Sox are kings of diamond Another Series title comes with sweep of Rockies

By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff | October 29, 2007

DENVER - When it happened the first time, in 2004, Terry Francona was
stricken with temporary amnesia.

"I actually don't remember getting out to the field," the Red Sox manager
said of a moment burnished deep in New England memory banks. "You wait your
whole life for that minute, and I don't know where the hell it went."

A minute that used to recur like a comet, once 86 years or so and missed by
generations of Sox fans, is now beginning to feel like a birthright. For
the second time in four seasons, the Red Sox are World Series champions,
Francona and the rest of the Sox dugout borne onto Coors Field last night
by the same wave of euphoria that struck in 2004.

The Sox completed a four-game sweep of the Rockies with a 4-3 win before
50,041 witnesses, the Rockies succumbing as swiftly as the Cardinals did in
'04.

The seventh world championship in franchise history comes in a year in
which the Sox were mighty in spring - leaping to a 10-game lead by the
middle of May - and splendid in autumn, knocking aside the Angels, Indians,
and Rockies.

"It's a little different," said Sox general manager Theo Epstein when asked
to compare that championship feeling. "It's like comparing your
children. You can't do it. But this one was sweet because it was a
top-to-bottom organizational effort. So much hard work. It wasn't a
fluke. We worked hard to get here.

"Maybe, just maybe, we're prepared to compete at a very high level for a
long time to come. Baseball will humble you in a hurry. Just when you think
you have something, it turns on you.

"No one wants to sit here, spray champagne, and talk about how we're going
to be great for a long period of time. That's not the way things work. We
have a foundation now, and let's see what we do with it."

The Sox join the Yankees as the only American League teams to sweep in
successive Series appearances, and the third team overall, Cincinnati doing
it in 1976 and 1990. The Sox became the 20th team in 103 years of World
Series play to win by sweep.

The Sox won their final seven games of the postseason. Their longest
winning streak of the regular season was five.

The Rockies, playing in their first World Series in the 14-year history of
the franchise, closed to within a run when Garrett Atkins hit a two-run
home run off a spent Hideki Okajima in the eighth. But Jonathan Papelbon,
who did not allow a run in 10 2/3 innings in the postseason, made it three
saves in four games by getting the last five outs. Jamey Carroll, who hit
just two home runs in the regular season, sent Jacoby Ellsbury back to the
wall for a leaping catch in left field for the second out of the ninth. "I
didn't think it was out," Papelbon said. "I thought it would be a
double. Ellsbury played it great."

Moments later, with Curt Schilling poised to lead the charge onto the
field, Papelbon struck out pinch hitter Seth Smith to end it, his glove
soaring into thin air, while Jason Varitek, sticking the ball in his back
pocket, lumbered out to leap into Papelbon's arms.

"I'm spent, man," said Papelbon, who last September was contemplating life
as something other than as Sox closer because his shoulder popped out of
joint. "It's been an amazing ride. Last year, right now, I'm two months
into my offseason [rehab] program. Just phenomenal, man. Just a blessing
from the Big Man above, no doubt about it, that I'm still pitching this
late into the year.

"Hopefully, with the guys we have in this clubhouse, and with our front
office, we have a chance to be here year after year."

Jon Lester, the cancer survivor who began the spring with Gabe Kapler in
the low minors, brought a lump to the throat with 5 2/3 scoreless
innings. "His ability to go out and focus on what he had to tonight, after
all that he's been through and the road he has traveled, it's a storybook
ending to a great year," said pitching coach John Farrell.

Manny Delcarmen, the kid from Hyde Park, had a big strikeout to end the
sixth. Mike Timlin, in what may have been a last hurrah, struck out Kaz
Matsui and Troy Tulowitzki, who may be a Ripken in the making but isn't
there yet.

"I've got four rings," Timlin said. "Right now, that makes me the Lord of
the Rings, I guess."

Just then, Timlin spotted Charles Cellucci, the team's security
chief. "Hey, Chuck, can I hold that for a minute?" said Timlin, as Cellucci
handed him the Series trophy.

"I'm 41 years old, I'm not like these young guys who can throw a ton
hard. God has kept me healthy for a while. I'm happy to be able to do what
I did tonight. I faced the same two guys I faced last night, gave up a
bunt, gave up a single, had to leave a bad situation for Oki, and tonight I
was able to do the opposite."

"This is not the easiest thing to do, to be world champions. For us to do
it the past couple of years, it's unbelievable."

Ellsbury, who began the season in Double A, doubled and scored the first
run. Mike Lowell, who came to Boston as ransom for Josh Beckett, doubled
and scored the second run and homered for the third. Varitek, the
35-year-old captain, singled home Lowell. And Bobby Kielty, grandson of a
Fitchburg mail carrier and picked up off the scrap heap in August, hit the
home run in the eighth that was the deciding run.

"I was pretty blank, I was so excited, felt like I was running on clouds,"
Kielty said.

"It's a weird game, you don't know where you're going to end up. I was
having the worst year of my life . . . and now it's turned into the best
year of my life."

Lowell was named the Series MVP after batting .400 (6 for 15) with six runs
and four RBIs.

"I mean, that's a player there's no way you can get rid of," said David
Ortiz.

"I think what matters is you win games," Francona said before the game. "If
they go to dinner together, I really don't care.

"But on the field they have to have an immense amount of loyalty toward
each other, and we talk about that in spring training. If they care about
you, good. But that's not ultimately what matters. What matters is how they
play on the field and I think our guys do a good job of that.

"I kind of laugh when they'll show one team in the dugout, they'll say,
'Boy they seem down.' Well, you're getting beat. And then if you're having
a party they're like, 'Well, they don't care.' You need to win. When you
win, everything's fine. When you lose, it's not good."

One winner was left in 2007 when the final pitch was thrown last night. And
they wore "Boston" on the front of their shirts.

Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com.