Shane Victorino belted a seventh-inning grand slam to put the Boston Red Sox into the World Series with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Detroit Tigers that clinched the American League (AL) Championship Series on Saturday.
Victorino’s blast turned a 2-1 deficit into a three-run lead and sent the Fenway faithful into a frenzy as the Hawaiian thumped his chest and roared in delight while rounding the bases.
The Red Sox, who won the best-of-seven series 4-2, are to meet National League champions St Louis for Major League Baseball’s championship starting on Wednesday in Boston.
Photo: AFP
The showdown will be a rematch of the 2004 Fall Classic, won by Boston in a four-game sweep that ended their 86-year championship drought.
Red Sox closer Koji Uehara was named Most Valuable Player of the series after registering one win and three saves in Boston’s turnaround triumph. The Red Sox had finished last in the AL East last year with a 69-93 record.
“From day one in spring training there was something special about this team,” said Victorino, one of several players brought in to change the team chemistry.
Photo: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
“Guys came here in one mindset. I know the last couple of years have been tough here. But you know, we put that all behind us. Boston strong,” he added.
A tense pitching duel between Boston’s Clay Buchholz and Detroit’s Max Scherzer turned into a seesaw struggle as the Red Sox scored in the fifth to take a 1-0 lead, only for the Tigers to take it right back in the sixth, moving 2-1 ahead.
The seventh belonged to Boston as Victorino, who had been a dismal 2-for-23 at the plate in the series, connected off reliever Jose Veras’s third successive curve ball for the game-winning hit over the fence in left.
It was the second grand slam for Boston in the series, following an eighth-inning roundtripper by David Ortiz in Game Two that erased a 5-1 deficit and helped the Red Sox win 6-5.
Uehara, who pitched seven scoreless innings in relief and struck out 11 in the series, registered the final out with a strikeout of Jose Iglesias and jumped into the arms of catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia as the celebrations began in Boston.
The Tigers were left to wonder “what if?” as they squandered an opportunity to score more runs in the sixth and opened the door to Boston’s winning rally in the seventh.
After Victor Martinez drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single off the “Green Monster” wall in left, Detroit still had men on first and third with none out, but suffered a baserunning blunder by Prince Fielder.
Boston reliever Brandon Workman replaced Franklin Morales and got Jhonny Peralta to bounce to second baseman Dustin Pedroia.
Pedroia tagged Martinez out, and with Fielder caught in no-man’s land between home and third, fired home in time for catcher Saltalamacchia to chase Fielder back toward third and tag him out.
In the seventh, Boston’s Jonny Gomes led off with a laser drive off the top of the Green Monster that went for a double. Scherzer then walked Xander Bogaerts to put men on first and second, and was removed from the game.
Jacoby Ellsbury then hit a grounder up the middle that shortstop Iglesias reached, but bobbled for an error which loaded the bases and set the stage for Victorino.
“We made a couple of mistakes and they capitalized on them,” said Tigers’ rightfielder Torii Hunter, a 17-year veteran who has still to reach his first World Series.
“Victorino got the big hit, the grand slam, and we couldn’t do anything about it. They played well,” Hunter added.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB