A series for the ages
Baseball is a grind. Teams play 162 games over six months and that sheer enormity can make singular moments fleeting. There’s always “another game tomorrow”. But sometimes baseball produces true fandom-cementing, “I remember where I was” nostalgia. The 2004 ALCS between the New York Yankees & Boston Red Sox was one of those magic moments.
We’ve had the backstory already: a brawl, a trade, some late-season theatrics, and a crushing Twins playoff defeat. Now it’s time for the climax.
Games 1-3
If someone had fallen into a two-decade coma after these contests, upon awaking there would mostly be wonderment at this series being a seminal baseball moment. You mean the one where the Yankees dominated the Red Sox again?!
In Game 1, Sox SP Curt Schilling could not navigate a balky ankle and the Yanks rolled him 10-7, with Mariano Rivera slamming the Yankee Stadium door shut.
Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Pedro Martinez battled (6 IP, 3 ER) through the NYY lineup in G2, but BOS bats provided little support in a 3-1 loss. Again: Mo cueing Sinatra’s version of New York, New York.
Back in Beantown for Game 3, hope abounded for a Sox comeback. Alas, there was no Fenway magic—the Sox were stomped 19-8.
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Game 4
No team had ever overcome a 3-0 playoff series deficit—and it looked like that streak would continue. Down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Boston stared down the Rivera barrel on the verge of etching perhaps the worst chapter yet in the Curse of the Bambino.
But that’s when the magic began stirring.
Kevin Millar walked and Dave Roberts pinch-ran. With everyone on guard for a stolen base, the utility speedster took off on the first pitch…
They say baseball is a game of inches. If the current LA Dodgers manager’s cleats slip an inch—or if Jorge Posada’s throw is an inch better—the Red Sox likely go gentle into that good night. But not on this night.
Immediately, Bill Mueller singled home Roberts and sent the game into extra innings.
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After two stalemate frames, former Twin David Ortiz corralled the magic again and triggered Dirty Water in Fenway…
Game 5
Billed as a pitcher’s duel—Pedro vs. Mike Mussina—this one became an all-time classic for completely different reasons.
Tied 4-4 (were two teams ever more evenly matched?!) through 9, gridlock continued deep into the New England darkness. 10th inning—11th inning—12th inning—13th inning. Neither squad could muster a single spike on home plate.
The magic reared up again in the bottom of the 14th.
After NY pitcher Esteban Loaiza walked Johnny Damon & Manny Ramirez, Ortiz was presented another heroic opportunity—which he again grabbed…
As Joe Buck put it: “[Damon] can keep on running to New York!”. In utterly improbable—some might say magical—fashion, the ALCS would conclude in NYC.
Game 6
All season, Schilling was the BoSox’s workhorse. He’d finish second to Johan Santana in AL Cy Young voting. The problem? His ankle was a mess. With the tendon sheath stitched together in a new procedure that would ultimately bear his name, Schilling gave it a go.
Remarkably, the baseball magic had indeed transferred from Beantown to Bronx. With blood seeping through his athletic sock…
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…Schilling shoved: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER en route to a 4-2 Red Sox victory.
Now tied, this series was already an all-time classic—with a winner-take-all Game 7 looming.
Game 7
The funny thing about the finale is that the magic struck early—then proved anticlimactic.
In the 1st inning, Ortiz—who else?!—launched a two-run homer off Kevin Brown. The Sox then sent Brown to the showers via 1B-BB-BB in the 2nd, bringing Damon to the plate…
It was as if the magicians guiding this ALCS rollercoaster finally just said “okay—it’s Boston”. The Red Sox cruised to a 10-3 victory, with Pokey Reese sidearming the final out to Doug Mientkiewicz…
It is easy in sportswriting to overstate certain moments or feelings. But in this case, I believe magical sentimentality is warranted. There was a time when baseball was king of pro sports and none so popular as the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. 2004 may have been the tail end of MLB’s premiere period, but it represents a moment in time when the entire country was invested in diamond doings—no longer the case in our fractured entertainment landscape.
Personally, I will never forget watching these games at home on my college fall break. Every time I see Dave Roberts assume that sprinter’s stance and beat Jeter’s tag by a millisecond, I get goosebumps. Not only because of the athletic feat—but because the excitement was shared by so many others at that exact moment. Truly a cultural touchstone that my favorite sport created—if for a final time.
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