Okajima, the first Japanese pitcher to appear in a World Series game, not only served as the bridge between starting pitcher Curt Schilling, a winner for the 11th time in his postseason career, and closer Jonathan Papelbon, he also laid what may be an unshakable foundation for what may be Boston's second World Series title in four seasons.
Fifty teams have taken a two-games-to-none lead in the World Series. Thirty-nine have gone on to win the championship, including each of the last six seasons.
The Sox won their sixth straight Series game and fifth straight of this postseason with one never-before-seen wrinkle. Pa pelbon, who had not picked off a runner since he broke into the big leagues in 2006, nabbed Matt Holliday straying off first base to close out the eighth inning. Holliday had nearly taken out both Papelbon and second baseman Dustin Pedroia with a line single up the middle, his fourth hit of the night. The ball appeared to glance off Papelbon's leg and caused Pedroia, who gloved the ball with a sprawling spot, to writhe in pain after he landed heavily on the left shoulder he'd dislocated already once this postseason.
At the plate was Todd Helton, the signature player in Rockies history. But he never saw a pitch in the eighth, as Papelbon whirled and picked off Holliday.
"Probably will go down as one of the biggest outs of my career," Papelbon said.
It was not happenstance. Holliday was intending to steal - he confirmed so after the game - and the Sox had a strong suspicion he was going.
They knew that the Rockies were scouting them in the Division Series against the Angels, when Howie Kendrick stole second and third unchallenged against Papelbon in the eighth inning of a tie game.
"If you were advancing us, you would have said the same thing, that Pap is 1.8 [seconds] to the plate, and he doesn't pick," Mills said. "But it was a different situation in the game against the Angels. We didn't care if he stole, because we had confidence in Paps getting the hitter and we didn't want to take anything away from him to try to get the runner on that situation.
