DENVER (AP) -Mike Lowell politicked for Red Sox teammate Julio Lugo after Game 3 of the World Series.
He didn’t want Lugo’s play at shortstop to get lost in Boston’s 10-5 victory over Colorado on Saturday night.
“His plays might’ve saved the game,” Lowell said.
Lugo turned in two defensive gems in consecutive innings. With runners on first and second in the fifth, Lugo went deep into the hole to snare a grounder, and then fired a strike to Lowell at third for a forceout.
“That was the easiest play for me,” he said. “I don’t know if I had a chance at first.”
That was just an appetizer.
His real beauty came in the sixth. With two on, two outs and two runs already in, Jeff Baker hit a liner that appeared headed for the gap. Lugo leaped and pulled it down.
Lowell still can’t believe the play.
“I didn’t think he had a chance,” Lowell said. “That ball looked like it was still rising. He got up there. We were all pumped.”
Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia may have been the offensive stars Saturday night – going a combined 7-for-10 with four RBIs – yet Lugo’s glove work was hard to ignore.
“I give it my best,” said Lugo, who was 1-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. “Every day, there’s a different hero. There’s not one hero on this team. There’s different ways to do it.”
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JUST GRANDE: Clint Hurdle used to do his grocery shopping at midnight, mainly so he could duck complaints about his team.
Now, he’s receiving standing ovations every time he steps outside.
“My little world, it’s past sky high,” the Colorado manager said Saturday night before the Rockies’ 10-5 loss to Boston in Game 3 of the World Series.
Earlier in the day, Hurdle and his daughter went for their regular “Saturdays at Starbucks” visit. Madison “Maddie” Hurdle has a rare genetic disorder called Prader-Willi Syndrome that causes low muscle tone, morbid obesity and other problems.
Now, the 5-year-old has to share her dad. They changed their normal routine by going 1 1/2 hours earlier this week.
It didn’t work. The patrons were still waiting.
“It’s getting very awkward, standing ovations now are the norm,” Hurdle said. “Those weren’t there in April, May and June.”
No, they weren’t, especially at the beginning of the season. His coffee came with complaints when the team started the season 10-16.
On his early season Saturday trips, he said he heard everything from “Hang in there” to “You’re an idiot.”
These days, he’s become the BMOC – Big Manager on the Cul-de-sac.
Hurdle’s neighbors recently turned the street into a tailgate party, complete with balloons, streamers and a barbecue pit. The neighbors were even wearing shirts that said, “Hurdle’s Homeys.”
“Everywhere you go – the people are on fire,” Hurdle said. “They’re thankful for this opportunity to have a World Series.”
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NO BEEF: It had the makings of a chilly meeting. Or maybe make that a “meat-ing.”
Country star Carrie Underwood, a two-time winner of PETA’s “World’s Sexiest Vegetarian” singing the national anthem at Coors Field, home of the Rockies – who are owned by the Monfort family, once one of the world’s largest exporters of beef.
“There are no concerns at all,” Charlie Monfort, chairman and CEO of the Colorado Rockies, said before Underwood performed Saturday night. “I don’t blame people for being vegetarian, that’s their choice.”
Underwood frequently does concerts wearing a “V is for Vegetarian” shirt. The former “American Idol” winner told PETA after her 2007 win that she quit eating beef at age 13.
“I do it because I really love animals and it just makes me sad” she said in PETA’s publicity materials. “I don’t like to watch commercials where they have meat. It weirds me out.”
Underwood declined all interview requests before Game 3, Major League Baseball spokeswoman Paige Novack said.
Monfort said he and Underwood met once, when she was in Colorado for a concert.
Monfort co-founded the team with trucking company owner Jerry McMorris. Charlie Monfort and his brother, Dick, bought out McMorris’ interest in 2005.
The Monfort family has a decades-long history of raising cattle and owning and operating meatpacking in northern Colorado. Charlie Monfort grew up in his families business and was once president of Monfort International Sales.
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DREW OR FALSE: Boston outfielder J.D. Drew wasn’t all that popular with the Red Sox faithful during the regular season.
He’s making up for it now with a torrid World Series. Drew was hitting .455 as the Red Sox took a 3-0 lead.
“He’s been a really good player,” manager Terry Francona said.
Then again, it’s not a popularity contest. What the fans thought didn’t matter.
“He’s not running for mayor,” Francona said. “We want him to help us win games.”
Drew finished the regular season on a tear, hitting .393 over his final 18 games to raise his season average 18 points to .270.
Still, Drew’s first season in Boston drew mixed reviews. He drove in 36 fewer runs than he did the year before with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also had nine fewer homers.
“You try to plug in before the year how you think your team’s numbers are going to end up, but it’s not fantasy baseball,” Francona said. “There are people involved … and that’s just the way the game is. We could have run away from him or we could stay patient. I think the patience is paying off.”
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FIGHTING CHANCE: Tommy Lasorda likes the fact there’s parity in baseball. Of the four NL teams to make the playoffs, none were in it last season.
“The commissioner wanted parity and by golly, I think we got it,” the former Los Angeles Dodgers manager said. “If you look at the teams that are winning, it’s not big-money teams anymore. So there’s parity, and that’s good for baseball.”
Colorado has given other low-payroll teams hope going into next season.
“It’s good to see that. Now, you can go to spring training and say, ‘We have a chance to be in the World Series,”’ Lasorda said. “Before, no chance.”
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AP Writer P. Solomon Banda and AP freelance writers Michael Kelly and Dale Bublitz contributed to this report.
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