I mean, Matt Holliday wasn't just out when Jonathan Papelbon flipped the ball to Kevin Youkilis in the eighth with the Rockies trailing by a run. He was O-U-T from Fenway to Foxborough. It might be the easiest pickoff safe/out call of umpire Mike Everitt's career.
Curt Schilling attributed the pickoff to advance scouting. "In a situation like that, I think Matt was going," Schilling said. "We don't make throws to first on our own."
"Just a simple pick," said Papelbon. "It will probably go down as one of the biggest outs of my career."
Jason Varitek confirmed that bench coach Brad Mills had the hunch and made the call. But the fact remains that Holliday was careless.
The Red Sox worked for this one. They left men on in every inning but the first and they left multiple men on in the third (2), fourth (2), fifth (3), and sixth (2). Clinging to a one-run lead for the final four innings, Terry Francona went to the short list of the men he trusts the most. From April through September, this game would have been handled differently. But this is October. This is the World Series. This is it.
I'm sure Francona meant no offense to the rest of the bullpen, but in order to get the final 11 outs, he wasn't going near anyone but Hideki Okajima and Papelbon. Tito wasn't messin' around.
"It was a phenomenal effort on both their parts," said Francona. "If Okey doesn't throw as many strikes as he did, he wouldn't have been able to stay as long as he did. He set up the whole game."
"That was the Papajima Show," said Schilling. "That was great to watch."
Schilling worked the first 5 2/3 innings, and no one could rightfully ask him to pitch any better than he did. He was touched for a funny little run in the first when he hit leadoff man Willy Taveras on a 1-2 pitch and the speedy center fielder eventually came around on a ball that third baseman Mike Lowell knocked down and couldn't retrieve in time to prevent Taveras from making his way to third, followed by a Todd Helton run-scoring grounder to first. Had the Red Sox not won this game, Schilling would have beaten himself up for hitting Taveras with that pitch; you can be sure of that.
