Red Sox Sweep Away Cardinals and 86 Years of Frustration

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The New York Sun

ST. LOUIS – The Boston Red Sox – yes, the Boston Red Sox! – are World Series champions at long, long last. No more curse and no doubt about it.


Ridiculed and reviled through decades of defeat, the Red Sox didn’t just beat the St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, they swept them for their first crown since 1918.


Johnny Damon homered on the fourth pitch of the game, Derek Lowe made it stand up, and the Red Sox won 3-0 last night. Edgar Renteria grounded out for the final out, wrapping up a Series in which the Red Sox never trailed.


Chants of “Let’s go, Red Sox!” bounced all around Busch Stadium, with Boston fans as revved up as they were relieved. Only 10 nights earlier, the Red Sox were just three outs from getting swept by the Yankees in the AL Championship Series before becoming the first team in baseball postseason history to overcome a 3-0 deficit.


It was Boston’s sixth championship, but the first after 86 years of frustration and futility. Since the Red Sox last won, there were two world wars, the Great Depression, men on the moon, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.


After all that, the Red Sox made it look easy. Gone was the heartbreak of four Game 7 losses since their last title, a drought – some insist it was a curse – that really began after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.


“We wanted to do it so bad for the city of Boston. To win a World Series with this on our chests – it hasn’t been done since 1918,” Kevin Millar of the Red Sox said. “So rip up those ‘1918’ posters right now.”


Damon’s leadoff homer and Trot Nixon’s two-out, two-run double were all that Lowe needed. Having won the first-round clincher against Anaheim in relief and then winning Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, Lowe blanked the Cards on three hits for seven innings.


Relievers Bronson Arroyo and Alan Embree worked the eighth and Keith Foulke finished it off for his first save.


Even the heavens reacted to the news with a total lunar eclipse. And what a reward the Red Sox earned for their first Series sweep: They get to raise the World Series banner next April 11 in the home opener at Fenway Park, with the Yankees in town forced to watch it.


The Red Sox became the third straight wild-card team to win it, relying on the guts of Curt Schilling and guile of Pedro Martinez. And they took it in the same year they traded away popular shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.


Boston got key contributions from almost everyone. Backup outfielder Dave Roberts did not play in the Series, yet it was his stolen base in the ninth inning of Game 4 in the ALCS that began the comeback against Mariano Rivera.


And while second baseman Mark Bellhorn was born in Boston, no one else on the roster came from anywhere near Beantown. And the only homegrown players on the team are Trot Nixon and rookie Kevin Youkilis.


No matter, this win might make all of them as much a part of New England lore as Plymouth Rock and Paul Revere.


Or, as Red Sox owner John Henry said close to game time: “People tell me this is the biggest thing since the Revolutionary War.”


The Boston win also left no doubt which city is now the most jinxed in baseball. It’s Chicago – the Cubs last won it all in 1908, the White Sox in 1917.


Meanwhile, the Cardinals team that led the majors with 105 wins never showed up. The timely hitting, solid pitching, and sharp base running that served them so well all season completely broke down.


Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds, the meat of the order, combined for just one RBI. Rolen got it on a sacrifice fly, and it was little consolation as he went 0-for-15.


Jim Edmonds, who hit 42 homers this season, was 1-for-15. Reggie Sanders was 0-for-9 with five strikeouts before getting benched in favor of John Mabry in Game 4. Mabry continued that trend, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.


Lowe was loose from the start. While the Cardinals took batting practice, he sat alone in the Boston dugout, his hat backward and singing the little ditty, “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”


Lowe was equally relaxed on the mound. He gave up a leadoff single to Tony Womack, then retired 13 straight batters until Renteria doubled in the fifth. Renteria made it to third on a wild pitch, but Lowe fanned John Mabry and got Yadier Molina on a routine grounder.


At that point, the Cardinals were going quietly. About the only noise they made came when Molina, a 21-year-old rookie catcher whose two brothers catch for Anaheim, began yapping at Series MVP Manny Ramirez when the Boston star came to the plate in the fourth.


“Unbelievable,” Lowe said. “No more going to Yankee Stadium and having to listen to ‘1918!'”


Best known before this year for being Michael Jordan’s manager in the minors, Francona made plenty of wicked smart moves. Oakland’s bench coach in 2003, he took over after Grady Little was fired last fall. While many Boston fans hollered for him to bench the slumping Damon in the ALCS, Francona stuck with him. Damon hit a grand slam and two-run homer in Game 7.


Facing Jason Marquis, Damon yanked a shot over the right-center field wall and before he could circle the bases, the chants of “Let’s go, Red Sox!” began echoing from the upper deck.


Damon became the second Boston player to hit a leadoff homer in the Series. The other? Patsy Dougherty, who did it in 1903 for the Pilgrims – renamed the Red Sox five years later.


The New York Sun

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