World Series Recap: Sox Win!

The Major League Baseball postseason came to a close last Wednesday when the Boston Red Sox took the world championship in a best of seven series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Red Sox beat the Cardinals in game six at Fenway Park for the first championship to be celebrated at home in 95 years, and their third championship since 2004. The two teams with the best records in both the American and National leagues made this series exciting with wild finishes and a great competitive atmosphere. Like the rest of the postseason, the championship series turned out to be a battle of the aces, as pitching was a deciding factor.Game one of the series was held at Fenway Park with Boston’s Jon Lester facing off against the Cardinal’s Adam Wainwright. What was supposed to be a fantastic match-up turned out to be one of the sloppiest games defensively in the World Series. The Red Sox immediately got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the first inning after a bases-clearing double by Mike Napoli drove in Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz. In the bottom of the second inning, miss-communication allowed Stephen Drew to get on first base after he popped up to the mound, and neither catcher Yadier Molina nor pitcher Adam Wainwright caught the ball. They eventually scored two runs that inning after Pedroia hit a single to left field scoring Drew, and a sacrifice fly by David Ortiz scored David Ross, who got on base on a single to center. The Sox put three more runs on the board late in the game. The Cardinals only run came off a Matt Holliday home run in the top of the ninth, with the final score being 8-1.In game two, Cardinal’s rookie ace Michael Wacha took the mound against John Lackey. Lackey had a good performance despite taking the loss, but the real star of the game was the rookie pitcher Wacha, only allowing three hits with six strikeouts and giving up two earned runs over six innings of work. The two Sox runs came off a David Ortiz homerun that gave them a short-lived lead. The Cardinals scored three runs in the top of the seventh after errors by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and relieving pitcher Craig Breslow when he overthrew third base trying to throw out John Jay attempting to take third on the catching error by Saltalamacchia. The Cards took this game 4-2.With the first of the three games in St. Louis, Jake Peavy looked to get his first World Series win as he faced Joe Kelly. Peavy struggled with his start against the Tigers in the ALCS, but redeemed himself with this start. He only allowed two earned runs over four innings of work, much improved compared to his Detroit start. When it came down to it, however, this game was decided by defense. The game was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth with Yadier Molina on third and Allen Craig on second as Jon Jay came to the plate. Jay then grounded the ball to Pedroia at second base, who threw out Molina trying to take home. Craig tried to go to third on the throw home, and Saltalamacchia threw to third baseman Will Middlebrooks to try to get Craig. Middlebrooks missed the ball, however, and Craig tripped over him before Middlebrooks could move out of the way. Even though left field Daniel Nava backed up the play and threw home in time to nail Craig at the plate, the run scored on an obstruction call saying that Middlebrooks had impeded Craig’s progress towards home. The Cardinals took a 2-1 lead in the series after the Cardinals walked-off with a 5-4 win on one of the most exciting plays to end a World Series game in baseball history.Looking to avenge their game three loss, the Red Sox put Clay Buchholz on the mound to face off against Lance Lynn. The Red Sox changed up their lineup by putting in David Ross for Jarrod Saltalamacchia after the error he made, and by putting in Johnny Gomes in for Shane Victorino, who was a late scratch. This turned out to be the right decision for the Red Sox when Gomes shot a three-run homerun into center field to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning. The Cardinals would try to come back by getting a run in the seventh, but the game would end 4-2 after closer Koji Uehara picked off pinch runner Kolten Wong at first base.In game five, Lester faced Wainwright in a rematch to see which team would take the advantage going back to Boston for game six. With another great pitching performance by both Lester and Wainwright, getting 7 and 10 strikeouts respectively, the Red Sox held off the Cardinals to take a 3-2 series lead going back to Boston for the home field advantage.Game six was a rematch of the rookie Wacha and Lackey as the series moved back to Boston, which would end up as the deciding game for the title. With the bases loaded in the third inning, Shane Victorino stepped up the plate determined to do some damage. He had hit a grand slam in game six of the ALCS against Detroit to give them the lead, but this time, he hit a bases clearing double off of the Green Monster in center field, moving to third base on the throw to home. In the next inning, shortstop Stephen Drew, who had been struggling the entire series, came up big by hitting a solo homerun to right field extending their lead by one. Two more runs scored that inning to give the Sox a 6-0 lead. The Cardinals mustered up one run, but that would be it as Koji Uehara struck out Matt Carpenter to give the Red Sox another championship.The scene was frantic at Fenway Park as the Red Sox won the championship at home for the first time since 1918. David Ortiz won the MVP Award with an amiable performance of hitting a .688 batting average and a .760 on-base percentage. With the parade taking place in Boston last Saturday, the baseball season officially closed as players look to relax during the offseason before they report to Spring Training in February 2014.