October 20 - Red Sox Complete ALCS Comeback

This Day in Baseball - The Daily Rewind

October 20, 2004 Game 7 of the ALCS began at 8:30 in the evening at Yankee Stadium. After winning the first three and loosing the next three, the Yankees were sending Kevin Brown to the mound to face Derek Lowe for the Red Sox. Johnny Damon, suffering through a 3 for 29 slump decided to play aggressively leading off the game with a single to left and a stolen base, but was thrown out at home trying to score on a Manny Ramirez base hit. The very next pitch, however, was lined into the right-field bleachers by David Ortiz to give Boston a 2--0 advantage. In the second inning, the Sox loaded the bases against Brown, causing Yankees manager Joe Torre to remove him and put in Javier Vázquez to face Johnny Damon. Damon hammered Vázquez' first pitch into the right-field seats for a grand slam. The rout was on. Damon, who also added an upper deck two-run blast in the fourth, had three hits in the game. Boston also enjoyed a solid performance from their starting pitcher, Derek Lowe, who allowed only one run and one hit in six innings of work, and was never even intended to be a starter in the postseason. He pitched game seven on just two days of rest. Pedro Martinez relieved Lowe in the seventh inning, receiving loud chants of "Who's Your Daddy?" which intensified as he gave up two runs. He eventually raised the velocity of his fastball to the mid-90s and shut down the rally. At 12:01 a.m., on October 21, Rubén Sierra hit a groundball to second baseman Pokey Reese, who threw to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz to finish the unprecedented comeback.

"Not many people get the opportunity to shock the world. We came out and did it," Boston first baseman Kevin Millar said. "You know what? We beat the Yankees. Now they get a chance to watch us on the tube."

The Red Sox won 10--3 and became the first team in Major League Baseball history to win a seven-game series after losing the first three games.