How sweep it is!
The curse is lifted with 3-0 victory over Cardinals
Toolbox
By Jim Salisbury Knight Ridder - Published: October 28, 2004
ST. LOUIS — In the end, nothing could stop the 2004 Boston Red Sox from accomplishing their mission, not the dangerous Anaheim Angels, not the historically superior New York Yankees, not the explosive St. Louis Cardinals, and certainly not some silly curse.
Climb to the top of Mount Washington and shout. Blare those horns out in Boston Harbor. Break out the bubbly and dance in the streets around Kenmore Square. Wake the Babe and tell him to find some other team to haunt. And while you're at it, lift a glass to manager Terry Francona and his delightful band of idiots.
The wait is over, Red Sox Nation.
For the first time since 1918, your team stands atop the baseball world.
The Red Sox completed a four-game World Series sweep of the Cardinals with a 3-0 win on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
The long dreamed about victory washed away 86 years of frustration, and once and for all exorcised the so-called Curse of the Bambino, the mythical hex that had tormented the Red Sox since they had sold the great Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees after the 1919 season.
Ruth was a 23-year-old pitcher/outfielder on the last Red Sox team to win a World Series. In the years after Ruth had gone on to become the first superstar of professional sports, the Red Sox got back to the World Series four times — 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986.
They lost each one in seven games. Two of those series defeats — 1946 and 1967 — came against the Cardinals.
This time, the Red Sox took no chances, and no prisoners. They got it over with in four games with a stunning sweep of the Cardinals, who led the majors with 105 wins during the regular season.
The Cardinals never held a lead in the series and several of the big bats that helped them score the most runs in the National League this season never got untracked. Scott Rolen, who had 124 RBIs during the regular season, didn't have a hit in the series. Jim Edmonds (111 RBIs) had just one.
The Sox meanwhile got big hit after big hit. In Game 2, they scored all six of their runs on two-out hits. In Game 3, three of their four runs came on two-out hits. In Wednesday night's clincher, they scored two more runs on a two-out hit.
The Red Sox also received some inspiring starting pitching, from banged-up Curt Schilling's six strong innings in Game 2, to Pedro Martinez's seven shutout innings in Game 3, to Derek Lowe on Wednesday night.
Where would these Sox have been without Lowe?
He pitched six innings of one-run ball in Boston's do-or-die Game 7 win over the hated Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
Wednesday night, the 31-year-old sinkerball was even better, turning in seven shutout innings after Johnny Damon, the who earlier this postseason called himself and his free-spirited mates "a bunch of idiots," led off the game with a solo homer of Jason Marquis.
The Red Sox ended up winning eight postseason games in a row to close out this season. The biggest win of all ended with closer Keith Foulke getting the final three outs and Red Sox players storming the field in celebration as a small but vocal pocket of fans let loose in the seats.
In the dugout, Francona embraced members of his coaching staff. The man dismissed in 2000 as a failure after four losing seasons in Philadelphia had found the best redemption of all.
Starting pitching had betrayed the Cardinals in the first three games of the series, with Woody Williams, Matt Morris and Jeff Suppan combining to allow 20 hits and 15 earned runs in 11-1/3 innings over the first three games. That's an ERA of 11.91.
In desperate need of a quality start, the Cards turned their hopes to Marquis on Wednesday night. The righthander didn't exactly instill confidence. He had struggled down the stretch, going 1-3 with a 5.33 ERA in his final six starts of the regular season. His work this postseason wasn't exactly stellar. In 8-1/3 innings, he had allowed six runs and walked eight.
The big, hopeful St. Louis crowd of 52,037 had barely settled into the seats when the Cardinals found themselves behind the Red Sox again.
Damon led off the game by smacking a 2-1 pitch into the Cardinals bullpen.
Good things have happened to the Red Sox in this postseason when Damon had homered. He hit two of them, including a grand slam, in Boston's clinching Game 7 ALCS win over the Yankees last week.
The Cardinals' desperation to get something started showed in the bottom of the first inning. Tony Womack led off with a single. Manager Tony La Russa then asked No. 2 hitter Larry Walker, he of the 368 career homers, to bunt. Walker got the job done, moving Womack to second with a perfect sacrifice bunt, his first since May 4, 1991.
Yes, 1991.
Lowe stranded Womack at second, then retired the Cardinals in order in the second, third and fourth innings. In the fifth, Lowe allowed a one-out double to Edgar Renteria, then wild-pitched him to third. Renteria died there as Lowe struck out John Mabry and got Yadier Molina on a groundout.
By that time, Lowe already had a 3-0 lead as the Sox followed Damon's first-inning homer with two runs in the third, both coming of Trot Nixon's two-out, bases-loaded double.