CLEVELAND — Three years after Curt Schilling’s Miracle of the Bloody Sock, the Boston Red Sox could be on their way to another stirring comeback in the American League Championship Series.
One defeat from seeing their season end, the Red Sox jumped on Josh Beckett’s back and rolled to 7-1 win over the Cleveland Indians in Game 5 on Thursday night at Jacobs Field.
Beckett, who has a knack for coming up big in the postseason, added another line to his brilliant October resume by striking out 11 in eight overpowering innings.
The 27-year-old righthander allowed three hits and a run in the first inning. After that, he pitched shutout ball for seven innings and gave up just two hits.
So now the series moves back to Boston for Game 6 on Saturday night.
The Indians hold a three-games-to-two lead, but they can’t be feeling all that comfortable, not with Schilling, the star of Octobers past, ready to pitch.
Three years ago, the Red Sox overcame a three-games-to-none deficit — the first team to do so — and beat the New York Yankees in the league championship series. That comeback was highlighted by Schilling’s win in Game 6. The righthander pitched with blood oozing from his right ankle due to an injury.
Last week, Schilling struggled in his Game 2 start, failing to get past the fifth inning. He has a chance to redeem himself and keep the Sox alive, as Beckett did Thursday night. A Boston win in Game 6 would set up a decisive seventh game Sunday.
The Indians will send 19-game winner Fausto Carmona to the mound in Game 6. While Schilling tries to stave off elimination, Carmona will try to pitch the Indians into the World Series.
From the time Kevin Youkilis, the second batter of the game, homered off C.C. Sabathia in the first inning, it was clear the Red Sox were intent on extending their season Thursday night.
The Indians tied the game on a pair of hits and a groundout in the bottom of the first, but that was the extent of their scoring against Beckett, who got stronger as the game went on.
Beckett ended the first with a strikeout of Ryan Garko, starting a streak in which he retired 12 of 13 hitters.
The Sox took a 2-1 lead in the third inning and broke it open with two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth.
Beckett is 5-2 with a 1.78 ERA in nine postseason games.
Each team had its ace on the mound.
Sabathia was looking to pitch the Indians to a World Series berth against Colorado.
Beckett was looking to save the Red Sox’ season and get the series back to Fenway Park, the capital of Red Sox Nation.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else in the league we’d want on the mound in this situation,” Boston third baseman Mike Lowell said.
Beckett had been in this predicament before. In 2003, while he was with the Florida Marlins, he shut out the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. The Marlins were down by three games to one entering that game. They went on to win the series, then defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series on the strength of a Beckett shutout in Game 6.
Thursday night’s game-time temperature was a comfortable 69 degrees, and the sellout crowd arrived early, hoping to see the Tribe win the pennant.
A country music artist named Danielle Peck sang the national anthem, and that was noteworthy because she was once a girlfriend of Beckett’s. The Indians insisted they weren’t trying to tweak Beckett.
They had no idea that Peck and Beckett were once an item. Peck is considered a rising star on the country circuit, and she’s an Ohioan with a family full of Indians fans. The booking seemed natural, but humorous nonetheless.
Of course, Beckett wasn’t about to laugh about it. The ornery Texan was all business, particularly in the bottom of the fifth inning when he and Kenny Lofton had words after Lofton flied out to left field for the first out. The benches cleared as the two shouted at each other near the mound.
Trailing by 2-1, the Indians got a pair of two-out singles in that inning, bringing up Asdrubal Cabrera with runners on first and third.
Beckett stared down the threat. He struck out Cabrera, then strutted off the mound. In the sixth, Beckett struck out two more Indians, giving him nine at that point in the game.
Sabathia was not nearly as sharp, but he managed to keep his team close despite allowing Youkilis’ first-inning homer and a run in the third on Manny Ramirez’s RBI single off the wall in right-center.
Ramirez’s drive hit the yellow line on the top of the wall and bounced back into play. Had it been an inch higher, it would have cleared the wall for a homer.
Boston manager Terry Francona questioned whether the ball should have been ruled a home run, but the umpires got it right.
