By Jim Donaldson
The Providence Journal
BOSTON ó This is why Lawrence Peter Berra was a genius.
And why the Boston Red Sox are defending World Series champions.
And why baseball is not merely the National Pastime, but the greatest game of all.
In that same category of great games most certainly can be included the nearly impossible, certainly improbable, absolutely unforgettable seven-run comeback by the Sox Thursday night in as dramatic a game as you’d hope to see at any time, much less in the American League Championship Series.
The Red Sox trailed, 7-0, going into the bottom of the seventh and the Tampa Bay Rays appeared headed for the World Series.
Then, after Dustin Pedroia drove in Jed Lowrie with Boston’s first run, David Ortiz, who was 1-for-17 in the ALCS and hadn’t hit a homer in his last 61 at-bats, drilled a three-run homer into the right-field stands.
“David got us back,” Sox manager Terry Francona said, “to where, if something else happens, it makes it interesting.”
A lot happened.
It wasn’t merely interesting.
It was exhilarating.
The Red Sox still were down by three runs going into the bottom of the eighth. After a leadoff walk to Jason Bay, J.D. Drew cut that deficit to one with a two-run homer.
“There’s a lot of fight in that dugout,” Drew said. “It was looking pretty bleak, but when Papi hit that big home run, that got us going.”
Mark Kotsay kept the inning going with a two-out double, at which point Coco Crisp came through with what Francona called “the best at-bat he’s had as a Red Sox.”
It was a 10-pitch at-bat, as Crisp fouled off pitch after pitch from Rays reliever ó and Pilgrim High graduate ó Dan Wheeler.
Finally, Crisp got one he could get hold of and drilled the tying single to right.
It looked as if the game was going into extra innings when, after Justin Masterson blanked the hard-hitting Rays in the ninth, the first two Boston batters in the bottom of the inning were retired by J.P. Howell.
But Kevin Youkilis hit a bouncer down the third base line that Evan Longoria made a nice play on, but then threw past first base, enabling Youkilis to advance to second.
The Rays decided to walk Bay, bringing Drew to the plate.
He responded with a line drive over the head of right fielder Gabe Gross and Boston won a game few people outside the Red Sox dugout thought they had a chance to pull out.
But that’s why baseball is such a great game.
Unlike sports with a clock, time never runs out on you. Until you make 27 outs, you still have a chance. As Yogi so sagely said: “It’s never over till it’s over.”
The gutsy Red Sox, embarrassed in their own ballpark in lopsided losses in Games 3 and 4 ó and seemingly headed for another on this night ó never thought it was over.
“The first six innings,” Francona said, “we did nothing. They had their way with us every way possible. Then this place came unglued. That was pretty magical.
“A loss, and we stay home. We get to keep playing, and that’s truly thrilling. I’ve never seen a group of guys so happy to be headed for the airport at 1:30 in the morning.”
(Contact Jim Donaldson at jdonaldsprojo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
AP-NY-10-17-08 1129EDT