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Drew bashes Red Sox into Game Seven showdown with Indians

Oct 21, 2007 - 7:03 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Thanks to much-maligned J.D. Drew, Curt Schilling didn't need to come up "big" again.

Drew hit a first-inning grand slam off Fausto Carmona and added an RBI single in a six-run third as the Boston Red Sox won their second straight game, 12-2, over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday to force a deciding Game Seven of their American League Championship Series.

Schilling, considered perhaps the best postseason pitcher of all-time, allowed two runs over seven strong innings in what could have been his last performance for the Red Sox, who will send Daisuke Matsuzaka to the mound Sunday night against Game Three winner Jake Westbrook.

"Game Seven is do-or-die," Schilling said. "You can't ask for more than that. We're going to lean on Daisuke and I believe he'll do something special."

"The man (Schilling) knows how to handle his business in a situation like that and he did what he normally does," Red Sox slugger David Ortiz added.

The winner will advance to the World Series against the Colorado Rockies.

"We're not comfortable, we're confident (about Game Seven)," Ortiz said. "This is it. This is it. This is where you want to be. (Sunday), the best team is going to win, which ever team makes the best moves."

"We're excited, crazy not to be," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "Game Seven at Fenway, we're excited. I'm sure they are too."

The Indians will try to avoid losing the series after leading three games to one.

"Just wasn't in the cards for us tonight," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "It's still two games, you see a lot in a seven-game series."

"The game just got out of hand so early but that happens," added Indians third baseman Casey Blake. "Now, we're both in the same position and it's do or die for each team. We've got one game left in the series. We've got to prepare like we've prepared all year, just kind of expecting to win."

Schilling, who is a free agent after the season, likely will not be re-signed but talked about how he felt as he left the game to a rousing ovation.

"How incredibly blessed I am, how - I mean, those are the moments you don't ever forget," he said. "God gave me a chance to play professional baseball, which is a gift beyond anything you'd ever dream of. But to play in this environment, in this stadium in front of these people, you know, I would argue that you'll never hear home-field advantage being pooh-poohed against in this city."

Schilling entered 9-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 17 postseason starts. But at 40 years of age with a diminishing fastball and a subpar Game Two outing, a full house at Fenway Park was wondering whether the pitcher who won Game Six of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees on a gimpy ankle could rise to the occasion one more time.

"He worked off his fastball and mixed in his other pitches," Boston catcher Jason Varitek said. "He got better. Those long couple of first innings slowed him down and he started to get cranked up a little again."

But Drew made it all a moot point.

"We needed tonight's game," Drew said. "We needed a good performance out of Schilling and we got it."

The Boston right fielder, who opted out of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers after last season and signed with Boston for five years and $70 million, was the subject of intense scrutiny by the Boston media and fans during a regular season in which he needed a hot finish to post a mediocre .270 average with just 11 homers and 64 RBI.

"He did not have the year - I'm sure he's not real proud of the year he had, but if it were anybody else, any of you, any of the media here, any of the fans that have railed on him for six months in the situations he's been in, you wouldn't produce because you'd be squeezing the bat, you'd be stressed," Schilling said. "I think part of his personality that goes both ways with people, that upsets people and makes people have confidence in him is his ability, he is the definition of "even keel."

"I mean, he doesn't snap, he doesn't get too high, too low. He just goes up and he plays the game. And tonight that wins the game, that won the game. In a situation where he could have easily been pressing, and he didn't, and it was huge and it was exciting to see."

Finding himself on the bench in favor of Bobby Kielty for Games One and Five of this series with tough lefthander C.C. Sabathia on the mound, Drew entered this game just 7-for-27 with three RBI in the postseason.

Boston loaded the bases in the first on infield hits by Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis and a walk to Ortiz, but Carmona struck out Manny Ramirez and retired Mike Lowell on a short fly to right field.

But Carmona, who hadn't allowed a hit in five career at-bats to Drew, fell behind 3-1 before throwing a fastball right down the middle of the plate that Drew launched into the first row of the center field seats, giving the Sox a quick 4-0 lead.

"That was huge," Francona said. "They had a chance to wiggle out of that. J.D. came up with a great swing."

"Poor Fausto," Blake said. "That was a tough inning on him. They hit that one ball hard. 3-1 (count), he had to come to him and you've got to give J.D. credit for hitting it but that was tough. I think it would've been a whole different ballgame if he'd gotten out of it right there."

It was Drew's second hit in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position this postseason.

"In that situation with the bases loaded, I just tried to stay hard up the middle," Drew said.

Carmona, who won 19 games during the regular season to earn Cy Young Award consideration and dominated the Yankees for nine innings in his ALDS contest, continued to live through nightmares at Fenway Park.

"I felt great, even better than the last time I pitched," Carmona said. "I was calm and better than the first time. It just so happened it didn't work out my way."

The 23-year-old Carmona came into the game having allowed nine runs, seven walks and seven hits in five innings over three career games here, including four runs in four-plus innings in a Game Two start.

Carmona walked Ramirez and Lowell to lead off the third and was replaced by Rafael Perez after yielding an RBI single to Drew.

But the Red Sox weren't done in the third, as rookie Jacoby Ellsbury, who started in place of slumping Coco Crisp in center field, lined a run-scoring single to left before Julio Lugo doubled inside the third base line, plating Drew and Ellsbury for an 8-1 lead.

Perez walked Pedroia and Youkilis followed by lining a pitch off the left field wall, plating Lugo. Youkilis got caught in a rundown between first and second, and Pedroia scored when the Boston first baseman was hit in the helmet by a throw from second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera.

Carmona was charged with seven runs, six hits and four walks in two-plus innings. Perez was charged with three runs and three hits in one-third of an inning.

Boston capped the scoring with two runs in the ninth off Cleveland closer Joe Borowski.

Schilling, who was tagged for five runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings in Game Two, yielded six hits with no walks and five strikeouts as he improved to 4-0 in elimination games during his career.

The righthander pitched a perfect first inning - surviving a foul home run by Grady Sizemore - before yielding a leadoff homer to Victor Martinez in the second that cut the deficit to 4-1.

The Indians threatened to cut further into the lead in the third, when former Red Sox Trot Nixon and Blake led off with singles. But Schilling got a pair of flyouts by Sizemore and Cabrera and a groundout by slumping Travis Hafner, who went hitless for a 10th straight at-bat.

"(Pitching coach John Farrell) keeps saying stay pitch-to-pitch. I stayed pitch-to-pitch," Schilling said about the third inning. "If you can't stay in the moment, bad things can happen. I just focused on the next pitch."