Scott Needle and I replayed the 2013 World Series between the Cardinals and Red Sox using three different simulations: Strat-O-Matic Super Advanced (Games One and Two), Payoff Pitch (Games Three and Four) and Season Ticket (Games Five through Seven). This was a fun chance to see the differences in the three games in close proximity, and they were all enjoyable.
The Series gets moving quickly at Fenway when Boston gets two singles and a David Ortiz sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 1st, but this would be the sum total of the offense for some time as the two starters settle in for an old-style hurlers' duel. Boston can manage but four hits over the next six innings off of Wainwright, while Lester is twirling a four-hitter before he gets lifted with two outs in the 7th. Junichi Tazawa got PH Daniel Descalso on a third strike for the final out of the 7th with two men aboard, but with the lefties coming up for STL in the 8th John Farrell went to Matt Thornton in the 8th over Craig Breslow, a decision that will be debated for some time. Suffice it to say it was the wrong choice on this evening, as the wheels came flying off the train in spectacular fashion for the Boston bullpen in the 8th. The first three men to face Thornton singled, to get the Cards on the board and tie the score, and then Workman allowed base hits to Craig and Molina to score two more runs - five batters, five hits, and a 3-1 Saint Louis lead. A bases-loaded walk by Kevin Siegrist to Jonny Gomes pulled BOS to within one run in the bottom of the 8th, but the STL lefty recovered to whiff Xander Bogaerts and get Drew to sky to right with the bases still full to preserve the slim edge. Four walks from the Boston pen forced an insurance run across for St. Louis in the 9th, and Edward Mujica pitched a scoreless 9th to nail down Game One for the National Leaguers. Saint Louis 4-10-0, Boston 2-8-0. [scoresheet]
It looked to be a different sort of ballgame in Game Two, as the two clubs combined to score five runs in the 2nd. The Cardinals got four straight hits to start their half of the inning, Craig singling home a pair and Descalso lofting a sacrifice fly, while the Red Sox got a leadoff walk to Ortiz and a two-run bomb by Napoli. The Sox coaxed another one across home plate in the 4th to tie the game on Drew's triple and an RBI hit by Bogaerts, but Wacha was firing seeds - twelve of the first fourteen outs he recorded came by way of strikeout including three whiffs of Jacoby Ellsbury in four innings. He loaded the bases, though, with one out in the 5th and had to depart, and Shelby Miller kept it close by fanning Gomes and retiring Jarrod Saltalamacchia on a fly ball. Miller was not so effective in the 6th, however. He began the inning by issuing two singles and a walk, the go-ahead run scored on a groundout, and another was cut down on a fielder's choice at the plate, but then Ortiz punished a ball into deep LCF for a two-run double that gave Boston a three-run lead. The Cards rallied in the 8th when the Boston "relief" corps again couldn't get the job done, Thonrton allowing a walk and a double and Tazawa a two-run single that made it a one-run ballgame. But Koji Uehara came on in the 9th and set St. Louis down without much drama, and the Sox had a come-from-behind win and a level Series, while the Cardinals were content to take a split home for Game Three. Boston 6-12-0, Saint Louis 5-10-0. [scoresheet]
The early goings-on at Busch Stadium all went the Cardinals' way, as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead through four innings. Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltrán started the home 1st with two-base hits, Matt Adams homered with no one aboard in the 3rd, and Pete Kozma doubled home David Freese after a leadoff walk in the 4th, while Boston could manage just a 4th-inning solo homer by Daniel Nava against Kelly. But Beltrán misplayed a fly ball to allow another run to score in the 5th, and the Red Sox finally got to Kelly in the 6th. Ortiz singled to lead it off, and Nava then drew a walk; a ground out and a Saltalamacchia sacrifice fly made it 4-3 STL, and Drew then delivered the big blow by driving one into the RF seats for a lead-grabbing home run. Peavy pitched through the 6th and, for the first time in the Series, the Boston pen looked unfazed by the spotlight. Breslow, Thornton and Tazawa tag-teamed two innings and Uehara again closed out the 9th (surviving two WHEELHOUSE results) after BOS had given him a little bit of breathing space with a Drew sac fly in the 8th. Boston 6-7-0, Saint Louis 4-8-2. [scoresheet]
The Red Sox rode the momentum of the previous evening into the top of the 1st as Ellsbury started the game with a double, Nava singled him to third and Ortiz knocked him in with a base hit. But St. Louis would get that one back in the 3rd on three singles, the RBI knock coming off the bat of Matt Adams. Buchholz (.199 BAA during the regular season) wasn't fooling the Cards, allowing six hits through the first four innings, and that came home to roost in the home half of the 5th. With two away and a runner on first, Adams singled and Molina did the same to bring home the go-ahead run, then Jay doubled down the RF line to score two more runs and give STL a 4-1 lead. Ellsbury homered to make it 4-2 in the 6th, but Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal overpowered the BOS hitters in the 7th and 8th to hand the ball to Mujica for the 9th. Dustin Pedroia singled with one out, and Gomes doubled him home with two gone to put the potential tying run in scoring position, but Mujica got Bogaerts to fly out for the final out and tie the Series at two games apiece. Saint Louis 4-13-0, Boston 3-7-0. [scoresheet]
Facing the prospect of a best-of-three with two games at Fenway Park, the Cards looked to get the upper hand early in their last game of the season at Busch (where they went 54-27 in the regular season), but that's not how things unfolded (at first). It was the Red Sox who came out firing, apaprently having learned some lessons from their Game One throttling by Wainwright. Ellsbury led off the game with a triple into the deepest recesses of center field, and Pedroia singled hime home on the first pitch he saw. Things got much worse for Wainwright in the 2nd - after one out, Boston poked three straight singles to score one run, Ellsbury (5-for-6, three runs, two RBI) singled home two more, and Ortiz drove home a fourth to make it 5-0 in favor of the Sox after only two innings. But St. Louis had some fight left in them, to be sure; in the 3rd, Wainwright doubled home one run himself, a second scored on a Lester wild pitch, and Holliday drilled one out of the park for a two-run shot that closed the gap to 5-4 and brought the Busch crowd to its feet. Freese led off the 4th with a solo home run and they game was now tied, with Uncle Mo now wearing Cardinal red. The score stayed that way until the 6th, when it was the STL bullpen's turn to implode - Miller , who had pitched a scoreless 5th in relief of Wainwright, gave up a solo homer to Ross and then after two were out, gave up three straight hits: two singles and a three-run clout by Ortiz that made it 9-4, and signaled that the rout was officially on. Bogaerts hit homers in the 7th and 8th innings as Boston piled on against three more relievers to finish the game with twenty hits, four of them home runs, and prepared to go home to the Hub needing just one win. Boston 13-20-0, Saint Louis 7-12-0. [scoresheet]
Saint Louis moved quickly to quiet a Fenway throng pleading for Boston's first World Series-clinching victory at home since 1918. Molina and Adams began the top of the 2nd with base hits and, despite a double play, scored the first run of the game when Jay singled the Cards' catcher across. In the following inning, after Lackey got the first out, Holliday, Craig and Molina doubled back-to-back-to-back to score two more and push the visitors out in front by three runs. It wasn't going to be that easy, though - Napoli homered with Ortiz aboard in the 4th and, after STL had added another in the top of the 5th on Craig's solo shot, Ross hit his second homer in two games with one man on. The game was tied at four, with four innings (or more) to go. This taste of affairs lasted three batters, as Beltrán launched a homer with two outs in the 6th to again put STL in front. Lackey left after getting one out in the 7th, and Wacha departed after the 6th (and seven more Ks) so it was again up to the bullpens - the Cards' to nurse the lead, Boston's to keep the score within reach. In the bottom of the 7th, Beltrán made his second error of the Series (and the Cardinal's fifth of the game, three of them by 1B Matt Adams) to put the leadoff man aboard, and it then took Randy Choate and John Axford five more batters to find the first out. Pedroia singled, Ortiz walked, Napoli singled home a pair and pinch-hitter Nava doubled home two more in a four-run uprising that gave the Sox an 8-5 lead with only six outs now standing between them and a title. Breslow got the first two Cards in the 8th, but then surrendered singles to Carpenter and Beltrán to bring the possible tying run to the plate. Tazawa came on to face Holliday (2-for-4) and, after a passed ball by Ross moved both Cardinals into scoring position, "Taz" got the big bat to fly out a few steps in front of the warning track in left for the final out of the inning. Of course, it would be up to Uehara again in the 9th and he struck out both Craig and Molina before PH Shane Robinson's ground ball landed in the glove of Napoli at first for the final out of the Series. Although in the end they resulted in only one unearned run, the Cards would spend the offseason looking back at their five errors, and nine men stranded in scoring position, in the deciding game and wonder what could have been. Boston 8-9-0, Saint Louis 5-16-5. [scoresheet]
Red Sox DH/1B David Ortiz hit 391/462/565 for the Series, driving in seven runs in the six games, while scoring five times himself and playing a creditable first base in the three games in St. Louis. An honorable mention tip of the cap has to go to Mike Napoli who, despite only playing in four games because of the lack of a DH in the NL park, hit two homers and knocked in 6 runs in only 13 plate appearances, compiling a slash line of 444/615/1111.
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