As they slogged their way down Fenway Park’s crammed concourses, trailing luggage and memories of a just-completed season, the Cleveland Indians received something totally unexpected. Applause. Standing shoulder to shoulder, delirious Red Sox fans paused from their postgame celebration to salute the Indians with clapping and pats on the back.
Fenway franks and Rocky Mountains. Ski slopes and baked beans. Not a bad setting for the final act of October. Just don’t expect Matt Holliday and the Colorado Rockies to be intimidated by the Green Monster. Back in June, long before their historic surge to an unlikely NL pennant, the baby-faced Rockies roared into Boston and took two of three from the Red Sox — outscoring them 20-5.
His reputation, his clean-cut image, his stature as one of baseball’s good guys, they all took a hit. And Paul Byrd, the soft-tossing pitcher who prides himself on command and control, couldn’t stop it. Just hours before Game 7 of the AL championship series Sunday, Byrd acknowledged using human growth hormone for a medical condition.
Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima stood on the Fenway Park mound, posing for pictures with Boston general manager Theo Epstein, a Japanese flag and the American League championship trophy. This is what these Red Sox rookies came halfway around the world for: the World Series. Three years after ending its 86-year title drought, Boston completed another October comeback by overpowering the…
Josh Beckett needs a bigger trophy case: Now he has an AL championship series Most Valuable Player Award to go along with his 2003 World Series MVP. Unflappable and close to unhittable, Beckett shut down Cleveland twice, including a victory in Game 5 that started Boston’s comeback from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series.
With Kenny Lofton racing around third, Cleveland’s comeback — and a season stuffed with them — came to an abrupt halt. More heartache, decade upon decade of it, persists for the Indians. Months of surprises, whipped-cream pies in the kisser, late-inning rallies and an unexpected jaunt through October ended short of a World Series title for Cleveland, which lost 11-2 to the Boston Red Sox in Game…
Wise Mandate beat Guns on the Table by 1 3/4 lengths Sunday in the $95,575 Jack Goodman Stakes for 2-year-olds at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting. Ridden by Corey Nakatani, Wise Mandate ran 6 furlongs in 1:08.42 and paid $75.40, $18.60 and $9.80.Guns on the Table returned $3.80 and $3.20, and Remember Boffi paid $5.
Not even a last-minute jockey change kept Going Ballistic out of the winner’s circle on Sunday. Tim Doocy, filling in for Going Ballistic’s injured regular rider, Cliff Berry, guided the 3-year-old to a commanding 3-length win over Reporting for Duty in the $300,000 Centennial Oklahoma Derby, the most lucrative race for thoroughbreds at Remington Park.
Rgirldoesn’tbluff beat Bereba by 2 3/4 lengths Sunday in the $50,000 Sugar n Spice stakes at Calder Race Course. Rgirldoesn’tbluff, ridden by Jose Rivera II, ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.05 and paid $3.80, $2.40 and $2.20. Bereba returned $3.20 and $3.00, and Shadow Belle paid $4.60 to show.
Cannonball held off Sundaysunday by a nose Sunday in the $79,200 King Cugat Stakes for 2-year-olds on the turf at Belmont Park. Jean-Luc Samyn guided the gelding to his second win in four starts for trainer Wesley Ward. The time was 1:36.92 for the mile on the yielding course. Cannonball paid $16.40, $9.70 and $6.30.
