There were puddles on the plastic tarp covering the infield. A tour group occupied a few rows of seats in the back of the deserted grandstand. A handful of maintenance workers walked along the muddy clay track between the dugouts. Pitching coach John Farrell played catch with his son, long and lean. Daisuke Matsuzaka stood alone in center field, throwing long toss with Alex Martinez, the bullpen catcher, standing on the right-field foul line. The clubhouse had long since been cleared of reporters - Peter Gammons and a camera crew or two still prowled about - and most of the players who had come in and hit in the batting cages underneath the stands had scattered.
Six gun's shot
Red Sox will try to take it to the limit
It was quiet on a damp Yawkey Way yesterday afternoon, on a day that was more late August sticky than mid-October crisp. Fenway Park had the feel of an old-time amusement park drawing to the end of another long summer, just before the cars on the Ferris wheel are taken down, the cotton candy stands are boarded up, and the roller coaster is shuttered.
But the ancient ballpark is not yet ready to call it quits for the season, and neither are its primary occupants. The funhouse will be packed to overflowing tonight, when the Red Sox, given a reprieve when Josh Beckett pitched a game for the ages Thursday night in Cleveland, attempt to stave off winter one more time against the Indians in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. The Indians lead the best-of-seven affair, 3-2.
"We're still the underdogs; we've still got to win two," rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "We've got to find a way to win."
Curt Schilling, who has made a career of booking one rendezvous with destiny after another, will face Cleveland's Fausto Carmona, one aging pitcher looking to ignite old glory at least one more time, against a 23-year-old righthander who already has flashed the promise of great deeds to come.
The Sox are attempting to return to the World Series for the first time since 2004. The Indians have played in only three World Series since 1948, the last time they won it all. The Indians could have clinched the pennant Thursday in front of their own towel-waving fans in Jacobs Field, but were beaten down by Beckett, who was all steel and sinew in outdueling Cleveland ace C.C. Sabathia, limiting the Indians to a run on five hits and a walk while striking out 11 in eight innings of a 7-1 victory
"I knew he was going to will himself to do something pretty special," Schilling said in a conference call with the media, "and he did."
Gone are the days when Schilling, 40, could overpower an opponent the way Beckett did. Now it is all about preparation and precision, poise and persistence.
And fear. That has been a constant, Schilling said, whenever he has pitched.
Advertisement
Advertisement
