The Cleveland Indians took the lead and never let go Monday night, beating the Boston Red Sox 4-3 to complete a three-game sweep of an American League division series at Fenway Park.
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“There are times I have bad games, there are times when I’m in a slump, there are years when we lose [more games than we win], but during that time there are times when they call me and tell me that they operated on 15 children and that everything went well”, said the Red Sox legend. Clay Buchholz, a Red Sox teammate with Ortiz since 2007, expressed sadness Big Papi would no longer be his teammate.
David Ortiz waved farewell to fans Monday night. He emerged from the first base dugout one last time and stood on the mound, in the center of the diamond where he had launched so many walk-offs and celebrated so much, where he had saved the 2004 Red Sox and emboldened the city after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Ortiz went 0-for-1 with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
BOSTON (AP) – The ball settled into the right fielder’s glove, the Cleveland Indians poured onto the diamond and the Fenway fans fell silent. In the sixth, Crisp hit a two-run homer over the left-field wall to make it 4-1. “I started looking around, and the moment hits you, knowing that you’re not going to be able to be performing in the baseball world, in front of all these – no disrespect to anyone, but I think we have the best fans, worldwide”. Ortiz hit his first major league home run off Julio Santana of Texas on September 14, 1997. After cruising through the fifth inning, the left-handed pitcher put a runner on base with a walk.
Pomeranz hung a curve to Crisp and he pounced. David Price, 17-9, continued his roller-coaster season in the second game, allowed four runs in the second inning after striking out the side in the first, and was gone in the fourth. “I thought it was an honor to be on the field, competing against him in his last game, because he’s truly one of the best”. “I was referring to my pitching years facing Cleveland”. We had a chance to talk right at the end of the ballgame, we’re AL East Champions, and I know that doesn’t mean much sitting right now. The run ended a 14-inning scoreless streak by Boston. Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen took it the rest of the way, closing out the one-run win to advance the Tribe to the ALCS.
Ortiz came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and a runner on, trailing 4-2. Travis Shaw got a pinch hit single and then Betts hit a sac grounder to get him to 2nd.
Boston mounted a late rally in Game 3, cutting the Indians’ lead to 4-3 with a single by Hanley Ramirez in the bottom of the eighth inning. Dustin Pedroia worked out a 3-2 walk.
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It got tense in the end, but the Indians bullpen came through again, and Terry Francona’s club is headed to the ALCS. “You have to have that mentality to be successful – and fortunately it went the other way for us … our guys believe in each other”.
