Matsuzaka, Pedroia put BoSox back in World Series

Red Sox 11, Indians 2

BOSTON -- Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima stood on the

Fenway Park mound, posing for pictures with Boston general manager

Theo Epstein, a Japanese flag and the American League championship

trophy.

Down But Not Out
The Red Sox were certainly down, but it's the Indians who are out. This marks the 11th time in MLB history a team has come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-7 series.
Year	Team	Series	Opp.
'07	Red Sox	ALCS	Indians
'04	Red Sox	ALCS	Yankees
'03	Marlins	NLCS	Cubs
'96	Braves	NLCS	Cardinals
'86	Red Sox	ALCS	Angels
'85	Royals	WS	Cardinals
'85	Royals	ALCS	Blue Jays
'79	Pirates	WS	Orioles
'68	Tigers	WS	Cardinals
'58	Yankees	WS	Braves
'25	Pirates	WS	Senators

This is what these Red Sox rookies came halfway around the world

for: the World Series.

Three years after ending its 86-year title drought, Boston

completed another October comeback by overpowering the Cleveland

Indians 11-2 Sunday night in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.

Having rallied from a 3-1 deficit against Cleveland, the Red Sox

now play the streaking Colorado Rockies starting Wednesday night in

Boston.

This time, the Red Sox are bringing a bunch of guys who weren't

around for the fun when they won it all in 2004.

"We've never been through this. This is on the biggest stage,"

said rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who hit his first

postseason homer and drove in five runs.

"We worked too hard all year long to have our season get cut

short. Nobody wanted to go home, nobody wanted to say goodbye to

everybody. So once we got that win in Cleveland, brought us back

here, we started to believe."

Matsuzaka pitched five solid innings, and Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon each threw two scoreless innings in relief. Boston also got some help by a key blunder by an Indians base coach when

Cleveland trailed just 3-2 with a chance to tie the game.

"We won three games in a row and they won three in a row,"

Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "I'm disappointed, obviously, we

weren't able to finish it off."

After digging out of a 3-0 hole against the Yankees in the '04

ALCS, the Red Sox needed three straight wins to advance this time.

The Rockies, who have won 10 in a row and 21 of 22, will come back

from a record eight days off.

"The Rockies are on a magical run and we are going to have our

hands full. We're going to try and represent the American League

the best we can," Epstein said. "We haven't grown up any since

'04. That's part of what keeps these guys so good. It keeps us all

loose and we never stop believing."

Rolling with Dice-K
Matsuzaka Daisuke Matsuzaka still wasn't dominant. But he did enough to join Roger Clemens as the only Red Sox pitchers to win a Game 7 at Fenway Park. The Rocket did it in the 1986 ALCS against the Angels. Here's Dice-K's '07 postseason:
	ALDS	ALCS	ALCS
Game	2	3	7
IP	4 2/3	4 2/3	5
ER	3	4	2
K/BB	3/3	6/2	3/0
Decision	ND	L	W

Colorado outscored Boston 20-5 in winning two of three during an

interleague series at Fenway in June. The Red Sox did even better

in winning the last three games against Indians, outscoring them

30-5 in that span.

While Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and ALCS MVP Josh Beckett

helped the Red Sox win their 12th pennant, the Indians only added

more misery to a city that hasn't celebrated a World Series

championship since 1948.

Cleveland was a double-play grounder from winning the crown at

Florida in 1997. They appeared to take control of this series with

three consecutive victories, but aces C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona couldn't win a single game between them.

Jake Westbrook settled down to offer a solid outing in Game 7,

and still the Indians came up short. They had a chance to tie it at

3 in the seventh inning, but third-base coach Joel Skinner

mistakenly held up speedy Kenny Lofton as he rounded the bag.

With runners at the corners, Casey Blake grounded into an

inning-ending double play.

Then, the Red Sox blew it open. Pedroia, who homered earlier,

hit a three-run double and Kevin Youkilis launched a bottle rocket,

a two-run drive off the giant Coke bottle above the Green Monster.

Jonathan Papelbon pitched two innings for the save, finishing

things off when center fielder Coco Crisp raced back into the

center-field triangle, crashing into the wall to catch Blake's

drive.

Crisp was still on the ground when Papelbon chucked his glove

into the air and then waited, crouching, for catcher Jason Varitek

to leap into his arms.

The Red Sox poured out of the dugout for their first playoff

clinching celebration at home since the first round in 2004.

"The champagne tastes sweeter at home," they chanted in the

clubhouse later.

Twenty minutes after the last out, the ballpark still full,

slugger David Ortiz walked onto the field carrying the AL trophy.

He walked to the mound, held the prize up in the air for the crowd

to see and then planted it on the ground like an explorer claiming

new territory.

The ballpark hushed when Ortiz picked up a microphone to address

the crowd, but bedlam returned when Papelbon reprised his Irish

step dance from the regular-season clincher. Players took their

turns posing for pictures with the trophy while their kids ran the

bases.

"When things were not going well, we just took a deep breath.

Young guys like Pedroia played a big part in this series," Boston

manager Terry Francona said. "It's not over. We deserve a little

bit tonight to celebrate. This is a special time and a special

place, but it's not over."

Boston kept the bases busy early against Westbrook, but three

double plays in the first four innings kept the Indians in the game

while their starter settled down. The Red Sox scored once in each

of the first three innings, and Matsuzaka retired the first eight

batters he faced.

Cleveland cut the deficit to 3-2 through five, then had a chance

to tie it in the seventh when Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo dropped

Lofton's seemingly harmless popup in shallow left. Lugo drifted

back, tracking the ball with his glove in the air and holding off

incoming left fielder Ramirez with his right hand.

But the shortstop let the ball bounce off his glove, and Lofton

was safe on second.

Franklin Gutierrez hit a sharp grounder over third base that

bounced off the photographer's box in front of the grandstand and

into shallow left. But Skinner held up both hands for the speedy

Lofton, and the 40-year-old outfielder skidded to a stop.

Lofton looked back for the ball and, seeing it in no man's land

in shallow left, snapped his head back to stare at Skinner.

"The ball was behind me. It's not my job. My job is to pick up

the third base coach. He stopped me. I just got to do what he says.

He's the third base coach," Lofton said.

Said Skinner: "The ball kicked off hard there and it's hard to

tell exactly where it is."

"I've seen it bounce right back to the shortstop. When you have

to make a decision and that's what I did. The ball ended up a

little deeper than I thought. But it was one out, runners at first

and third. We were OK," he said.

A star in big games throughout his career in Japan, Matsuzaka

followed two sub-par playoff outings with his first American

postseason victory. He allowed two runs on six hits in five

innings, striking out three and walking none.

"I thought he pitched his heart out," Francona said. "Those

were some tough innings. He gave us what we needed."

Fellow Japanese rookie Okajima pitched two innings of

shutout ball. Papelbon closed, sending the sold-out Fenway into a

frenzy.

Westbrook settled down after spotting Boston a 3-0 lead,

retiring seven consecutive batters before Jacoby Ellsbury -- another

rookie -- bounced a chopper through third baseman Blake for an

error. After Lugo's sacrifice bunt, Pedroia was up.

The diminutive second baseman, with eight major league homers to

his credit, hit an 0-1 pitch into the first row of the Monster

Seats to make it 5-2. He also doubled to clear the bases after

Boston loaded them in the eighth against Rafael Betancourt.

Youkilis, who was a rookie when Boston won it all in '04,

followed with a two-run homer to make it 11-2.

Cleveland's Game 4 starter, Paul Byrd, was forced to defend

himself before the finale when the San Francisco Chronicle reported

that he bought nearly $25,000 worth of human growth hormone and

syringes from 2002-05. Byrd said he took HGH under a doctor's

prescription.

"I do not want the fans of Cleveland or honest, caring people

to think that I cheated," Byrd told a throng of reporters before

the game. "Because I didn't."

Game notes
Boston is 5-5 all-time in decisive Game 7s. ... The Red Sox

were already the only team to have rallied twice from a 3-1 deficit

to win the LCS, in 1986 and '04. It was the first winner-take-all

in the baseball postseason since the 2006 NLCS. ... Boston Game 4

starter Tim Wakefield was unavailable to come out of the bullpen.