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MARC TOPKINRED SOX 3, CARDS 0: Boston finally ends decades of futility.
ST. LOUIS - So what was so hard about that?
The Red Sox swept aside 85 years of failure with a clean sweep of the Cardinals, scoring a 3-0 victory Wednesday to win their first World Series since 1918.
For a team known historically more for the one thing it hasn't done than the many things it has, for a team known recently to make even the simplest things hard, the Red Sox won with surprising, and stunning, ease, completing the 18th sweep in Series history.
And then they started a celebration that will stretch across family ties, across state lines, across generations, and may cross into next week.
"I think the city is going to be on fire, not literally - hopefully that won't happen - but the passion that the fans in Boston have is so great," Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield said before Wednesday's game. "And being here for 10 years I've noticed that passion, and even before that I knew about it.
"So for us to win this thing for the city of Boston, it will mean a tremendous thing for all the fans that have been supporting the Red Sox for so many years. I'm just excited that we have the opportunity to do that for them."
This is a victory for the ages, and for all ages. A victory that reversed the "curse" of selling Babe Ruth. A victory that makes amends for all the heartbreak and near misses.
For the times they didn't get to be in the World Series because of Bucky "Bleepin' " Dent and Aaron "Bleepin' " Boone.
And for the times they did.
For 1946, when the Sox held a 3-2 Series lead over the Cardinals but lost Game 6 and then Game 7 when shortstop Johnny Pesky held the ball as Enos Slaughter raced home.
For 1967, when the Impossible Dream Sox came back from a 3-1 Series deficit to tie the Cardinals, then lost Game 7 at home after being shut down by Bob Gibson.
For 1975, when the Sox won Game 6 on Carlton Fisk's unforgettable 12th-inning home run against the Reds, then lost Game 7 when the Reds scored the winning run in the ninth.
For 1986, when the Sox were up 3-2 against the Mets and Bob Stanley's wild pitch led to Mookie Wilson's ground ball which led to Bill Buckner's error which led to Ray Knight scoring the winner, and the Mets winning again in Game 7.
For every year when the fans - the "Calvinistic, fatalistic" fans, as GM Theo Epstein referred to them - hoped against hope it was the year, this is THE year.
Having turned around their season with a July blockbuster trade and winning the wild card, having swept the Angels in the first round, having made history by coming back from 3-0 to beat the Yankees in the ALCS, the Sox made the World Series look easy.
For the fourth straight game, the Red Sox scored in the first inning. This time it was a home run on the fourth pitch by Johnny Damon, the 17th leadoff home run in Series play.
And for the fourth straight game, they added to their lead.
A one-out third inning rally started with a single and a double but had a chance to stall when World Series MVP Manny Ramirez was thrown out trying to score on a grounder to first.
But the Red Sox have been tremendous with two outs, scoring 10 of their first 21 runs with two down, and they added two more. After Bill Mueller walked, Trot Nixon lashed a double off the centerfield wall to make it 3-0.
It is only the third time in Series history a team led every inning of every game, the Sox joining the 1963 Dodgers (over the Yankees) and the 1989 A's (over San Francisco).
Starter Derek Lowe added a likely final chapter to his Red Sox career, pitching seven dazzling shutout innings and picking up an unprecedented third clinching win of the postseason.
Lowe rebounded from his own late-season slump to win back his job with two impressive outings in the AL Championship Series. And the Sox figured he was something of a good-luck charm, as he picked up the win in the division series-clinching game against Anaheim and the ALCS-clinching game against New York.
The Cardinals continued to struggle offensively.
They got leadoff man Tony Womack to second with one out in the first, after Larry Walker's first sacrifice bunt since 1991, but couldn't get him in as Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen managed only weak grounders.
It was 10-up, 10-down after that until Edgar Renteria doubled with one out in the fifth, and moved to third on a wild pitch. But neither of the players manager Tony La Russa added to the lineup were able to do anything. John Mabry struck out, and argued about it, and Yadier Molina grounded out.