It was the morning of October 17th. I was getting ready to go to the ball park and warm up to possibly play the biggest game of my life. We are facing the New York Yankees and have a defecit of down 3 games to none. No other team in major league baseball has come back from down 3 games.
When I got to the club house everyone had a glum and distorted look on there face. Everyone was reminiscing of the 2003 ALCS when Aron Boone walked off in game 7. So everyone was not in the best of moods and wanted to get back at the Yankees for last year, but we all knew there was a big chance we would get swept and have to go home with our heads down.
The only person keeping everyone alive was loud mouth Kevin Millar. He kept everyones spirits high saying we can still do it, we can sill win. While warming up he was telling all the fans of Red Sox Nation we can still do it. “Don’t count us out, all im asking is give us tonight” was his exact qoute.
The game had started and through the first two innings it look like it could be a pitching duel. However in the top of the third Alex Rodriguez struck a devistating blow both to us and the red sox fans with a two run homer to give the yankees the lead. In the bottom of the fifth we should some life too scoring three runs off of starter Orlando Hernandez. The bad thing was that we held the lead for not even an inning when Bernie Williams drove home Hideki Matsui and Toni Clark hit a single to drive in Ruben Sierra for the yankees to take the lead 4-3. Kevin Millar was right though you can’t count out the Red Sox. In the bottom of the ninth facing the most dominate reliever in the game Mariano Rivera, Millar walked then we pitch ran with Dave Roberts. He made the most famous steal in Red Sox history by stealing second and getting into scoring position. Then luckily Bill Muelle hit the game tying single to put the game into extra innings.
The game stayed tied all the way until the 12th inning. My friend and teammate Manny Ramirez started the inning with a screaming single off of Paul Quantrill. So I knew coming up to the plate I could not ground into a double play. I had to try and move the runner into scoring position. So I relaxed myself thinking of nothing, but trying to help my team. I was only 1 for 4 in the game so I wasn’t really helping my team out to this point. When I made the pitcher throw a few pitches to see what he was throwing I found the pitch I wanted. I sent it into the dark knight over the wall for the game winning two run homer to force a game 5. Once I hit the ball everyone in the crowd was dead silence that you could hear a pin drop because no one wanted to jinx the ball by some mysterious way. However when the ball went over the wall every single Red Sox fan at the stadium and at home watching the game roared with excitement to know there is going to be game 5.
When I got to the club house everyone had a glum and distorted look on there face. Everyone was reminiscing of the 2003 ALCS when Aron Boone walked off in game 7. So everyone was not in the best of moods and wanted to get back at the Yankees for last year, but we all knew there was a big chance we would get swept and have to go home with our heads down.
The only person keeping everyone alive was loud mouth Kevin Millar. He kept everyones spirits high saying we can still do it, we can sill win. While warming up he was telling all the fans of Red Sox Nation we can still do it. “Don’t count us out, all im asking is give us tonight” was his exact qoute.
The game had started and through the first two innings it look like it could be a pitching duel. However in the top of the third Alex Rodriguez struck a devistating blow both to us and the red sox fans with a two run homer to give the yankees the lead. In the bottom of the fifth we should some life too scoring three runs off of starter Orlando Hernandez. The bad thing was that we held the lead for not even an inning when Bernie Williams drove home Hideki Matsui and Toni Clark hit a single to drive in Ruben Sierra for the yankees to take the lead 4-3. Kevin Millar was right though you can’t count out the Red Sox. In the bottom of the ninth facing the most dominate reliever in the game Mariano Rivera, Millar walked then we pitch ran with Dave Roberts. He made the most famous steal in Red Sox history by stealing second and getting into scoring position. Then luckily Bill Muelle hit the game tying single to put the game into extra innings.
The game stayed tied all the way until the 12th inning. My friend and teammate Manny Ramirez started the inning with a screaming single off of Paul Quantrill. So I knew coming up to the plate I could not ground into a double play. I had to try and move the runner into scoring position. So I relaxed myself thinking of nothing, but trying to help my team. I was only 1 for 4 in the game so I wasn’t really helping my team out to this point. When I made the pitcher throw a few pitches to see what he was throwing I found the pitch I wanted. I sent it into the dark knight over the wall for the game winning two run homer to force a game 5. Once I hit the ball everyone in the crowd was dead silence that you could hear a pin drop because no one wanted to jinx the ball by some mysterious way. However when the ball went over the wall every single Red Sox fan at the stadium and at home watching the game roared with excitement to know there is going to be game 5.
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