Empyreal Environs

World Series Game 2: October 25, 2007
Rockies	1	L: Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1)	NLDS: 3-0 NLCS: 4-0 World Series: 0-2
Red Sox	2	W: Curt Schilling (3-0) H: Hideki Okajima (2) S: Jonathan Papelbon (2)	ALDS: 3-0 ALCS: 4-3 World Series: 2-0
Highlights: The Terry Francona Special Postseason Limited Edition Action Figure with Quick Hook Action™ is a wonder to behold. In a regular season game Francona would have pressed his luck with his favored veteran pitcher and who knows what would have happened after Matt Holliday’s one-out single and Todd Helton’s eight-pitch base on balls. Instead, Schilling was pulled with two men on in the sixth and Okajima pitched to the next seven Rockies hitters flawlessly. Papelbon tallied his second multi-inning playoff save, striking out two and picking off Holliday while doing so.

Matt Holliday, the NL MVP candidate, smoked a liner so close to Jonathan Papelbon that it took all the closer’s dancing prowess to avoid the imprint of stitches on his torso. Dustin Pedroia doggedly tracked down the grounder and rolled his wrist while tumbling near the outer lip of the outfield dirt.

The second baseman came up with the ball too late; Julio Lugo’s voice above the din told his fellow middle infielder to eat the throw rather than rushing a relay to Kevin Youkilis and risk throwing it away.

Holliday, the tying run with two outs, wandered off first. He, like his team, was in the uncharted territories of the playoffs where one bad decision can alter the course of the series. The Rockies star drifted away even after Papelbon made one pickoff attempt.

On Papelbon’s second attempt, Holliday’s arms was intercepted by Youkilis’s tag. It wasn’t just Papelbon’s first pickoff of the series, it was the inaugural pickoff of his major league career.

Colorado got on the board in the first when Willy Tavares was lightly grazed by a pitch high and inside by Curt Schilling. The speedster’s baserunning excellence (commented upon ad infinitum by Messrs. Buck and McCarver) brought him within 90 feet of home on Holliday’s bounder off Mike Lowell’s glove. Tavares plated easily on Todd Helton’s ground out to first.

Lowell turned the tables in the bottom of the fourth by reaching on a base on balls and motoring to the hot corner on J.D. Drew’s rope to right. Jason Varitek sacrificed to center to tie the game.

Taco Bell at last eschewed the difficult-to-hit home run targets that, if hit, would score everyone in America a free taco. Instead, any stolen base would grant Americans this dubious prize. With Jacoby Ellsbury, he of the 100% success rate in base thievery in his major league career thus far, on first, a free pass to the wonders of dyspepsia was finally granted. The sponsors for the relief man award were likely thrilled by the marketing synergy.

The lauded prospect Ubaldo Jimenez pitched well enough for a rookie World Series starter, but the natural movement of his pitches which makes him the talent he is ultimately undid him. With two out in the fifth Jimenez walked David Ortiz.

Manny Ramirez then smashed a single past Garrett Atkins to left and Ortiz grimaced on his way to second. Clint Hurdle lacked Terry Francona’s foresight and left Jimenez to face Lowell.

Lowell had seen eight pitches from Jimenez through his first two at bats and by the fifth had calibrated his batting eye to detect the novice’s weaknesses. Shooting a double over the elevated Atkins, Lowell notched his 12th RBI of the playoffs, making him second amongst all batters in this postseason.

Kazuo Matsui is the highest-ranked Rockie with eight, respectably tying him with Ortiz. Holliday, the underdog’s darling, is second to his second baseman with seven.

Schilling was not his former big game self but pitched to the presented circumstances admirably. Whatever he lost on his fastball he recoups with his game thread run on SoSH. Soldiering through five and one-third innings with four hits, two walks, and four strikeouts, the veteran kept his team in the game long enough before handing it over to the lethal duo of Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon.

Both relievers, tired of the din of the Black Pearl, took to the mound with a vengeance. Their performances inspired a new level of commotion as they shut down the visiting squad. A remarkable moving effigy of Papelbon jigged in the bleachers. The chants of their names ringing in their ears, the Red Sox take their two World Series wins into the hostile territory that is Coors Field this Saturday.

For their Jumbotron programming staff probably has prepared queues to their audience to inform them when to clap when they should be working on the lighting system to make sure it doesn’t go on the fritz in the middle of a game. Hopefully they hired more grounds crew members since, as nice as Red Sox players are, it’s unlikely they would be as helpful as the Phillies and assist with the tarp. Fox should probably revive Scooter for the next few days as Coloradans would find it quite informative. Lastly, as tempting as towel-waving would be, the Rockies’ fans should probably not follow Cleveland’s strategy for spurring their club.