BOSTON — Don’t feel bad, Jeff Francis. Yeah, the Boston Red Sox beat your brains in Wednesday night. They made history doing it, and they pretty much set a gruesome tone for the rest of the Series. So that maple leaf on your Canadian flag looks a little wilted today. Go stand over there by the wall of 2007 postseason shame.
You’ll have plenty of company.
Say “hi” to John Lackey. Compare gaping wounds with Fausto Carmona. But don’t bother looking for C.C. Sabathia’s shoulder to cry on. Boston drilled that guy twice. Just take your place and hope none of your Rockies teammates join you this week.
Chances are they will. The Boston Red Sox led the American League in pitching this season, but in the postseason their bats are pounding ace pitchers into Charlie Brown status. Francis’ jersey, socks, glove and hat were strewn all over Fenway Park in Game 1 of the World Series as Boston pelted him for 10 hits, including five doubles and a home run, in only four innings in its 13-1 rout.
“We’re a good offense,” said second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who launched it all with a leadoff home run. “We find ways to grind out at-bats. A lot of guys walk, and a lot of guys see pitches. When a guy’s throwing 100 pitches around the fifth inning, it’s time for him to get out of the game.”
Francis threw 103 in four innings and, yes, was out of the game. Colorado had to dip into its bullpen by the fifth and burned five relievers in the process.
This is a Boston lineup that has all the trappings of a giant killer. They have a precocious leadoff hitter brimming with confidence from his pending rookie of the year award in Pedroia, a famed postseason hero in David Ortiz, a cleanup hitter in Manny Ramirez who wouldn’t get rattled in an electric chair, two World Series veterans in Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek and a patient No. 7 hitter in J.D. Drew.
Since October began, these guys have annihilated the best pitchers in baseball. In Game 1 of the American League division series, they scored all four runs in six innings of their 4-0 win over Lackey and the Los Angeles Angels. In Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, they whipped Sabathia 10-3 and then again in Game 5, 7-1. Then they ripped Carmona in Game 6, 12-1, evening the series.
In 11 postseason games, the Red Sox are hitting .316 (119-for-376) with 55 walks and 16 home runs. They’ve scored at least three runs in an inning 14 times.
“You have to be patiently aggressive, if that makes sense,” said third baseman Mike Lowell, who had one of the doubles. “If a guy’s throwing strikes, you’re not going to take pitches for the sake of taking pitches. But that’s been one of the strengths of our lineup the whole year, that we’re disciplined. We don’t chase a lot of pitches out of the zone.
“Just by that fact, sometimes when we don’t score too many runs, by that fifth or sixth inning we’ve gotten that pitch count up. So sometimes you get to the bullpen an inning or two early.”
Wednesday, however, topped them all. The 13 runs is a club World Series record and the eight doubles tied a World Series mark not accomplished since the Pittsburgh Pirates did it way back in 1925. The 13 runs were the most ever in a Game 1 of a World Series, and Boston’s 10 extra-base hits were one more than the Pirates’ 1925 Series record against Washington.
Yes, they are potent. And now it’s official. You can look it up.
“They wait for their pitch and make you work,” Francis said. “They’re very smart and they can make you pay for a mistake. They put a lot of pressure on you in a lot of ways.”
Now the pressure is on Colorado.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
