The Forgotten Game: Game 5 2004 ALCS Yankees at Red Sox

Advance Praise for

The Forgotten Game

When my favorite band releases their greatest hits album, I devour it. Years later after listening to it a million times, I enjoy the simple pleasure of hearing all the other songs and B sides. John Vampatella’s book is uncovering incredible songs that weren’t played on radio. If you’ve devoured everything Red Sox-Yankees, you’ll LOVE IT. If you are new to the rivalry and era, you will understand it for the first time. I couldn’t put it down and loved the historical context of each inning. I loved it.

—Gar Ryness (Batting Stance Guy)

"As a sports talk show host on WSKO in Providence and a diehard Red Sox fan in 2004, I remember that ALCS very well. While most people remember Boston’s dramatic Game 4 victory or Curt Schilling’s bloody sock heroics in Game 6, Game 5 was truly the unsung hero of the series. John Vampatella does a magnificent job explaining why while providing tremendous background and anecdotes that all baseball fans will enjoy. The Forgotten Game is an absolute must for Red Sox fans of all ages!"

—Scott Cordischi, sports talk show host

A PERMUTED PRESS BOOK

The Forgotten Game:

Game 5 * 2004 ALCS Yankees at Red Sox

© 2021 by John Vampatella

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-64293-988-0

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-989-7

Cover art by Tiffani Shea

Interior design and composition by Greg Johnson, Textbook Perfect

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Permuted Press, LLC

New York • Nashville

permutedpress.com

Published in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to the game of baseball,

all those who have played it from T-ball to the Majors,

and the generations of fans

who have loved the game unconditionally.

A special dedication to the 2004 Red Sox,

who finally delivered for long-suffering Red Sox fans,

who had, until that point, endured one painful experience

after another. The wait was worth it.

Contents

Glossary of Terms

Pregame

Chapter 1: The First Inning

Chapter 2: The Second Inning

Chapter 3: The Third Inning

Chapter 4: The Fourth Inning

Chapter 5: The Fifth Inning

Chapter 6: The Sixth Inning

Chapter 7: The Seventh Inning

Chapter 8: The Eighth Inning

Chapter 9: The Ninth Inning

Chapter 10: The Tenth Inning

Chapter 11: The Eleventh Inning

Chapter 12: The Twelfth Inning

Chapter 13: The Thirteenth Inning

Chapter 14: The Fourteenth Inning

Postgame

Notes

References

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Endnotes

Glossary of Terms

AVG: Batting average. The number of hits divided by at-bats. H/AB

ERA: Earned run average. The number of earned runs divided by innings pitched times nine. (ER/IP)*9

ERA+: A pitcher’s earned run average adjusted for the era and ballpark in which he played. Thus, a 3.00 ERA in a time when teams average four runs a game is not as good as a 3.00 ERA in a time when teams average five runs a game. The ERA+ will reflect this.

K/9: Strikeouts per nine innings pitched.

OBP: On-base percentage. A measure of how often a player reaches base safely. It is calculated as: (hits + walks + hit by pitch) / (at-bats + walks + hit by pitch + sacrifice flies).

OPS: On-base percentage plus slugging percentage. The two are simply added together. Interestingly, in this simple-to-understand metric, both OBP and SLG are weighed equally, which may not be a true reflection of their on-field value.

OPS+: OPS adjusted for the era and ballpark in which they played.

RE: Run expectancy. This calculates the number of runs a team can expect to score based on the base-out situation they’re in at any moment. By base-out situation, we mean based on the number of outs and the position of base runners. There are twenty-four possible base-out possibilities. For example, no outs, runners at first and second. Or 2 outs, runner at third, and so on.

SLG: Slugging percentage. It’s calculated by adding the total bases (1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple, and 4 for a home run) and dividing that total by the number of at-bats. The more extra-base hits (any hit more than a single) a player gets, the higher his slugging percentage is.

WAR: Wins above replacement. This is calculated differently, particularly by Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, but it tries to calculate a player’s value—using an average replacement player as a baseline—and taking into account hitting, base running, and fielding.

WE: Win expectancy. This indicates the chance a particular team has of winning the game at any moment. MLB.com explains that it is derived from the number of teams that faced a comparable situation in the past and went on to win the game.

WHIP: The number of walks plus hits divided by innings pitched. (W+H)/IP

Pregame

At 1:22 a.m. on Monday, October 18, 2004, New York Yankee relief pitcher Paul Quantrill threw an 88 mph sinking fastball toward the waiting mitt of catcher Jorge Posada, who was crouched behind home plate at a packed and boisterous Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who would ultimately become known as Big Papi, kicked his right leg and took a mighty cut. The barrel of the bat dropped into the path of the oncoming pitch and connected with the ball just above the knees. Ortiz shifted his weight and his body uncoiled, launching the ball toward the 380-foot mark in right field. Set against the backdrop of the dark Boston sky, it arced toward the Yankee bullpen.

Yankee right fielder Gary Sheffield gave chase, but the ball only needed 4.5 seconds to travel some 390 feet for a home run that gave the Red Sox a 6–4 victory in Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. FOX broadcaster Joe Buck called the play: Ortiz into deep right field…back is Sheffield…we’ll see you later tonight!

Ortiz rounded the bases, his fist raised in the air, the crowd in full throat, and Dirty Water by the Standells blaring over the park’s PA system. The Yankees walked off the field defeated but still confident. They had led three games to none, and as far as they were concerned, they controlled the series. For the Red Sox, however, the moment had given them hope. They were alive. Barely. But alive nonetheless.

Before the game, Boston Globe writer Bob Ryan had written, The Red Sox have laid a brontosaurus egg in the American League Championship Series. They are down, 3–0…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. No team had ever come back from a 3–0 deficit to win a postseason series in baseball. In fact, in the history of baseball postseason play going into that game, there had been twenty-five series to start out three games to none. Of those, twenty of them ended in sweeps, and only two had made it to a sixth game. None had made it to a seventh game, never mind winning the series.¹

The night before, the Yankees had obliterated the Red Sox 19–8 at Fenway Park to go up three games to none in a series that wasn’t even as close as that seemed. Game 1 had been a 10–7 Yankee win in Yankee Stadium, and Game 2 also went to New York, 3–1. The Sox had returned to Fenway, hoping that some home cooking would change their fortunes, but it was not to be. The Yankees piled up 22 hits and 19 runs, battering Red Sox pitching for 4 home runs, 6 doubles, and even a triple, hit by not-so-fleet-of-foot Rubén Sierra. Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo gave up 6 runs in 2 innings. The relievers were not much better, with Curtis Leskanic giving up 3 runs in just a third of an inning and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield getting shelled for 5 runs in 3.1 innings. No Sox pitcher escaped the onslaught unscathed. The Red Sox had actually made the game interesting in the third by tying the game at six on a two-run double by shortstop Orlando Cabrera; but in the fourth, the Yankees exploded for five runs and the rout was on.

After the game, Hall of Fame Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson chirped, I think it’s time to break out those ‘Bronx Bombers’ T-shirts again. These guys are like a hurricane. Hurricane Yankee. The Sox’ backs were against the wall.

Most Red Sox fans were depressed after Game 3. This was the latest in a long line of Yankee beatdowns of the hometown team. There was the Babe Ruth trade in 1920 that preceded a long period of Red Sox disappointments and Yankee championships. There was the 1949 pennant, won by the Yankees in dramatic fashion on the last weekend of the season. There was 1978 and Bucky Dent hitting one over the Green Monster in the famous tiebreaker game. There was the 1999 American League Championship Series (ALCS), which the Yankees won four games to one. And then, just one year before, there was Aaron Boone, belting a home run to left field in the eleventh inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to beat the Red Sox 6–5 and break the hearts of Red Sox Nation. Again. It was a never-ending story. Yes, it was a rivalry—but a rivalry like an ant has with a boot.

After Game 3, the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy wrote, The Red Sox have been beaten senseless by those damn Yankees again, and the psychological toll threatens to shake the faith of a long-suffering Nation. How much more can New Englanders take?

But some fans still held out hope. Ross McCabe of New Hampshire said, Hey, we’re three games out in the series, never been done before. And that’s what we have going for us. The fact that it’s never been done before, and it’s going to start tonight. Coming back from a 3–0 deficit. We’re going to win the next two here and then go to New York and spank ’em there. We’re not worried yet. We’ve been waiting for it since 1918, it’s gotta happen sometime.

Did it? It seemed like the Red Sox would never beat the Yankees in a meaningful situation. History was not on Boston’s side. But that did not deter the Sox.

Before Game 4, Red Sox first baseman and erstwhile team mouthpiece Kevin Millar said during batting practice, Don’t let us win tonight. This is a big game. They’ve got to win because if we win, we’ve got Pedro coming back today, and then Schilling will pitch Game 6, and then you can take that fraud stuff and put it to bed. Don’t let the Sox win this game.

The Yankees were warned. They took a 4–3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, preparing to finish off the Sox in a devastating sweep. Ace reliever Mariano Rivera came in to deliver the coup de grâce, but he walked Millar, Dave Roberts pinch-ran and stole second base by fractions of an inch, and steady third baseman Bill Mueller drove Roberts home with a single right past Rivera. Suddenly, the game was tied. Three extra innings later, the game ended when Ortiz launched Quantrill’s pitch into the Boston night—or morning, technically speaking.

The thing is this. Everyone remembers Game 4. The Roberts steal is iconic in Boston history. Red Sox fans remember Roberts racing home after Mueller’s single to give the Sox life, capping a seeming miracle comeback against the best relief pitcher in history. Game 4 threw the Red Sox a line, and they grabbed it.

Everyone also remembers Game 6, the Bloody Sock game. Curt Schilling, who injured his ankle pitching against the Anaheim Angels in the divisional round, struggled, to say the least, against the Yankees in Game 1 as the Yankees pounded him for six runs on six hits in just three innings. But he returned to pitch one of the most famous games in baseball history in Game 6, following emergency (and novel) ankle surgery that left his sock red with blood. In the bright lights of Yankee Stadium, Schilling kept the Bombers off balance and threw seven mind-boggling innings, allowing just one run as the Sox went on to win 4–2 to even the series.

And everyone, of course, remembers Game 7, when the Red Sox finally vanquished the Yankee bogeyman. It started early and never stopped, with Ortiz homering and Johnny Damon hitting two, including a grand slam, leading the Red Sox to a 10–3 win, clinching the series four games to three. The comeback of all comebacks. WFAN’s Mike Francesa would say the next day following Game 7, It was like going to a heavyweight fight, and all of a sudden you’re just in your seat and the defending champion takes a right hand and is down for the count. The problem with baseball—in boxing you can get up and leave. In baseball they drag you around the field for about four hours. That’s what happened last night. They dragged the Yankees around the field for four hours. That was a mugging…with an audience.

It was historic, and every Yankee, Red Sox, baseball, and even general sports enthusiast remembers it. Every time a team is down three games to none in a playoff series, the television network will put up a graphic citing the Red Sox’ comeback against the Yankees. But few people outside of diehard Red Sox fans—and some Yankee fans who would rather have this memory burned from their minds—remember Game 5. Without Game 5, however, Games 6 and 7 could never have happened. Game 5 was the bridge between the epic win in Game 4 to the legendary series victory.

1

The First Inning

Fifteen hours and forty-nine minutes after David Ortiz touched home plate to end Game 4, Pedro Martínez toed the rubber for the Red Sox and peered in at catcher Jason Varitek. Pedro had been with the Red Sox since being acquired in a trade with the Montreal Expos back in November of 1997. Already a six-year veteran at the age of twenty-five, Pedro was coming off a dominant 1997 campaign, winning the National League Cy Young Award over legendary Braves pitcher Greg Maddux. Maddux had a fantastic season—19–4, 2.20 ERA—but Pedro was better. In 241.1 innings, Pedro had compiled a 17–8 record, a 1.90 ERA, and had struck out 305 batters. He earned 96 percent of the first-place votes and was considered the best young pitcher in the game.

It wasn’t necessarily supposed to be like this for Martínez. He was signed by the Dodgers as a seventeen-year-old amateur free agent in the Dominican Republic in 1988 and worked his way through the Dodger farm system. His first major league action came on September 24, 1992, when he threw two innings of relief against the Cincinnati Reds, allowing no runs. His next outing came six days later, also against the Reds, but this time he got his first taste of being a major league starting pitcher. He pitched six innings, allowed four hits and two runs, and struck out seven in a 3–1 loss.

He returned the following season and appeared in 65 games for the Dodgers, almost all of them in relief. He was electric, putting up a 10–5 record, posting a 2.61 ERA, and striking out 119 batters in 107 innings. He had everything—dominating fastball, devastating curve, and a nasty changeup. He also had unusually long fingers, which allowed him to hold the ball a fraction longer than other pitchers, helping him generate tremendous spin and velocity from such a small frame. Martínez stood 5'11" and weighed just 170 pounds. Some in the Dodger organization worried that he wouldn’t last as a starting pitcher. Frank Jobe, Dodger physician at the time, advised the team to trade him. Manager Tommy Lasorda said Martínez wasn’t durable enough to be a starter and would never be more than a five-inning pitcher. Needing a second baseman, the Dodgers moved Martínez to Montreal for twenty-four-year-old rising star Delino DeShields.

The Expos put him in the starting rotation and began to make an already terrific pitcher even better. He struggled with control of his live fastball—he walked nearly five batters per nine innings in 1993—so the team switched him from a two-seam grip to a four-seam grip. The pitch became more explosive, and Pedro was able to control it better. He went from 57 walks in 107 innings in 1993 to just 45 walks in 144.1 innings in 1994, cutting his walk-per-inning rate nearly in half. In 23 games for the Expos, he went 11–5 with a 3.42 ERA.

The years 1995 and 1996 featured the development of an ace. He refined his craft and got stronger despite his small stature. On June 3, 1995, the world got to see what Martínez was truly capable of. He pitched a nine-inning perfect game but, because the Expos hadn’t scored either, the game went into extra innings. He eventually gave up a hit in the tenth and was removed from the game. His innings count grew from 144.2 in ’94, to 194.2 in ’95, to 216.2 in ’96. He was becoming a true number one starting pitcher.

Then came 1997. Pedro had finally realized his full potential. His brother Ramon, a teammate on the Dodgers, had tried to convince Lasorda that Pedro could do the job, but it wasn’t enough; and so the Dodgers missed out on a generational talent. Pedro lit up the baseball world in ’97, outshining Maddux, Denny Neagle, Curt Schilling, and Darryl Kile on the way to winning the National League Cy Young Award.

The problem facing the Expos was that Martínez was approaching free agency. The Expos were a small-market team with serious budget constraints. How much was a twenty-five-year-old Cy Young Award winner worth on the open market? More than they could afford. So, in the grand baseball tradition of small-market teams trading stars to big-market teams in exchange for prospects, the Expos and Red Sox made a deal. The Red Sox sent two promising minor league pitchers—Tony Armas Jr. and Carl Pavano—to Montreal in exchange for Martínez. The Red Sox then signed Martínez to a gaudy new contract worth $75 million over six years, with an option for a seventh year. It was the largest deal ever signed by a pitcher.

Pedro pitched brilliantly for the Red Sox for the six years from 1998 to 2003, and his option for a seventh was exercised. 2004 came, and Martínez once again performed well, though not quite as brilliantly as he had in the past. He was thirty-two years old and no longer quite the same. Still, a 16–9 record with a 3.90 ERA and 227 strikeouts in 217 innings wasn’t shabby. In Game 5, he took the mound with the season on the line.

Yankee captain Derek Jeter stepped into the batter’s box, the crowd already buzzing. Jeter was a six-time all-star in his ten-year career thus far, having won the Rookie of the Year in 1996 and having finished in the top fifteen in MVP voting five times already. His 2004 campaign wasn’t quite as good as his 2003 season, but it was still all-star caliber. He had hit .292 with 44 doubles, 23 home runs, and 23 stolen bases to go along with steady defense in the field. In the first four games of the series, he had gone a modest 3–15 but had walked six times and scored five runs. He had