BOSTON (AP) -In the World Series opener, Colorado manager Clint Hurdle watched a reliever walk three straight batters with the bases loaded. In Game 2, a pair of walks doomed the Rockies.
“Well, it’s disappointing,” Hurdle said after a 2-1 loss to Boston on Thursday night. “It puts you in positions you don’t want to get into. That being said, we’ve got to find a way to correct it.”
Rockies pitchers have walked 15 in losing the first two games.
Rookie Ubaldo Jimenez started out well Thursday night, then struggled to control his fastball. The Red Sox wore him down, forcing him to throw 91 pitches in 4 2-3 innings.
Jimenez walked five overall, and two of those Red Sox batters wound up scoring. The righty also hit J.D. Drew on the right ankle with a pitch and forced Kevin Youkilis and Julio Lugo to duck away from pitches.
“You’re walking because you’re out of control,” Jimenez said. “After the third inning, yeah, I lost control of my fastball.”
Jimenez walked 37 walks in 15 starts this season and four each in two postseason wins.
Colorado reliever Ryan Speier was out of control in the opener, walking the only three batters he faced. Jeremy Affeldt was summoned from the bullpen to relieve Jimenez and walked his lone batter.
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FALSE ALARM: A fire alarm started blaring in Fenway Park a little after 2 a.m. Friday, about two hours after Game 2 ended.
An announcement on the loudspeaker said anyone in the building should head for the exits, and the alarm kept beeping for more than 20 minutes.
Two fire trucks responded to the ballpark, one with a Red Sox sticker on the side and a sign in the window that read: “There’s Only One Beckett.”
Several Boston firefighters went into the visitor’s dugout. When they emerged, one said he thought a malfunctioning compressor in the third base dugout had automatically tripped the alarm.
Moments later, the alarm stopped.
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NOT SO MONSTROUS: When people think of Fenway Park, they usually picture the Green Monster in left field and all those crazy caroms off the 37-foot wall.
But almost everyone in baseball acknowledges right field is a much tougher position to play at Fenway, with that short fence curling around from Pesky’s Pole to the 380-foot sign in front of the bullpens.
Nobody manned that territory better than Dwight Evans for the Boston Red Sox from 1972-90.
“It’s the biggest right field in baseball. The angles, the low fence hits you right around the armpit – it looks lower than that. I’m 6-foot-3, and you go up and your ribs are exposed to that. You don’t want to run into that,” Evans said before Boston’s 2-1 victory Thursday night.
Evans pointed out that playing right in Boston is easier now than it was in his day because of the Fenway expansions that raised the ballpark roof and blocked out the setting sun.
“What made it tough, and it was a tougher outfield to play than it is now, was how low the stadium was,” he said. “When that sun would come down, especially early in summer time the sun didn’t set as low, line drives would come right into that sun and it made it very difficult to play. Now, the stadium has gotten higher so the sun is not a factor anymore.”
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THE EVIL EMPIRE: The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are apparently tired of fighting for the affection of the rest of the country.
Now their taking their competition to the galaxy.
Hank Steinbrenner, son of the Yankees owner, launched the first rocket into space by saying, “They talk about Red Sox Nation. We talk about Yankee universe. As bad as they want it, they’ll never be the Yankees with their brand.”
The quote ran in The New York Times on Wednesday, the morning of the first game of the World Series between the Red Sox and Colorado Rockies. It was relayed to Boston owner John Henry on the field at Fenway Park before Game 2.
“As far as I’m concerned, they can have Mars and Pluto,” Henry said with a laugh. “We’re going to settle for Red Sox Nation.”
And, he was reminded, a chance at a second World Series title in four years.
“We’ll settle for this World,” Henry said.
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