The Team Down Three Games That Would Not Go Home

1. The old rivals meet again

Boston and New York entered the 2004 American League Championship Series with a fierce baseball rivalry behind them. The Yankees had won their previous playoff meeting. For the Red Sox, reaching the World Series required beating the opponent most closely associated with recent disappointment.

The route forward ran directly through the familiar obstacle.

2. Three defeats leave no spare game

The Yankees won the first three games, including a heavy victory in the third. Boston now needed four consecutive wins in a best-of-seven series. One more defeat would end the season, a position no previous Major League Baseball team had escaped to win such a series.

The margin for another bad night had become zero.

3. The ninth inning almost ends it

In Game Four, Boston trailed late against Mariano Rivera, one of baseball's most formidable closing pitchers. Dave Roberts entered as a pinch runner. The season's survival now depended on a sequence of small events occurring before the remaining outs disappeared.

The enormous comeback first needed ninety feet.

4. The stolen base creates the opening

Roberts stole second, and Bill Mueller's single brought him home to tie the game. Boston had avoided immediate elimination. The play did not win the Series by itself, but it changed the next possible ending from defeat to extra innings.

The season had moved forward on a runner's slide.

5. Ortiz supplies the first victory

David Ortiz hit a walk-off home run in the twelfth inning. Boston finally had a win, while New York still held a substantial series lead. The victory created another day rather than removing the requirement to win every remaining game.

The celebration's reward was permission to face elimination again.

6. Another long game ends the same way

Game Five also stretched into extra innings. Ortiz delivered the winning hit in the fourteenth, bringing the series closer. The repeated late victories changed the atmosphere, but the mathematical situation remained unforgiving: Boston still could not afford a single defeat.

The comeback was growing through games that refused to end quickly.

7. An injured pitcher helps force Game Seven

Curt Schilling pitched effectively in Game Six while dealing with an ankle injury. Boston won again, levelling the series. The team that had been three games down had now forced the one final contest needed to decide whether the recovery would become a completed reversal.

Three losses had been followed by three wins. The symmetry needed one more result.

8. The deciding game breaks Boston's way

In Game Seven, Boston built a commanding lead, helped by Johnny Damon's home runs. The Red Sox won and completed the unprecedented series comeback. The earlier three defeats remained on the record, but they no longer described the ending.

The team at zero had reached four first.

9. The next series supplies another finish

Boston then swept St. Louis in the World Series, winning the championship for the first time since 1918. The ALCS recovery therefore led into an even larger conclusion. The year ended with a title rather than a memorable comeback followed by another defeat.

The escape had become the doorway to the championship.

10. The small play inside the large reversal

The series is remembered through four wins, but its most fragile point came before the first of them. A stolen base and a tying hit kept Game Four alive. An enormous historical outcome had depended on completing a very ordinary distance at precisely the right time.

The comeback needed four victories, but first it needed second base.

Sources

• Wikipedia contributors: 2004 American League Championship Series