RED SOX 5, YANKEES 4 (14): David Ortiz delivers again, his two-out single keeping Boston alive.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published October 19, 2004
BOSTON - The Red Sox like to call themselves idiots. So maybe they just don't know they aren't supposed to keep doing this.
The Red Sox staved off elimination again with another marathon come-from-behind win Monday, beating the Yankees 5-4 in 14 innings when David Ortiz singled in Johnny Damon.
It was second night of dramatics for Ortiz, who won Game 4 with a 12th-inning walkoff homer.
The Sox not only extended the AL Championship Series to at least a sixth game tonight, they made things very interesting, with injured ace Curt Schilling returning to the mound at Yankee Stadium.
The Sox rallied to tie in the eighth, blew prime opportunities in the 11th and 12th, then won it in the 14th. Damon and Manny Ramirez drew walks off Esteban Loaiza, the seventh Yankee pitcher, before Ortiz delivered on the 10th pitch of his at-bat.
The game lasted 5:49, making it the longest postseason game in history and the first ALCS game to go more than 12 innings. And it came less than 24 hours after the teams played a 5:02, 12-inning game that ended at 1:22 a.m. Monday.
Players raced onto the field and fans raced into the streets to celebrate, but the Sox still have a long way to go.
None of the first 25 major-league teams that went down 3-0 came back to win a series, or even to force a seventh game. The Sox were only the third to win two.
They do, however, have some basis for hope.
The Toronto Maple Leafs came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat Detroit in the 1942 Stanley Cup finals, and the New York Islanders did it to Pittsburgh in the second round of the 1975 playoffs.
Plus, they've had seven winning streaks of at least four games this season. And they've already won four consecutive games from the Yankees, albeit over two late-April series.
The Red Sox got five good innings and one so-so one from Pedro Martinez in what could be his last start in a Boston uniform, then pieced together the rest of the game with an overworked pitching staff.
Mike Timlin, who threw 37 pitches in an inning Sunday, came back and got five big outs. Closer Keith Foulke, who threw 50 in his 22/3 innings Sunday, came back and got four more, including former Devil Ray Miguel Cairo with two on and two out in the ninth.
Brooksville's Bronson Arroyo, who struggled mightily in his Game 3 start in Saturday, redeemed himself with a perfect 10th. Left-handers Mike Myers and Alan Embree combined to strike out the side in the 11th. Tim Wakefield took over in the 12th.
The Sox wasted opportunities to win in the 11th and 12th with costly mistakes. They got the first two men on in the 11th, but Damon popped up a bunt and Loaiza got Orlando Cabrera to hit into a double play. Ortiz drew a one-out walk in the 12th, but, inexplicably, broke for second with Doug Mientkiewicz at the plate and was thrown out.
The Sox scored twice in the first and took a 2-1 lead to the sixth, when a tiring Martinez gave up three runs on a bases-loaded double by Derek Jeter. The Yankees took their 4-2 lead into the eighth, when tired relievers Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera gave up the tying runs on a homer by Ortiz and a sacrifice fly by Jason Varitek.
Rivera, who had blown a save only twice in 32 postseason games before this year, has blown two on consecutive nights with a chance to clinch the pennant and three this month.
Down 2-1, the Yankees scratched together a rally in the sixth, loading the bases on an infield bouncer by Jorge Posada, a single by Ruben Sierra and a pitch that barely hit Cairo.
Jeter laced a 1-and-1 pitch, Martinez's 100th of the night, down the rightfield line, scoring two easily and a third when Cairo made a heads-up headfirst slide, diving to the back side and dragging his left hand across the plate before catcher Varitek could tag him.
But the Sox rallied again in the eighth. Ortiz got them started with a leadoff blast that made it 4-3. Gordon continued to struggle, allowing a walk and a single, and manager Joe Torre had no choice but to turn to Rivera, who had thrown 40 pitches in blowing the save Sunday night.
With men on first and third, Rivera allowed a sacrifice fly to Varitek that tied the score.
