2004 American League Championship Series
Based on Wikipedia: 2004 American League Championship Series
Down three games to none. In baseball's best-of-seven playoff format, no team had ever come back from that deficit. Not once in the one hundred years of World Series and championship series play. The 2004 Boston Red Sox were nine outs away from another heartbreaking loss to the New York Yankees—their fourth such defeat in five years. And then something unprecedented happened.
The Red Sox won four straight games against baseball's most decorated franchise, completing the only 3-0 comeback in Major League Baseball history. They then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, ending an 86-year championship drought and what fans called the Curse of the Bambino. Many sports historians have described it as the greatest comeback in sports history, and that assessment is difficult to dispute.
The Weight of History
To understand what the 2004 American League Championship Series meant, you have to understand what had come before it.
The Red Sox had last won a World Series in 1918. That team had a young left-handed pitcher named Babe Ruth, who would be sold to the Yankees after the 1919 season in what became known as the worst transaction in sports history. Ruth went on to become baseball's greatest player while helping the Yankees build a dynasty. The Red Sox, meanwhile, developed an almost supernatural inability to win championships.
They came close repeatedly. In 1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986, they reached the World Series and lost each time. The 1986 loss was particularly cruel—they were one strike away from winning when the Mets staged an improbable comeback, culminating in a ground ball rolling through first baseman Bill Buckner's legs.
And always, there were the Yankees.
The two teams had been rivals since the Ruth sale, but the rivalry intensified in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2003, the Red Sox led the Yankees by three runs with five outs remaining in Game 7 of the ALCS. Manager Grady Little left his tiring pitcher Pedro Martinez in the game too long. The Yankees tied it. In the 11th inning, Aaron Boone hit a walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield. The Yankees went to the World Series. Boston went home to endure another winter of recrimination.
That loss haunted the Red Sox organization. When first baseman Kevin Millar was asked before the 2004 postseason to compare the new team to the previous year's squad, he replied: "I'm pretty sure we're five outs better than last year."
Setting Up the Rematch
The Red Sox front office spent the winter of 2003-2004 reconstructing their roster with one goal in mind: beating the Yankees. They fired Grady Little and hired Terry Francona, a more analytically-minded manager. They traded four players to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Curt Schilling, one of the premier pitchers in baseball and a tested postseason performer. They signed closer Keith Foulke to shore up their bullpen—the very area that had failed them so catastrophically in Game 7.
The Yankees, meanwhile, acquired Alex Rodriguez in a trade with the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez was considered the best player in baseball, a shortstop so talented that the Yankees moved their captain Derek Jeter to third base to accommodate him. It was seen as a response to the Red Sox's off-season moves, another escalation in the arms race between the two richest teams in baseball.
The regular season confirmed what everyone expected: these were the two best teams in the American League. The Yankees won the division with the best record in the league. The Red Sox finished second, three games back, but secured the wild card playoff spot. The teams had split their 19 regular-season games, with Boston actually outscoring New York by a single run over the course of the season.
After both teams won their first-round playoff series, the stage was set. Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman declared that "the two teams in the American League facing each other in this series are the two best teams, period." He was almost certainly correct.
Fox commentator Joe Buck opened the broadcast by noting that it seemed "predetermined" the two rivals would meet again. Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein admitted what everyone was thinking: "Now that it's here, we can admit that if we're able to win a World Series and go through New York along the way, it will mean that much more."
Game 1: A Collapse That Wasn't Quite Enough
The series began on October 12th in Yankee Stadium. Curt Schilling, the offseason acquisition meant to lead the Red Sox to the promised land, took the mound. But Schilling was not himself. A torn tendon sheath in his right ankle, injured during the first round against Anaheim, severely limited his ability to push off the mound. He couldn't throw with his usual velocity or command.
The Yankees noticed immediately.
By the end of the sixth inning, New York led 8-0. Hideki Matsui, the Japanese slugger playing left field for the Yankees, had five runs batted in—tying a League Championship Series record. Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina had been perfect through six innings, retiring the first 19 Red Sox batters in order.
Then the Red Sox started hitting. Mark Bellhorn doubled to end Mussina's perfect game bid. A two-run double by Millar made it 8-2. A home run by Jason Varitek made it 8-5. In the eighth inning, David Ortiz's two-out triple cut the lead to 8-7. The Red Sox had seemingly returned from the dead.
But the Yankees were not the Yankees for nothing. Manager Joe Torre brought in Mariano Rivera, baseball's greatest closer, who got a pop out to end the eighth. Then Bernie Williams delivered a two-run double off the Boston bullpen to restore the lead to 10-7. Rivera closed out the ninth.
The Red Sox had fought back from an eight-run deficit only to lose by three. It was a crushing defeat wrapped in false hope.
Game 2: A Classic Duel
Game 2 featured a genuine pitchers' duel between Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox and Jon Lieber of the Yankees. Martinez, who had been the best pitcher in baseball for much of the previous decade, was brilliant through the early innings despite constant threats from the Yankee lineup.
The game remained 1-0 into the late innings. Then Martinez reached his 100th pitch of the night, traditionally the point where modern managers consider removing their starter. He walked Jorge Posada. John Olerud, the veteran first baseman, launched a home run to give New York a 3-0 lead.
The Red Sox rallied again. Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek singled to make it 3-1 in the eighth. But with runners in scoring position, Rivera entered and struck out Johnny Damon. In the ninth, Rivera allowed a double to Manny Ramirez but then struck out the dangerous David Ortiz and Kevin Millar to end the game.
The Yankees led the series 2-0, heading to Boston with all the momentum.
Game 3: The Deluge
Rain postponed Game 3 from October 15th to October 16th. When it finally began, the game quickly became a nightmare for the home team.
The Yankees scored three runs in the first inning. The Red Sox answered with four in the second to take their first lead of the series. But that lead lasted exactly half an inning. Alex Rodriguez homered to tie it. Gary Sheffield walked. Hideki Matsui doubled. The bullpen entered and immediately allowed more runs. By the fourth inning, the Yankees led 11-6.
It only got worse.
The final score was 19-8, the most runs ever scored by a team in a postseason game. The Yankees set records for hits (22), extra-base hits (shared with the Red Sox at 20 combined), and game length (four hours and twenty minutes). Matsui again had five hits and five RBIs. Rodriguez scored five runs.
Yankees fans chanted "19-18" at the departing Red Sox, a reference to the last year Boston had won a championship. The message was clear: you haven't won in 86 years, and you're not going to start now.
Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe wrote the obituary: "They are down, 3-0, after last night's 19-8 rout, and, in this sport, that is an official death sentence. Soon it will be over, and we will spend another dreary winter lamenting this and lamenting that."
He was not alone in this assessment. No team had ever come back from 3-0 in a best-of-seven series. The Red Sox would need to win four consecutive games against the best team in baseball, with the next two games at Fenway Park and the potential final two back in Yankee Stadium. It was, by any reasonable measure, impossible.
Game 4: The Steal
October 17th, 2004. The Red Sox faced elimination.
The Yankees started their ace, Orlando Hernandez. The Red Sox countered with Derek Lowe, who had been inconsistent during the season. For most of the game, the Yankees controlled the action, building a 4-3 lead heading into the ninth inning.
Three outs. The Red Sox were three outs from elimination, and Joe Torre called on Mariano Rivera—the greatest closer in postseason history—to record them.
Kevin Millar walked. Then Terry Francona made a decision that would become legendary: he inserted Dave Roberts as a pinch runner.
Roberts was on the roster for exactly this situation. He was one of the fastest players in baseball, a base-stealing specialist who could change games with his legs. Everyone in the stadium knew he was going to try to steal second base. Rivera knew it. Catcher Jorge Posada knew it. The 34,000 fans at Fenway Park knew it.
Rivera threw over to first base three times, trying to keep Roberts close. On the fourth pitch to batter Bill Mueller, Roberts took off.
He was safe.
Mueller singled up the middle. Roberts scored. The game was tied.
Three innings later, at 1:22 in the morning, David Ortiz launched a home run into the right field bullpen. The Red Sox won 6-4. They had avoided elimination.
For the first time all series, there was a crack in the Yankees' armor.
Game 5: Fourteen Innings of Survival
Game 5 began on October 18th and ended on October 19th. It lasted five hours and forty-nine minutes, the longest game in postseason history. It featured 471 pitches thrown, 40 players used, and countless moments where the Red Sox appeared finished.
The Yankees led 4-2 in the eighth inning. They were five outs away from advancing to the World Series. David Ortiz hit a home run to cut the lead to one. A sacrifice fly tied the game and forced extra innings.
In the 11th inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield—the same pitcher who had given up the Aaron Boone home run exactly one year earlier. Wakefield induced a pop-up and a fly ball to escape.
In the 13th inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs. The Red Sox brought in Curt Schilling—on zero days rest, with his ankle held together by sutures—to face Yankee first baseman Tony Clark. Schilling struck him out.
Finally, in the 14th inning, Johnny Damon walked and advanced to second on a Manny Ramirez single. David Ortiz stepped to the plate against Esteban Loaiza. He lined a single into center field. Damon scored.
The Red Sox had won again, 5-4. They had played 26 innings over two games without losing. They were heading back to Yankee Stadium.
Game 6: The Bloody Sock
Curt Schilling could barely walk. The torn tendon sheath in his right ankle had been temporarily repaired with an experimental procedure: team doctors sutured the loose tendon to the surrounding tissue to stabilize his ankle. It had never been done before on a major league pitcher.
Before the game, Schilling famously told teammates: "I don't care if they have to cut my foot off after this game. I'm going to go out there."
He pitched seven innings, allowing just one run. His sock became soaked with blood as the sutures opened during the game—an image that became iconic in Boston sports history. Television cameras caught the spreading red stain on his white stirrup sock. He never complained, never asked to be removed.
The Red Sox won 4-2. For the first time in baseball history, a team had forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0.
But they still had to win one more game. In Yankee Stadium. Against a team that had owned them for 86 years.
Game 7: Deliverance
October 20th, 2004. Yankee Stadium. Winner goes to the World Series.
The Yankees started Kevin Brown, who lasted less than two innings. He gave up a grand slam to Johnny Damon—the center fielder who had been hitless for most of the series—in the second inning. The Red Sox led 6-0 before the Yankees could blink.
Damon hit another home run in the fourth inning. The Red Sox led 8-1.
Derek Lowe, pitching on short rest, threw six innings of one-run ball. The bullpen held. The final score was 10-3.
The Boston Red Sox had completed the greatest comeback in baseball history. They had won eight consecutive elimination games dating back to their first-round series. They had beaten Mariano Rivera twice when he entered in save situations. They had beaten the New York Yankees four times in a row when facing elimination.
David Ortiz was named the Most Valuable Player of the series. He had delivered the walk-off hits in both Game 4 and Game 5, hitting .387 with 3 home runs and 11 runs batted in.
What It Meant
The Red Sox went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, winning their first championship since 1918. The Curse of the Bambino was over.
But the ALCS victory over the Yankees might have meant even more to Boston fans. They had exorcised decades of failure against their most hated rival. They had done it in the most dramatic way possible—coming back from certain death to win four straight games. They had beaten Aaron Boone's ghost, beaten Bucky Dent's ghost, beaten every heartbreak the Yankees had ever inflicted upon them.
For Yankees fans, the loss was devastating. They had been nine outs away from another World Series. They had been ahead 3-0. They had Mariano Rivera on the mound. And they had lost.
In the years since, the 2004 ALCS has taken on almost mythological status. It represents the possibility of redemption, the idea that no deficit is too large and no history too painful to overcome. It showed that even the most foregone conclusions in sports can be reversed by will, talent, and a few critical moments.
Dave Roberts' stolen base. The bloody sock game. David Ortiz's back-to-back walk-off heroics. Johnny Damon's grand slam in the arena where Boston dreams had died so many times before.
Baseball has never seen anything like it. Given the statistical improbability of what happened—twenty-five previous teams had failed to come back from 3-0 deficits—it may never see anything like it again.
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