Wednesday, October 13, 2004

ALCS Game 1

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 10

Well, I honestly wasn't expecting that one. Clearly Schilling's ankle was not as advertised, as the starter went only three innings after giving up six runs. The string of relievers that followed him were mixed and I certainly felt justified declaring that "this bullpen is killing me" after Timlin gave up the two runs in the eighth. Of course, part of that justification was where I watched the game.

As I mentioned in my last post, I watched tonights game in a Yankees bar in the Bronx. This was an experience - I'm not sure it's one I ever want to repeat either, especially if the Sox lose again. It wasn't the harrassment, although there was some of that. It wasn't the fact that the closest thing I had to a Red Sox fan was Nikki's brother Steven's friend Mike, who was a bitter, bitter Mets fan. It was being a room full of sixty people, all routing for the other team and for the most part, having something to cheer about. My sister Allegra would call me during the low points (while Alan called me during the high points - I wonder if that's some sort of weird sign) and I told her in the fourth inning or so that I was in the most psychologically depressing place on Earth. The beers weren't helping, either. At least in Yankee Stadium, you've got other people to suffer with (or feel good with) - here it was just me and "Nineteen Eighteen! Nineteen Eighteen!" I've decided that the main reason I want the Red Sox to win the World Series is so an entire group of people have to throw out one of their t-shirts and come up with a new taunt. All in all, it was a bit of masochism that earned me respect from the Yankees fans I was watching the game with, but it certainly wasn't a whole lot of fun. Alright, it wasn't all awful - I had the pleasure of Nikki running mental circles a drunk obnoxious Yankees fan while I ate some pretty good chili.

It was clearly not all doom and gloom in the game either, though. Between Mussina's no-hitter being broken up by a two out, five run rally in the seventh and Ortiz's two run triple in the eigth that was almost a homerun, it was pretty clear that, once again, the Sox were not going to be beaten down. Well, the offense wasn't, anyway. They kept pushing and pushing and finally made some headway and fought the good fight. Too bad the pitching didn't pull through this time, too bad the breaks weren't all there. Tomorrow's game with Pedro against Lieber becomes that much more important. GO SOX!!!