American LeagueDavid Wells put the New York Yankees on the verge of another World Series, sending them back to the Bronx with two chances to keep The Curse alive.
The Yankees now have a 3-2 lead in the AL championship series. With one more victory, New York will extend Boston's perennial heartache to 85 years.
PHOTO: AFP
Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens are rested and ready for the final two games of the series, which continues Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
"We never get overconfident," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said.
Boston planned to start John Burkett, 0-6 against the Yankees in his career in the regular season, against Pettitte in Game 6, holding Pedro Martinez back for a seventh game rather than pitch him on three days' rest. But knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who has both of his team's wins, said he thought he would be available if the Red Sox wanted him in relief.
"The clock is ticking on us right now," Boston manager Grady Little said. "We'll just wait it out another day and see if they can get it going."
Karim Garcia, who cut a knuckle in Saturday's bullpen battle with a member of Boston's grounds crew, was inserted into New York's lineup just before gametime and hit a two-run single in the second off Derek Lowe, who dropped to 0-2 in the series. Boston fans taunted Garcia in the ninth with a sing-song chant of "Jailbird."
David Dellucci originally was slated to start in right field, but manager Joe Torre told Garcia he was in the lineup after watching him in batting practice.
"His eyes lit up," Torre said. "He thanked me."
Alfonso Soriano followed Garcia's hit with an RBI single and later made a fantastic backflip that helped stifle a Boston rally. Jeter also had a great play, making a diving stop to throw out Jason Varitek, and Hideki Matsui contributed a run-scoring grounder in the eighth.
New York is seeking its 39th AL pennant, and fifth in six seasons, while Boston is trying to get to the World Series for the first time since 1986. And, as Yankee fans are sure to point out Wednesday night, Boston's hasn't won the World Series since 1918 -- two years before the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to New York, the supposed cause of The Curse.
Wells is a longtime Ruth fan who six years ago wore one of the Bambino's caps from 1934 for an inning against Cleveland. He both delights and distracts the Yankees, getting big wins but also causing big trouble from time to time.
"We know what he's capable of doing," Torre said.
He improved to 9-2 in the postseason, allowing one run -- Manny Ramirez's fourth-inning homer. Wells allowed just four hits in seven innings, blunting Boston just as he did Sept. 7, when the Red Sox closed within 1 game in the AL East before losing 3-1 to Wells.
"He was mixing it up pretty well -- fastballs, curveballs," Jeter said. "The thing with Boomer is he goes right at you."
Mariano Rivera finished for his fourth save of the postseason. He allowed his first run of the playoffs when Todd Walker tripled off the right-field wall leading off the eighth and scored on a groundout by Nomar Garciaparra -- his first RBI of the playoffs.
Lowe, who lost to Pettitte in Game 2, got in trouble in the second when he walked Jorge Posada with one out. After Matsui advanced Posada with a forceout, Lowe intentionally walked Nick Johnson, and Aaron Boone hit a hard bouncer to third that went off Bill Mueller's glove and into the air, with Mueller unable to grab it with his bare hand on the first try.
That brought up Garcia, who lined a sinker into center for a 2-0 lead. When he reached first base, he kissed a finger and pointed toward the sky.
Soriano, 1-for-16 in the series at that point, hit a hard smash into right field on the next pitch for a 3-0 lead.
Boston threatened in the third, when Trot Nixon was hit by a pitch on the right shoulder and Varitek singled. Johnny Damon grounded to first to advance the runners, with Johnson making a nice pickup. Walker then flied to left and, with the crowd on its feet cheering, Garciaparra struck out on a 3-2 pitch.
Ramirez homered over the Green Monster in the fourth, his second of the series and third of the playoffs. With his 16th career postseason homer, he moved past Ruth into fifth place.
New York put runners on first and second with one out in the fourth and got runners at the corners with one out in the fifth, helped when Walker, Mueller and Kevin Millar failed to come up with difficult grounders during the two innings. But Lowe escaped both times.
After Soriano misplayed Nixon's grounder for an error leading off the fifth, he made a neat play on Damon's one-out grounder up the middle. Soriano ran toward second, stretched to the shortstop side of the base and with his glove flipped the ball back to Jeter, who caught it with his bare hand for the force.
Walker then singled and Garciaparra walked, loading the bases for Ramirez, who bounced into the forceout at third.
National League
Five outs to go. The Wrigley Field crowd on its feet. The World Series within their grasp.
Then, it was almost as if the baseball gods woke up and realized these were the Chicago Cubs.
Those lovable losers blew it again thanks in part to -- of all things -- one of their own fans.
In a stunning eighth-inning turnaround, the Florida Marlins took advantage of left fielder Moises Alou's run-in with a fan on a foul fly and an error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez to score eight runs in an 8-3 victory Tuesday night, forcing the National League championship series to a Game 7.
"I don't know about the fan robbing them," Marlins manager Jack McKeon said. "I don't think that was the turning point of the game."
He might've been the only person in the ballpark who felt that way.
Mark Prior, Sammy Sosa and the Cubs cruised into the eighth with a 3-0 lead, all set to end their 58-year absence from the World Series.
What followed was a sudden collapse that would rival anything in the Cubs' puzzling, painful past -- and the emergence of baseball's most infamous fan since 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier in the 1996 American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium.
A 26-year-old wearing a Cubs hat prevented Alou from catching Luis Castillo's ball. Given a last-gasp chance, the Marlins broke loose. That's about when security decided to escort the fan out. He threw a jacket over his face for protection, but not before other fans hurled beers in his direction.
"You cost us the World Series!" one fan yelled at him.
Alou said: "Hopefully, he won't have to regret it for the rest of his life."
Now, after the Marlins' second straight win in the series, it goes down to Wednesday night. Ace Kerry Wood will pitch for Chicago, while the Marlins will go with Mark Redman.
"It has nothing to do with the curse," Cubs manager Dusty Baker insisted. "It has to do with fan interference and a very uncharacteristic error by Gonzalez. History has nothing to do with this game, nothing."
The eighth inning began easily enough, with a flyout to Alou. But Juan Pierre doubled, and sheer disaster followed.
Castillo lifted a fly down the left-field line and Alou ran toward the brick wall, ready to do anything it took to make the catch.
Instead, the fan reached up for the ball -- not over the wall, though -- and deflected the ball away.
"I timed it perfectly, I jumped perfectly," Alou said. "I'm almost 100 percent that I had a clean shot to catch the ball. All of a sudden, there's a hand on my glove."
Left-field umpire Mike Everitt correctly ruled no interference. Unlike the 12-year-old Maier in the 1996 ALCS at Yankee Stadium, this fan did not reach over a wall.
"The ball was actually in the stands," Major League Baseball umpire supervisor Rich Rieker said. "The fielder goes in at his own risk. In this case, the fan did not reach out."
Alou slammed his glove in anger, and many fans in the crowd of 39,577 booed and began to pelt the fan with debris.
"The ball was in the stands, the umpire saw that," McKeon said. "I didn't think there was any interference."
Chicago fire fighter Pat Looney was seated next to the fan, whose identity was not released, and said there was no misconduct.
"It looked like it was out of play. Don't blame him," Looney said. "I should've pushed him out of the way. If I saw Alou coming, I would have.
"He wasn't leaning over. He was behind the rail, he didn't know Alou was coming," he said. "It looks like I touched the ball, but I didn't. I got 50 hate calls already. The firehouse where I work is being bombarded."
Castillo then walked, and the crowd sensed trouble brewing. Ivan Rodriguez hit an RBI single and Miguel Cabrera followed with a grounder in the hole that the sure-handed Gonzalez simply dropped for an error that loaded the bases.
"For whatever reason, I didn't catch the ball," Gonzalez said. "It seemed like the spin on the ball ate me up. I didn't think it would get to me that fast."
Derrek Lee stepped up and hit a drive into the left-field corner, pumping his fist even before he reached first base, and the two-run double tied it.
Prior was pulled and Kyle Farnsworth came in and intentionally walked Mike Lowell to load the bases. With the crowd sitting in stunned silence and Prior blankly staring, Jeff Conine hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly.
Mike Mordecai broke it open with a three-run double off the wall in left-center, his shot hitting near a splash of red-and-orange ivy, and Pierre added an RBI single.
It had to be a haunting reminder for Baker. Last October, his San Francisco Giants took a big lead into the late innings of Game 6 of the World Series, and wound up losing the game and series to Anaheim. Chad Fox got the win and Prior took the loss, although long-suffering fans in Chicago -- still waiting for the Cubs' first Series championship since 1908 -- will certainly blame the fan.
The Cubs have never clinched a postseason series at home, and had not even reached the World Series since 1945. Those droughts will continue for another day, and possibly a lot longer.
"We've just got to go out and play better ball tomorrow," Baker said.
Prior was dominant until the eighth, allowing until only three hits until then.
And once again, Kenny Lofton got the Cubs off to a fast start.
Lofton led off the first with a single, moved up on a sacrifice and scored his NLCS record-tying eighth run on Sosa's opposite-field double to right. That run gave the Cubs a 12-0 margin in the first inning of this series.
Sosa and Alou singled to start the sixth against Marlins pitcher Carl Pavano. With two outs, reliever Dontrelle Willis threw a wild pitch that let Sosa scamper home.
Mark Grudzielanek made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the seventh.
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