BESTS
Atmosphere: There’s no better venue for baseball than Fenway, especially in the postseason.
Young guns: Rookies Dustin Pedroia of the Sox and Troy Tulowitzki of the Rox had big nights at the plate.
Rockies pitcher: Matt Herges pitched 1 1/3 innings, no hits allowed. Hey, when there’s nothing else positive, you find what you can for Colorado.
WORSTS
Debut: Colorado. Could it have gotten any worse? Only if the team had held an online ticket sale that turned into a fiasco. Oh, wait. … Dismissed by most national and Boston media as little more than a minor obstacle to the World Series title, the Rockies did not put up a fight in their first appearance on baseball’s biggest stage, allowing the most runs ever in a Game 1 World Series.
Control: Three batters faced, three batters walked by Colorado’s Ryan Speier.
Composure: Three postseason outings by Franklin Morales, and three shaky appearances. His poor showing in relief Wednesday – two-thirds of an inning, seven earned runs – may cost him any more mound time in this series.
HERO
Josh Beckett
The modern-day version of Bob Gibson has no equal as a postseason pitcher these days. Beckett used a fastball that hit 97 mph and a knee-buckling hard curve to subdue the Rockies, just as he did the Indians and the Angels earlier in this postseason.
GOAT
Jeff Francis
Colorado’s ace appeared anything but against a relentless Red Sox attack. He was rusty and nervous.
KEY PLAY
Boston’s early surge
The game turned quickly with Beckett’s three strikeouts in the top of the first getting the crowd rocking and Dustin Pedroia’s blast over the Green Monster adding to the energy that seemed to overwhelm the Rockies.
