體育快訊:Boston Red Sox Won World Series

Red Sox Rout Cardinals to Win World Series (ZT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/sports/baseball/boston-red-sox-rout-st-louis-cardinals-to-win-world-series.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0


BOSTON — For much of the 20th century, the Boston Red Sox were a symbol of frustration and pain for an entire region. As popular as they were in their corner of the nation, either they were good enough to lose in agonizing fashion on baseball’s grandest stage, or they were just plain bad.

 

But that all changed in 2004 when the Red Sox ended an 86-year championship drought, and now their fortunes have shifted so dramatically that winning titles has become commonplace.

 

The latest victory came Wednesday night, when the Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1, in Game 6 of the World Series and earned the third jewel in their championship crown over the last 10 years, their eighth over all.

 

The Red Sox also captured titles by beating the Cardinals in 2004 and the Colorado Rockies in 2007. But for the first time since 1918, Boston was able to celebrate the victory at home, winning in front of an announced crowd of 38,447 at Fenway Park. Many thousands more crammed the city’s streets and bars to proclaim those formerly scarce words that are now often repeated: The Boston Red Sox won the World Series.

 

“Winning this World Series is special,” David Ortiz said. “I think it might be the most special out of all the World Series that I have been a part of.”

 

Ortiz, whose contributions to all three of the Red Sox’ recent championships cannot be overstated, was named the most valuable player of the series. He hit two home runs, knocked in six runs, scored seven more, batted .688 and had a staggering .760 on-base percentage.

 

The Cardinals finally wised up in Game 6, walking him four times, three times intentionally: it was the only way to prevent him from doing damage. But Ortiz gladly accepted his walks, and he scored twice in the clinching game.

 

“I’ve been around superstars in this game,” Red Sox catcher David Ross said. “I’ve never been around a superstar who cares more about winning than he does. If he goes 0 for 4 and we win, he’s happy. That says a lot about his character.”

 

Although Ortiz carried the offense in the first five games of the series, two players with little success of late came through in Game 6 instead. Shane Victorino drove in four runs, with a bases-clearing double in the third inning and a run-scoring single his next time up. That inning, the fourth, began with a home run by Stephen Drew off Michael Wacha. Drew had batted .080 this postseason entering the game.

 

Wacha, a 22-year-old rookie, had not been beaten in the playoffs and had not even allowed a hit with runners in scoring position. But he was charged with six runs in only three and two-thirds innings Wednesday as the Red Sox finally found a way to hit against him.

 

“It’s very disappointing,” Wacha said. “Everyone on this club wants that ring. I didn’t want to win it for myself. I wanted to win it for these guys in this clubhouse. They’ve been working their tails off all year. Whenever I have a poor outing like that, it hurts me even worse. I feel like I just let the team down. It’s not a very good feeling, that’s for sure.”

 

Red Sox starter John Lackey, who missed all of last season after he had Tommy John surgery, scrapped and battled his way through six and two-thirds inning to earn the win. The victory was his second in a World Series clincher. He also won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series, for the Anaheim Angels.

 

Lackey prevented any runs until the seventh inning, which provided the game’s only tense moment.

 

The Cardinals, trailing by 6-0, scored a run in that inning and then had runners at first and third with two outs with Matt Holliday coming to the plate. Red Sox Manager John Farrell emerged from the dugout, and as he strolled to the mound, Lackey gave him a stern look and appeared to say, “This is my guy,” as well as a few more words hidden by his glove.

 

Farrell left him in, but Lackey walked Holliday, so Junichi Tazawa was summoned from the bullpen. Tazawa got Allen Craig to ground to first, eliciting a roar from the fans.

 

Victorino, who had missed the previous two games because of back spasms, gave the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead with his double, pounding his chest just as he did in the Red Sox’ pennant-clinching game against the Detroit Tigers, in which he hit a decisive grand slam.

 

From there, the Red Sox were simply too good for St. Louis once again.

 

In 2004, the Red Sox swept the Cardinals, winning Game 4 in St. Louis, and in 2007, they swept the Rockies, taking the final game in Denver. The Red Sox had lost in excruciating fashion in their four previous World Series appearances, in 1946 and 1967 to the Cardinals, in 1975 to the Cincinnati Reds and in 1986 to the Mets, each time in seven games, each one more painful than the last.

 

For decades it seemed as if 1918 would remain their last title, especially with the mighty Yankees putting up road blocks in their league and division.

 

But along came Ortiz, who helped erase the Red Sox’ jinx against the Yankees in 2004 and carry Boston over a barrier it had been unable to cross for 86 years.

 

What made this year’s title even more notable was that the Red Sox completed a worst-to-first transformation, rebounding from a last-place finish in the American League East in 2012, shedding a negative reputation and replacing it with scruffy beards to signify team unity.

 

The team brought in Farrell to replace Bobby Valentine and several new players, including Victorino, Drew, Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes and closer Koji Uehara, to change the toxic culture of the clubhouse.

 

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia said the Red Sox bonded in spring training and then were motivated after the Boston Marathon bombings to use baseball to help the city heal.

 

“Because of what happened to this city,” he said, “we wanted to do something special and make everybody happy and proud.”

 

The Red Sox’ roster also featured four key players from the 2007 team: Jacoby Ell*****ury; Jon Lester, who went 2-0 in the World Series; Ortiz; and Pedroia. Ortiz said that this team was not as talented as the others but that the players had the heart and the rapport to win.

 

“And when you win with a ball club like that,” he said, “it’s special.”

 

Even after the team’s horrendous late-season collapse in 2011 and the letdown of 2012, Red Sox fans have become so accustomed to winning that, once their scruffy team had won Game 5, Game 6 had an air of inevitability.

 

By the time Boston had taken a 6-0 lead in the fourth, the damp air at Fenway Park vibrated in anticipation of the party that would soon follow. Uehara struck out Matt Carpenter swinging for the final out, and the Red Sox poured out of the dugout for their final on-field celebration of a remarkable season.

 

“They did it by sheer force of will,” said the owner John Henry, who headed the group that bought the Red Sox in 2002 and set the team on the path to a dynasty. “The fans give us great resources to spend, and we’ve had some great general managers who have spent it wisely. But I think a lot of it is these fans.”

 

Lester, 29, who may have been the M.V.P. had it not been for Ortiz’s sensational numbers, took a moment from swilling celebratory drinks to say that the impact of winning two World Series had not yet sunk in.

 

“This is so incredible,” he said. “All year, this team has done a great job of thinking about today and not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow or next year. It brought us to this point. And as soon as spring training starts, we’re going to turn the page on this one and try to win the World Series again.”

 

For 86 years, that goal was unattainable in these parts. Now it is almost routine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/sports/baseball/boston-red-sox-rout-st-louis-cardinals-to-win-world-series.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0