Sox sweep shows AL dominance, and that the Rockies are still the Rockies

By Mike Walsh

More important than the World Series this year, I think the question on everyone’s mind was who would be the next Yankees manager and how would this affect the Yankees lineup next year? Alright, just kidding. Can someone tell ESPN that I don’t need around the clock coverage of Joe Torre? He was a good manager for a really good team for 12 years. I digress…

There wasn’t really a question as to whether the Red Sox would win the World Series. The questions going into the Series were more personal curiosities, such as: Why was Todd Helton evolving into David Grohl? Would he come out to play 1st base with a flannel shirt on at some point? And why does Manny Ramirez throw his helmet off on purpose every time he starts running the base paths?

As I sat at home last night watching the Red Sox celebrate their second championship in four years I wondered what I could write about that would be even remotely interesting. I wasn’t sure if the Series was actually that bad or if listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver had killed too many brain cells. I managed to pick out five things that made the difference and carried the Red Sox over the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series. (It’s still weird to type World Series and Colorado Rockies in the same sentence)


5. The Streak- The thing about streaks is…they end. And when they do, the team usually goes cold and loses some winnable games along the way once it has cooled down. The Colorado Rockies were running on all cylinders for six weeks. They were crisp in every aspect of the game. Beyond that, they were getting all of the breaks. No really, they were. Just ask Eric Byrnes. Sweeping the NLCS turned out to be the worst thing that could have happened to the Rockies. The nine-day break cooled the Rockies off, the Red Sox punched them in the mouth in game one and, although they played them close the next night, the series was done. The Rockies no longer came to the plate looking confident. They didn’t have the look in their eyes like they knew they would find a way to win. Their body language deteriorated quickly and it became hard to play baseball with giant forks sticking out of their backs.

4. The Rookies- Known for spending insane amounts of money on the top free agents, the Red Sox ended up getting picked up by their rookies. From Pedroia’s leadoff HR to set the tone, to Ellsbury finding holes in the Rockies defense and then Matsuzaka handling the altitude and Okajima being their horse out of the pen, the Sox got help from all of their kids. Meanwhile the Colorado rookie’s bats cooled down considerably. Tulowitzki’s bat was missing and he even had a ball bounce out of the web of his glove during a sox rally that would have stopped the bleeding. Franklin Morales struggled mightily out of the bullpen. The only Rookie who played well at all was Ubaldo Jimenez and even he looked shaky at times, but at least he kept the Rockies in the game.

3. The bottom of the order- After doing almost nothing to help the Red Sox win for six months, the bottom of the Red Sox Order came up huge in the ALCS and World Series. Then, without warning or provocation, J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo played out of their minds. J.D. Drew!!!!! Having watched Drew battle the Giants I had nicknamed him Backwards K. You don’t get a nickname like that if you come through in the clutch. Lugo stopped messing with his cup long enough to double his batting average from the season. Meanwhile the Rockies entire lineup was cold. They got no help from Torrealba, Spilborghs or Hawpe (too little, too late). You have to have some unexpected heroes to triumph in the Series and the Rockies had none

2. The Bullpen- I have two words for you Hideki Okajima; or as Tim McCarver likes to call him, Daisuke Matsuzaka. I know he gave up those bombs in games 3 and 4, but he came in for extended relief appearances and prevented the Sox from having to use The Artist Formerly Known as Eric Gagne. Timlin came back from the dead to pitch well. I think everyone knows at this point that if the Red Sox are leading after eight innings, and in many cases after seven, the game is over (all of Paps saves in the playoffs were more than one inning). Papelbon had little trouble disposing of the Rockies when he came in. Jamie Carroll hit the ball the farthest off of Paps. Unfortunately for Jamie Carroll, that was as far as he can hit a baseball. The Red Sox got the innings they needed from the starters and in the two games that weren’t blow outs, the bullpen did what was needed to win the game.
The Rockies bullpen had been pitching so well for so long….no one knows how. Important cogs in their bullpen were such vagabonds as Matt Herges, who is going for “The Steve Finley memorial-played for every team in the NL west award.” LaTroy Hawkins. who is battling Kenny Lofton and Reggie Sanders for the largest jersey collection, and Brian Fuentes who Matt and I made fun of mercilessly even when he started the season pitching well. It was only a matter of time before they started to pitch more like they have the rest of their careers.

1. The Rockies- Before the season started Matt and I tried to predict the final regular season standings for every division and both of us picked the Rockies to finish last in the West. Our only explanation was this: “They’re the Rockies.” And though we were completely wrong about the Rockies, (and the Diamondbacks, I hate the Diamondbacks) there is no way they will win the west next year. I’m more mad about them winning the west than I am about the Giants being unwatchable and having paid Barry Zito sign for 126 million, try to change his wind up only to have Righetti yell at him, hurting his feelings and…ah, hell, never mind) and they are still the Rockies. If we both thought they would finish last there must be some fatal flaws. They are young, their bullpen cannot be trusted, and they let Josh Fogg start a World Series game for them. The Rockies are actually a scary team going forward. They have a great nucleus with Holliday, Tulowitzki, Atkins, Hawpe, Jimenez, Morales and Corpas. For 2007 though, they were still “The Rockies.” The team that I could make fun of and know that they would not be good. And really, except for the last six weeks, they weren’t good. You know what they were? The Rockies.

So even though the series wasn’t very much fun (unless you were a Sox fan, or more likely, one of the countless Red Sox bandwagon fans), there were some good performances (Beckett, Pedroia, Papelbon). Unfortunately, until the National League figures out a way to catch up with the elite American League teams, this is the likely end product of a six month grind; an anti-climactic series in which the AL champ pummels the NL champ.