Happy Anniversary To A Monumental Day In Boston Baseball History
We look back at October 18, 2004, also known as the day that Boston's baseball fate changed forever.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . Nineteen years later, the 2004 Red Sox are still the only team in MLB history to come back from a 3-0 series deficit in a postseason series. It has happened only a few other times in history across the four major American sports leagues. In 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup, which to date is the only 3-0 deficit overcome to win a championship. It has happened three other times in NHL history, but never in NBA history — only four NBA teams have ever forced a Game 7 after being down 3-0.
. . . Only one other MLB team besides the 2004 Red Sox has even come back to tie a postseason series after being down 3-0. In 2020, the Houston Astros trailed the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-0, in the American League Championship Series. They came back to tie the series and force a Game 7, only to lose to the Rays in the deciding game.
Leading Off
Boston’s Greatest Baseball Day
By Paul White
Today marks the 19th anniversary of the greatest day in Boston baseball history: Oct. 18, 2004. It is the only time in the 123-year history of the franchise that the Red Sox beat the hated New York Yankees in a playoff game twice in one day.
Coming into the day, the American League Championship Series looked to be over. New York held a commanding 3-0 lead over Boston after beating them in the ALCS the year before as well. The Yankees had pounded Boston pitching into dust in Game 3, scoring 19 runs on 22 hits and forcing rubber-armed knuckleball specialist Tim Wakefield to volunteer for 3 1/3 innings of relief duty to save the bullpen from further damage.
Wakefield’s sacrifice forced Red Sox manager Terry Francona to start Derek Lowe in Game 4. Lowe had only been used in relief for one inning of the AL Division Series against the Angels and hadn’t been slated for the postseason rotation, but that’s what a 19-run outburst and a 3-0 series deficit will do to a manager.
Under the circumstances, Lowe pitched well. He gave up a two-run home run to Álex Rodríguez in the third inning but left in the sixth with a 3-2 lead and a runner on third base. His replacement, Mike Timlin, surrendered a single that tied the game, and then an RBI single to Tony Clark later in the sixth gave New York the lead, 4-3. It remained that way until the ninth.
One pitch into Kevin Millar’s leadoff plate appearance in the bottom of the ninth against legendary Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, the clock struck midnight, ending October 17 and ushering in the Red Sox’s greatest day.
Millar drew a walk and was lifted for pinch-runner Dave Roberts. Everyone in the ballpark and watching on television knew Roberts would try to steal second base. It was the only reason he was on the roster, having not batted even once or played a single inning in the field during that postseason.
We all know what happened next. After three vain pickoff attempts, Rivera finally threw a pitch and Roberts took off for second base. Despite a good throw from Jorge Posada, Roberts was safe on a headfirst slide. Third baseman Bill Mueller then drove him in with a game-tying single and the game moved deeper into the early hours of Monday, Oct. 18. Over an hour later, at 1:22 a.m. Boston time, David Ortiz blasted a Paul Quantrill pitch into the Yankees’ bullpen for a two-run homer to win the game, 6-4.
The two teams had a grand total of 15 hours and 49 minutes between the final pitch of Game 4 and the first pitch of Game 5, which started just after five o’clock the next afternoon.
The lack of rest did not bother the Red Sox hitters in the first innings, as they grabbed a quick 2-0 lead off Yankee starter Mike Mussina. A leadoff homer in the second inning by Bernie Williams cut that lead in half, and it disappeared entirely in the sixth, when Pedro Martínez hit the No. 9 hitter in the Yankees’ lineup, Miguel Cairo, to load the bases and then surrendered a bases-clearing three-run double to Derek Jeter, putting New York ahead, 4-2.
That’s the way it stayed until the bottom of the eighth, when Ortiz led off with a homer and then Rivera blew his second straight save by giving up a game-tying sacrifice fly to Jason Varitek. The Yankees nearly took the lead back in the top of the ninth, but Tony Clark’s drive into the right-field corner hopped up into the stands for an automatic double, stopping Ruben Sierra at third base instead of allowing him to score the go-ahead run.
Neither team scored in the 10th inning. Or the 11th, or 12th, or 13th. The five-hour, two-minute Game 4 turned out to be only the series’ second-longest game that ended on October 18, because Game 5 cruised past that mark by more than 45 minutes.
Finally, in the bottom of the 14th inning, Yankee reliever Esteban Loaiza alternated strikeouts and walks of the first four Red Sox hitters, bringing up Ortiz with another chance to beat the Yankees in extra innings. Once again, he did not disappoint, blooping a single into center field to score Johnny Damon and give the Red Sox a 5-4 victory. At five hours and 49 minutes, Game 5 was the longest postseason game in Major League history to that point.
As if beating New York in two playoff games in one day wasn’t enough, the results of October 18 turned the tide of not just the series, or the postseason, but the identity of the entire Red Sox franchise. They never lost again that year, becoming the first Major League team to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a postseason series. Then they swept the St. Louis Cardinals for Boston’s first World Series title in 86 years. Then they won another championship in 2007, and another in 2013, and another in 2018.
The “cursed” franchise was forever different, all because of the events of Oct. 18, 2004.
Paul White is an IBWAA Life Member who writes at Lost in Left Field. He is also a member of SABR and has written for their BioProject and Games Project. Paul is currently writing a book for McFarland Publishers about the history of the Hall of Fame’s recognition of the Negro Leagues. He lives with his wife in the suburbs of Kansas City.