ST. LOUIS -- It looks as if the planets really are aligned for the Red Sox this time. A lunar eclipse is due to start less than an hour before the Sox and St. Louis Cardinals play the fourth game of the World Series tonight. If skies are clear, the moon over Busch Stadium will be blood red in the late innings.
There has never been a full lunar eclipse in the middle of a World Series game. Red October, indeed.
Continuing their intrepid quest to win a championship for the first time since 1918, the Red Sox beat the Cardinals, 4-1, last night to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the 100th World Series. In what may have been his final start in a Red Sox uniform, Pedro Martinez pitched seven dazzling innings of three-hit, shutout baseball, retiring the final 14 batters he faced. Martinez got the only help he needed in the form of a historic baserunning blunder by Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan -- more proof that the larger forces finally are smiling on Boston's baseball team.
It's time for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to plan the parade. The 2004 Red Sox have won seven straight playoff games and are within one victory of hardball holy land. No team in World Series history has blown a 3-0 lead. The only inspiration the Cardinals can find is in the Boston dugout: These hearty, hairy Red Sox beat the Yankees four straight times after losing the first three games of the American League Championship Series. So it's really going to happen this time, people. After 86 years, plus one million and 96 tears.
"It is big," said Manny Ramirez, who hit a homer, knocked in two runs, and gunned down a runner at home. "But we learned our lesson against the Yankees. And especially against the Cardinals. They are just such a great team. You've just got to grind it out until you win that last game."
Suppan's gaffe changed Game 3 in every way.
Martinez had won only one of his previous eight starts and appeared to be struggling when Suppan's stupor crushed the Cardinals in the third. With Boston leading, 1-0, on a first-inning Ramirez homer, Suppan led off the inning with a scratch single down the third base line. Edgar Renteria followed with a booming double to right. The Cardinals had runners on second and third with no outs, and four of the best hitters in baseball coming to the plate. Moreover, they'd already put five runners on the basepaths in two-plus innings. They appeared to have Martinez on the ropes.
Sox manager Terry Francona conceded the run and had his infield playing back. When Larry Walker, the next batter, rapped a hard grounder to Mark Bellhorn, the second baseman didn't even look toward home. He fired to first, assuming Suppan would score.
