Ortiz's impressions: ''It's not news that our pitching needs to hold the opposing team down. We don't get that, we're going to be in trouble. Playoffs, when you give up 14 runs, what's happening?"
Clement, since Sept. 1, has allowed 30 runs in 36 1/3 innings, going 1-4. No one in the team's postseason history has relinquished more earned runs than the eight Clement did yesterday. Roger Clemens also allowed eight runs, but only seven earned, in Game 1 of the 1986 ALCS, and he lasted 7 1/3 innings. Clement, meanwhile, pitched only 3 1/3, and surrendered six of those runs on three home runs.
A.J. Pierzynski, with two outs and two on in the first inning, launched a misplaced 91-mile-per hour fastball into the balmy breeze on an 85-degree October afternoon. Paul Konerko, in the third, turned on a lingering, inside-corner slider for a solo shot. And No. 9 hitter Juan Uribe, with one on and one out in the fourth, crushed an 0-and-2 Clement fastball to make it 8-2.
Ballgame. Both for Clement (he was lifted) and in the minds of at least one teammate.
When was this game over?
''[When] they scored eight runs," said Ortiz.
Not insurmountable for the Red Sox' catalytic offense, except that it was clear, early and often, that Jose Contreras was here to be counted. As advertised, he mixed fastballs with a splitter that was rarely in the strike zone but frequently drawing empty swings.
''His split was acting like a knuckleball," Damon said. ''It was unbelievable. The best we've seen all year."
The best pitching performance the team has seen all year?
''Absolutely," Damon said. ''Go back, rewind, look at all those pitches and how much they moved. Even on TV they looked incredible. In person, it was not fun."
Damon lined out to begin the game and went 0 for 4, striking out looking at a splitter in the third and swinging at an 0-and-2 splitter to end the fourth. That prompted the organist to bang out ''Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
