Series now down to a best-of-three
ST. LOUIS — Jonny Gomes hit a three-run homer, David Ortiz revved up the Red Sox with his bat and words, and Boston beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 in Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday, evening up the series at two wins apiece.
Game 5 is Monday night as Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright faces Jon Lester in a rematch of the opener when Boston romped. It’ll be a busy sports day in downtown St. Louis with the NFL matchup between the Rams and Seattle a few blocks away.
The slumping Gomes greeted sinkerballing reliever Seth Maness with a two-out, tiebreaking shot in the sixth into the Boston bullpen beyond the left-centre field wall.
Gomes spread his arms wide as he rounded first base, shouted and twice banged his chest. When he got back to the dugout, a couple of teammates gave Gomes’s beard a good tug and Mike Napoli joined in with a hard, two-handed yank.
With the Red Sox in danger of falling into a 3-1 deficit, it was a stroke of good fortune by Gomes — he was a late addition to the lineup when Shane Victorino’s back stiffened up, and was 0 for 9 in the Series before connecting.
Along with his pop, Gomes showed off the patience that marks Boston hitters. He drew a 10-pitch walk from Cardinals starter Lance Lynn the previous inning, helping set up Stephen Drew’s tying sacrifice fly.
Ortiz did more than his share, as usual.
Big Papi singled, doubled and walked his first three times up, making him 7 for 10 in the Series. He’d also reached base in 11 of 15 plate appearances.
Ortiz hollered to the Boston bench when he doubled in the fifth, as if trying to wake up the weakhitting Red Sox, and later hustled home on Drew’s fly to make it 1-1.
Before the sixth, Ortiz gathered his teammates into a huddle in the dugout and urged them on.
Lynn retired the first two batters in the sixth before Dustin Pedroia singled. Lynn wanted no part of Ortiz and walked him on four pitches. Maness relieved, and Gomes connected on a 2-2 pitch. Maness doubled over near the mound while Gomes circled the bases.
Clay Buchholz pitched a seasonlow four innings, marking the second straight day a Red Sox starter didn’t reach the fifth.
The Cardinals took advantage of yet another misplay to take the lead. Centre-fielder Jacoby Ellsbury’s bobble on Matt Carpenter’s single set up the go-ahead hit by Carlos Beltran in the third.
Beltran, already one of the best post-season players ever, improved to 8 for 10 with runners in scoring position this October. The Red Sox committed their sixth error of the Series — Ellsbury has two of them after making only three during the entire regular season.
Even with the Cardinals holding a 2-1 edge, the sellout crowd at Busch Stadium sounded a little quiet at the start. Perhaps the fans were drained by the late-night theatrics Saturday, when an obstruction call gave St. Louis a 5-4 win.
The rarely seen call, made after Allen Craig tripped over Boston third baseman Will Middlebrooks with two outs in the ninth inning, remained the No. 1 topic at the ballpark before the game.
Lynn broke three Boston bats in the early going. Ortiz had the only hit for the Red Sox, an infield single off Lynn’s leg. The St. Louis righthander got Gomes to ground into a double-play to erase Ortiz.
Buchholz was dealing with weakness in his right shoulder, and it showed in his velocity. Through three innings, his fastest pitch was clocked at 90 miles per hour.
Yadier Molina kept up his sweet swing, lining a double in the second. That made him 6 for 13 in this matchup and a robust 21 for 57 in his Series career.
Carpenter hit a one-out single in the third and hustled to second when Ellsbury took his time getting to the ball and then mishandled it, the ball skipping off the heel of his glove. Beltran followed with a single up the middle.