seven more shutout innings, becoming the first pitcher in history to win clinching games in the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series in a single postseason.

The remarkable work by the trio, which didn't allow an earned run in 20 innings, allowed the Red Sox to join the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers, '66 Baltimore Orioles [stats, schedule] and '89 Oakland A's [stats, schedule] as the only teams never to trail in a World Series.