Red Sox First to Win Twice This Century

by Niteowl

Baseball Notebook

Red Sox Sweep Rockies: 7th Straight Win

Red Sox defeated the Rockies 4-3 to become the third team in last four years to sweep the World Series and the winning teams in last four World Series have a combined 12-1 record. It also matched the Rockies who had also won seven games in a row this postseason. It was a good game with the final outcome not clear until the last pitch but it continues a trend of losing World Series teams lately seeming to fold up the tent if losing the first game of a World Series. Tigers won Game 2 in 2006 to be the only losing team to even win one game in the last four World Series.

The Rockies were competitive for the last two nights closing the gap on Saturday night to 6-5 before eventually losing 10-5 due to shoddy bullpen work and losing last night 4-3. For the second night in a row Hideki Okajima gave up a home run that drew the Rockies within one run of the Red Sox. In the first three games there were only two home runs hit but last night four balls cleared the fence. Bobby Kielty hit what would prove to be the winning home run in the eighth inning in his only at bat of the World Series.

Jon Lester outpitched Aaron Cook to take the win. Jonathan Paplebon made a good case for being awarded the World Series MVP saving the third of four wins for the Red Sox but Mike Lowell won the award hitting .400. Dustin Pedroia was 0 for 4 last night dropping his average to .278. I wouldn't have been surprised to see Jacoby Ellsbury win the award as he led all hitters with 7 hits, 4 doubles, one less RBI than Lowell, outhit Lowell .438 to .400, tied Lowell in OBP at .500 and was second to Lowell in slugging with a .668 percentage while Lowell slugged .800. In an amazing statistic Pedroia, Lowell and Ellsbury struck out only 3 times in 49 at bats.

Rockies fans at least got to see two close games while Rockies were in Colorado with both games going down to the wire. Lack of World Series inexperience apparently hurt the Rockies along with very bad starting pitching. There isn't much you can say that is positive about being swept in the World Series except to say that Todd Helton hit .333 to lead the Rockies in hitting and was the only .300 hitter on the team and that Aaron Cook pitched respectably well considering he hadn't appeared in a game since August 10th.

Congratulations to the Red Sox for becoming the first team to win more than one World Series this century. Congratulations to the Rockies for even getting to the World Series and if they make it again next year they should play much better now that they have experienced the hoopla that goes with a World Series. Ironically their only player with World Series experience was Willy Taveras who was 0 for 8 so his experience wasn't much help. Lack of experience didn't hurt Jacoby Ellsbury who made a name for himself in the World Series and we should hear his name mentioned a lot in the next 15 years. Not many rookies lead all hitters in a World Series with a .438 average.

2007 World Series Hitting Statistics

Runs - Mike Lowell 6 Hits - Jacoby Ellsbury 7 Doubles - Jacoby Ellsbury 4 Home Runs - 1 by six players Runs Batted In - Jason Varitek 5 Total Bases - Mike Lowell 12 Strikeouts - Brad Hawpe 8 On Base Percentage - Mike Lowell, Jacoby Ellsbury .500 Slugging Percentage - Mike Lowell .800 Batting Average - Jacoby Ellsbury .438 Extra Base Hits - Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Lowell 4

2007 World Series Pitching Statistics

Wins - Beckett, Schilling, Matsuzaka and Lester all won their starts. Losses - Francis, Jiminez, Fogg and Cook all lost their starts ERA- Jon Lester 0.00 (pitchers with at least 5 innings) Saves - Jonathan Paplebon 3 Most Earned Runs Allowed - Franklin Morales 7 Most Hits Allowed - Jeff Franicis, Josh Fogg 10 Most Home Runs Allowed - Hideki Okajima 2 Walks - Ubaldo Jiminez 5 Strikeouts - Josh Beckett 9 Lowest Batting Average Allowed - Jon Lester .150

Note: Team Statistics not available at time of publication at mlb.com