The hefty lefties squared off here (David Wells and CC Sabathia), with
neither faring particularly well. Sabathia allowed just one baserunner through
three, but then was crushed for nine runs over his final 1 2/3, including three
run homers to cap each inning. Wells did better, yielding four runs over five
grueling (111 pitches) innings. The Indians chipped away against Boston’s
bullpen, with back-to-back homers from Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez
pulling them to within 9-8 in the eighth. But Johnny Damon’s leadoff homer in
the ninth allowed the BoSox to survive another Indians threat in the ninth;
Jhonny Peralta doubled with one out to tie it, but his pinch-runner, future Boston
manager Alex Cora, was stranded there.
Boston would edge out Cleveland
by just two games for the wildcard in the end, so this game was pretty
important in retrospect. Note that John Olerud made an appearance as a
defensive replacement for Kevin Millar – I had forgotten that he ended his
career with the Red Sox.
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