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MARC TOPKINMark Bellhorn's two-run homer helps Boston overcome four errors in a sloppily played opener.
BOSTON - Much of Saturday's World Series opener was about what was going wrong.
Then Mark Bellhorn made it all right.
Bellhorn hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to put a happy ending on a long night as the Red Sox pulled out an 11-9 victory.
"We did some things wrong, but we persevered and we won," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "We set out to win today, so it's really a great day."
The Cardinals and Red Sox certainly didn't look like the two best teams in baseball, turning the first game of the 100th Fall Classic into anything but a classic.
The teams combined for 14 walks, five shy of the record 19 by the Yankees and Braves in Game 3 in 1957. They teamed for 24 hits and 20 runs and played for four hours. There were nine pitching changes. The Sox made four errors, two by Manny Ramirez on consecutive plays in the eighth, that led to runs, and the Cardinals made one, too. Neither starting pitcher made it through four innings. The Sox blew leads of 4-0 and 7-2. Boston's Tim Wakefield walked the bases loaded to start the fourth. The Cardinals used their Game 4 starter, Jason Marquis, as a pinch-runner.
"That was not an instructional video to be sent to the instructional league," Francona said. "That was kind of rough."
The Cardinals were obviously unhappy with the way it worked out.
"We did a couple things we usually do, play nine (innings) and give ourselves a chance, but we did things we don't usually do, walk guys to set up innings, and two or three times they scored. That's kind of not how we play it," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "I give them credit; we opened the door and they capitalized just about every time."
It was not all bad.
St. Louis' Larry Walker had a big night with four hits in his first Series game: a homer, two doubles and a single.
Boston's David Ortiz drove in four, three on a first-inning homer, to tie the postseason record of 19.
Red Sox closer Keith Foulke continued his impressive postseason run, getting the final five outs to extend his scoreless streak to 102/3 innings.
And Bellhorn, who hit a big home run in Game 6 of the ALCS, came through with a fly ball that struck the screen attached to the rightfield foul pole - the Pesky pole - with one out in the eighth.
"Every little boy always thinks of playing in the World Series, Game 7, and winning the game," Bellhorn said. "I know I did, but I'm not here trying to be a hero. I'm just here to try to win four games."
There was electricity throughout Boston all day leading up the first World Series game at Fenway Park in exactly 18 years since a Game 5 win over the Mets in the 1986 Series, one game before Bill Buckner added another chapter to their stunning tale of postseason woe.
Saturday, the Red Sox grabbed a 4-0 lead in the first, thanks mostly to a three-run homer by Ortiz, but - in what could be a pattern here - were never able to relax.
"I think it's real clear that both of the clubs, you're used to playing nine innings and you know you send danger up there every inning, so you never feel like you're out of the game," La Russa said. "That's a pretty big deficit to come back from, but that's how we play it. Sometimes the pitching needs to be picked up, and we're ready to do it."
The Cardinals cut the margin to 4-2 with runs in the second, on a sacrifice fly by Mike Matheny, and the third, on Walker's home run.
The Sox extended the lead to 7-2 by scoring three in the third without an extra-base hit, though with the first RBI of the postseason by Ramirez.
But Wakefield walked the first three batters in the fourth, and the Cardinals pulled back to within 7-5, getting runs on a sac fly, a fielder's choice and an error.
The Cardinals came back and tied it in the sixth with a two-out rally off reliever Bronson Arroyo, the Hernando High product. So Taguchi reached on an infield single and went to second on Arroyo's errant throw, then Edgar Renteria and Walker doubled.
The Red Sox went back ahead 9-7 in the seventh, Ramirez and and Ortiz each singling in a run, Ortiz's ball taking a wicked hop that hit second baseman Tony Womack on the collarbone and knocked him out of the game.
But five outs from victory, they gave it back, with Ramirez's two errors - the second an awkward, and amusing, attempt to make a diving catch - factoring heavily in the Cardinals' rally.
"We came out early and did a very good job," Francona said. "We kind of gave it back to them, and knew they wouldn't quit. We knew they would try to come back. We helped them back into it a little bit."