While 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees are apparently dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s” on a new 10-year — $275 million deal to replace the remainder of the $252 million deal which his agent  Scott Boras opted him out of during the World Series,  A-Rod was the decisive winner of the AL MVP.

AP’s Ronald Blum reports on the MVP results for Yahoo sports;

A-Rod won his third AL MVP award Monday, easily defeating  Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez after compiling an astounding season at the plate. Rodriguez received 26 first-place votes and 382 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, while Ordonez had two firsts and 258 points.

There’s not very much one can say about this one;  A-Rod’s 2007 stats speak loudly for themselves; 54 HRs, 156 RBIs, 143 runs scored, .314 batting average, 24 stolen bases.  Although rightfielder Ordonez put up some mighty 2007 numbers; 28 HRs, 139 RBIs, 117 runs scored and a .363 batting average, they didn’t compare with Rodriguez.  Enough said!  The only suspense left is about who will win the NL MVP, Colorado’s leftfielder Matt Holliday or Phillies’ shortstop Jimmy Rollins.  

*****

3rd baseman and World Series MVP Mike Lowell ended his free agency today by apparently  reaching a a three-year, $37.5 million deal with the Red Sox.

If true, Boston will be positioned to try for a repeat with all their key players from 2007.

AP Sports reporter Jimmy Golden notes for Yahoo sports;

In the three weeks since winning their second championship in four seasons, the Red Sox have re-signed their two biggest free agents, Lowell and pitcher Curt Schilling, and picked up options on Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez.

Lowell, a 33-year-old third baseman who made $9 million this season, was seeking four guaranteed years and might have gotten it elsewhere.

Lowell hit 21 homers this season while reaching career highs with a .324 average and 120 RBIs.  Lowell moved into the fifth spot in Boston’s powerful lineup behind David Ortiz and  Manny Ramirez.

Lowell batted .400 (6-for-15) during Boston’s four-game Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies, with four RBIs, three walks and a team-high six runs to earn MVP honors.

*****

Veteran lefthander and former free agent Tom Glavine, winner of 303 career games officially bolted the New York Mets to sign a one year, $8 million deal with the Atlanta Braves for what would appear to be the final season of his career.

Glavine spent the first 16 seasons of his 21 year career in Atlanta before jumping to the Mets where he spent the 5 years between 2003-2007 and where his ERA skyrocketed to 4.45 in 2007 in a 13-8 season for the Mets who blew a big NL East division lead to the Phillies over the final weeks of the season.  Glavine got no-decisions in 2 decisive Mets’ losses to the Phils in the last month of the season.

AP Sports Writer Paul Newberry provides background for Yahoo sports;

Atlanta believes the crafty left-hander, who will turn 42 before next season, can help them get back to the playoffs after a two-year hiatus.

“Starting pitching has been our Achilles’ heel. We just didn’t have the depth we had in past years, and we wanted to address that,” new general manager Frank Wren said. “Tommy was our No. 1 target.”

This was an easy one to hit.

After turning down a $13 million option with the Mets for 2008, taking a $3 million buyout, he turned his attention toward the Braves. He gave Atlanta a hometown discount, agreeing to an $8 million, one-year deal that was the lowest he was willing to play for and wasn’t available to anyone else.

The Braves jumped on it quickly, wrapping up the negotiations in less than a week. No one else — not even the Mets — were ever in the mix.

“Sentiment goes a long way,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said, “but we all think Tommy can still win at the major league level. That’s the bottom line.”

Proving you can go home again, Glavine and the Braves got over the bitterness that accompanied their negotiations after the 2002 season.

During his 16-year tenure, Glavine had five 20-win seasons, captured Cy Young Awards in 1991 and ‘98, and helped the Braves win the first 11 of their unprecedented 14 straight division titles. He was MVP of their only World Series championship during the run, pitching eight scoreless [1 hit] innings in the deciding game of a 1995 victory over  Cleveland.

“No place I ever went to as a visiting player was ever as remotely strange as coming here as a visiting player,” Glavine said.

Which is probably why his wife teared up when he tried on his Braves cap and jersey in the training room before the news conference.

And that’s probably why [GM Frank] Wren couldn’t stop smiling when Glavine buttoned up his No. 47 jersey with “Braves” written across the front and modeled the red-and-blue hat with an “A” above the bill.

“Looks good, doesn’t it?” Wren said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien adds;

Washington and Philadelphia were among a handful of teams that expressed interest in Glavine, though the pitcher told his agent, Gregg Clifton, to let teams know that he wanted to first give the Braves an opportunity to get a deal done before he considered any other offers.

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Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Cleveland’s Eric Wedge and Arizona’s Bob Melvin were selected as their respective league’s managers of the year and that San Diego Padres ace Jake Peavy won the NL Cy Young award.

Being former catchers, possessing identical lifetime .233 batting averages and nearly identical lifetime managerial records, Wedge and Melvin both guided their teams to successful 2007 seasons. 

AP baseball writer Ben Walker writes about the trend toward former catchers becoming managers as well as background and voting results for Yahoo sports;

“There’s been quite the trend,” Wedge said on a conference call. “The catcher has to be aware and knowledgeable of every aspect.”

“It’s a leadership position. That position demands a great amount of passion for your teammates and the game of baseball,” he said.

Wedge and Melvin crossed paths years ago. A month after Colorado took Wedge from Boston in the November 1992 expansion draft, the Red Sox wanted a second-string catcher and signed Melvin as a free agent.

Wedge received 19 of the 28 first-place votes and got 116 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He finished ahead of a pair of former catchers, the Angels’ Mike Scioscia (62 points) and ex-Yankees manager Joe Torre (61). Terry Francona of the World Series champion Red Sox got 13.

Melvin was chosen on 19 of the 30 first-place ballots and got 119 points. Philadelphia’s Charlie Manuel (76), Colorado’s Clint Hurdle (58), himself a former catcher, and the Cubs’ Lou Piniella (25) followed.

Melvin was honored for his steady hand in leading a team that sometimes started six rookies to a 90-72 mark. Back in the playoffs for the first time since 2002, Arizona swept Chicago in the first round before getting swept by Colorado in the NLCS.

“At the beginning, we were cautiously optimistic. We liked the young group,” Melvin said on a conference call.

The 39-year-old Wedge played 39 games for Boston and Colorado in the early 1990s. He’s done a lot better with the Indians since starting out 68-94 in 2003.

Wedge became the first Cleveland manager to win the AL award, chosen by a wide margin after the Indians and Boston tied for the best record in baseball. Melvin was the first Arizona manager to get the NL prize, picked after leading his young team to the top mark in the league.

Cleveland, under Wedge, won the AL Central Division championship with a 96-66 record, took the New York Yankees by 3 games to 1 in the AL division series and went up 3 games to 1 on the Boston Red Sox before losing the ALCS as Boston pounded them in games 5 through 7. 

Arizona, under Melvin, took the NL Central Division, swept the Chicago Cubs in the NL division series only to be swept themselves in the NLCS by the Colorado Rockies who advanced to the World Series due to a late season tare winning 21 of 22, including 7 straight in NL post-season play.

                   

San Diego’s Jake Peavy was designated as the NL Cy Young award winner  unanimously, being “named first on all 32 of the ballots that were distributed to voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.”

MLB.com’s Corey Brock provides stats, background and Peavy’s comments;

“I just feel like that’s the way I’ve got to pitch,” Peavy said this season about being aggressive. “I can’t go out there and pitch to contact. Be aggressive. … That’s the type of pitcher I am. I go as hard as I can for as long as I can and see where the cards fall.”

Peavy led the league in just about every pertinent category in 2007 — victories (19), ERA (2.54), strikeouts (240) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.67). Peavy also started the All-Star Game in July in San Francisco.

Peavy becomes the fourth Padres pitcher to win the Cy Young Award, and the first since Mark Davis won the award in 1989.  Randy Jones (1976) and Gaylord Perry (1978) also captured the award.

The 2007 season certainly represented quite a turnaround for Peavy, who was troubled in 2006 by shoulder tendinitis. He lost 14 games that season, posted a 4.07 ERA and never found a level of comfort when pitching.

But a change in his offseason workout routine allowed Peavy to head to Spring Training with a healthy shoulder. He backed off workouts for his shoulder once the season began and spent a fair amount of time in the trainers room.

Peavy spent part of his conference call on Thursday praising the work of the team training staff.

“Those guys are the backbone of what any player on the San Diego Padres does,” Peavy said. “Those guys see me every day. In-season, we modified the amount of work I did, especially my arm routine and shoulder. I feel very fortunate and blessed to be healthy.”

Peavy bolted to a fast start in 2007, with six scoreless innings in the season opener in April against the Giants. There were few hiccups along the way, as Peavy won nine of his final 12 starts of the regular season with one loss and one no-decision.

“I don’t really feel like I did anything different than in ‘04 and ‘05 other than have better luck and win games,” Peavy said. “Obviously, health plays a factor in everything. It starts in the winter with working out.”

Peavy certainly proved that his success wasn’t just a result of his surroundings at roomy PETCO Park either. In fact, Peavy performed better on the road, posting a 10-1 record with a 2.57 ERA in 15 starts.

Peavy — who allowed one or fewer runs in 18 of his 35 starts in 2007 — is just the fourth player in Major League history to win two ERA titles before the age of 27.

“And when you’re able to do that and throw the ball where you want to … it’s a pretty tough combination.”

Peavy was paid the ultimate compliment by Padres general manager Kevin Towers, who was asked in September what he thought of his team’s chances were in a big game with Peavy on the mound.

“If it’s a deciding game,” Towers said, “there’s nobody in baseball I’d rather have on the mound than Jake Peavy.”

As for 2008, Peavy said he is going to go about his preparation much the same way that he did last offseason and that, in his mind, he still considers himself an unfinished product.

“I’m going to try and mimic everything I did, day in and day out. I’ve got a long ways to go to be who I want to be,” he said.

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Tom Krasovic reports that a club option in Peavy’s contract would raise his pay for 2009 to $11 million as a result of his winning the Cy Young award.  He further reports that;

Padres CEO Sandy Alderson and Peavy’s agent said the sides have explored terms for a multiyear extension and plan to revisit talks. The deal would run through 2011 and perhaps longer.

Agent Barry Axelrod and Padres General Manager Kevin Towers have discussed dollars and years, and Towers has spoken to Peavy about what it would take to retain him past 2009.

“The Padres have interest in exploring every possibility of keeping Jake here,” Axelrod said yesterday. “I’m an optimist. I’m always an optimist. I think we’ve got a pretty good grip on what we believe Jake’s value to be.”

The Padres, a midrevenue club, control Peavy’s contractual rights through 2009. “It’s not the end of the world if we don’t reach an agreement,” Towers said. “We felt it was at least worth exploring.”

 Axelrod considers Peavy superior to pitchers such as the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano and the Giants’ Barry Zito, who this year received a five-year, $91.5 million guarantee and a seven-year, $126 million guarantee, respectively.

Don’t expect the Padres to guarantee Peavy the $18.3 million rate Zambrano got from the Cubs, and don’t expect Peavy to insist on it.

               

Finally, in the latest twist in the A-Rod, Scott Boras, Yankees soap opera, 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez has done an about-face from the opt-out stance which agent Boras publically announced in up-staging the world series.

It now appears that A-Rod is now proclaiming that he wants to remain a Yankee, has upstaged Boras and is now speaking directly with Hank Steinbrenner who has taken over the Yankee ownership helm from father George.

Yahoo sports’ Tim Brown reports;

By Wednesday night, not only were Rodriguez and the Yankees back on speaking terms, but sources said they were close to a deal that would pay Rodriguez a base salary of $275 million over 10 years. The deal will include performance incentives that could increase the value.

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum adds;

The amount of the guaranteed money was revealed by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been finalized. A-Rod met Wednesday in Tampa, Fla., with the Steinbrenner brothers but the parameters of the deal were set in place last weekend.

“Yeah, I could say that,” Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said. “The meeting was a final get-together. He wanted to make sure myself and my brother knew that he was sincere and serious.”

The Yankees still must draft the agreement with Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras.

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The Detroit Tigers announced on Tuesday a deal to re-sign 39 year old veteran closer Todd Jones. 

Jones, who had 38 saves for the Tigers last season; 117 saves over the last 3 seasons and 4 more in the 2006 post-season including their only win in the 2006 World Series, signed a one year, $7 million dollar deal in what has to be an indicator of the going rate for the current crop of free agent and arbitration-eligible closers.  In fact, MLB’s Ken Mandel indicates that newly acquired Phillies closer Brad Lidge may command in the $7 million range through the arbitration process.  Lidge, however, bests Jones’ lifetime ERA by .63, Jones standing at 3.93 and Lidge at 3.30 ERA.

AP Sports Writer Larry Lage provides background for Yahoo sports;

“For us, he’s done a quality job for the last couple years and for us, a real big need for him to come back and fill that closer role,” Tigers president Dave Dombrowski said.

Re-signing Jones became even more important for Detroit when hard-throwing reliever Joel Zumaya had shoulder surgery, costing him at least the first half of the 2008 season.

MLB.com’s Jason Beck adds these comments from Jones about the deal;

“Ultimately, the team that I think had the best chance to win was Detroit,” Jones said. “And the team that I was most comfortable with is Detroit. And where my heart is, is in Detroit. It’s just great. I just appreciate the Tigers letting me kick tires and letting me look around with no hard feelings. Because in an industry where ultimately it can sometimes become a very harsh business, [president/general manager] Dave [Dombrowski] and I maintain a wonderful, professional relationship.”

**************

The American League announced on Tuesday that Cleveland lefthander C.C. Sabathia, with a 2007 season record of 19-7, 209 strikeouts, only 37 walks in 241 innings pitched and a 3.09 ERA, is their AL Cy Young Award winner. 

AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick provides background for Yahoo sports;

C.C. Sabathia won the AL Cy Young Award… beating out several worthy contenders by a comfortable margin and becoming the first Cleveland pitcher in 35 years to earn the honor.

The Indians ace received 19 of 28 first-place votes and finished with 119 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.  Boston’s Josh Beckett was second with eight first-place votes and 86 points…

“I was excited. My family and everybody were around,” Sabathia said on a conference call from his home in California. “I was surprised. Beckett had a great year and an even better postseason.”

Beckett (20-7) became the only big league pitcher to win 20 games since 2005, compiling a 3.27 ERA in 200 2-3 innings…

Voting took place before the postseason, when Sabathia struggled while Beckett pitched the Red Sox to a World Series championship with a string of dominant outings.

The only other Cleveland pitcher to win the award was Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry in 1972. Now that he has one, Sabathia plans to display his trophy prominently at home.

Sabathia is the first black pitcher to win a Cy Young Award since Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets in 1985 — and the first in the AL since Oakland’s Vida Blue in 1971.

“That’s awesome to be mentioned with him,” said Sabathia, adding that he attended a recent meeting designed to foster ideas for how to generate more interest in baseball among black kids.

While the top four Cy Young candidates had similar statistics, Sabathia’s stamina apparently set him apart. After being sidelined by injuries the previous two seasons, the 6-foot-7, 290-pound left-hander stayed healthy all year and made 34 starts to Beckett’s 30. That helped account for their wide gap in innings pitched.

If balloting had included their October results, however, the outcome might have been different. Beckett beat Sabathia twice in the AL championship series and went 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA in four postseason starts, striking out 35 and walking two. Sabathia was 1-2 with an 8.80 ERA and 13 walks in three playoff outings.

The NL is slated to announce their Cy Young Award on Thursday with San Diego ace Jake Peavy apparently the favorite.

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Well, we’ve hit that time of year where major league baseball sits in limbo.  The awards in both leagues; Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, the Cy Young Award have not yet been announced and the winter meetings have not commenced. 

The Free Agency Chase and Trading seasons have not begun in earnest, although rumors abound, such as about Alex Rodriguez’s destination, where  Curt Schilling will end up next season or whether Barry Bonds will be anywhere in baseball in 2008.

And so, to keep the baseball juices flowing, this blog looks back at by-gone times, different eras.

In 1950, another Philadelpha Phillies team known as the “Whiz Kids” won the NL pennant, thus becoming the NL entrant to the World Series opposing the  New York Yankees.

One of the cogs in the “Whiz Kids” engine was a “not such a kid” relief pitcher named Jim Konstanty.
 
Wikipedia records the start of Konstanty’s career this way;

Konstanty starred in sports in high school and also at Syracuse University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree. He pitched briefly with the Cincinnati Reds in 1944 and Boston Braves in 1946, and spent three seasons in the minors until 1948, when the Phillies called him up.

It would also seem that World War 2 had it’s effect on Konstanty’s career as there is a gap between 1944 and 1946 about which little is known.

Baseball Library attributes Konstanty’s sticking with the Phillies to his “developing a palmball.”

In 1949, Konstanty garnered a 9-5 record and a 3.25 ERA as the Phils finished in 3rd place, 16 games behind the NL Pennant winning Brooklyn Dodgers.

But what Konstanty accomplished in 1950 was nothing short of astounding.  Konstanty went 16-7 with a 2.66 ERA and a then unheard of 22 saves in 74 appearances as the Phillies, with Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis,  Granny Hamner, Willie “Puddin Head” Jones, Curt Simmons, Dick Sisler and more, won their long-illusive NL pennant.

But it was Konstanty’s feats as a reliever in that “Whiz Kids” season which kept the Phillies ahead in the race, although, after a late-season tailspin, the Phils won the pennant in a do-or-die final regular season game against the 2nd place Brooklyn Dodgers — which the Phillies won 4-1 on a pitching gem by Roberts and Sisler’s famous 10th inning 3 run homer. 

Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer opted to start Konstanty in game one of the World Series against the Vic Raschi for the Yanks.   But Raschi held the Phils to 2 hits in completing the game while Konstanty gave up a 4th inning run and 4 hits over 8 innings as the Yanks won the series opener by a 1-0 score.
Konstanty went on to make two other relief appearances in the series as the Phils lost 3 of the 4 games by 1 run and the 4th game by a 5-2 score.

Konstanty made the 1950 NL All Star team pitching a perfect, scoreless 6th inning as the NL won the game 4-3.    He garnered awards and trophies for his performance including being named the NL’s Most Valuable Player, receiving the AP Athlete of the Year and The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year awards. 

He compiled relief pitching stats which would not be approached until the great seasons which reliever Elroy Face compiled with the Pittsburgh Pirates between 1958 - 1962.  But not even Face appeared in 74 games in a season.

However, in 1951, Konstanty slumped losing 11 games, 10 out of the bullpen and never regained his 1950 form although he appeared in 45 games for the  1955 Yankees going 7-2 with a career low 2.32 ERA in helping them to win the AL Pennant. Konstanty retired after the 1956 season.

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It’s all over but the screaming and the celebrating as the newly crowned Champion Boston Red Sox, winners of 2 World Series in the last 4 years arrive at Fenway in the afternoon.

As many expected, the Red Sox overwhelmed the Colorado Rockies in sweeping them 4 games to none in the 2007 World Series.

But in the clinching game 4 which Boston won by a 4-3 score, as with game 2, the Rockies made it a tight game. 

The Red Sox touched Rockies starter Aaron Cook for single runs in the 1st, 5th and 7th innings, chasing him in the 7th after series MVP 3rd baseman  Mike Lowell’s leftfield solo homer.  Cook tossed 70 pitches for the game while striking out 2 and issuing no walks.

Meanwhile, Boston starter Jon Lester carried a shutout thru 2 outs in the 6th inning before issuing a walk and being relieved by Manny Delcarmen who got the final out of the inning. 

Centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury led-off the game with a double, got to 3rd on a groundout and scored on 1st baseman David Ortiz’s single to rightfield.

Both teams registered zeros until the Red Sox scored in the 5th on catcher  Jason Varitek’s long single to rightfield.

In the 7th inning, both teams traded runs on solo homers, Boston’s by Lowell and Colorado’s by rightfielder Brad Hawpe to rightfield.

In the 8th inning, rarely used pinch hitter Bobby Kielty went ballpark to leftfield on reliever Brian Fuentes for what turned out to be the winning run as Boston led 4-1.

In the Colorado 8th, 3rd baseman Garrett Atkins blasted a 2 run homer to leftfield off of lefthanded Japanese reliever Hideki Okajima to draw to 4-3 and to make the 9th inning dramatic.

But with closer Jon Papelbon pitching, the last 1 2/3 innings were lights out for Colorado and wild victory parties and parades in Boston.

AP baseball writer Ben Walker makes some choice observations about this World series for Yahoo sports;

… No NL team could have blocked Boston this October.

At this rate, New England fans might get spoiled. Francona’s team has become a perfect counterpart to coach Bill Belichick’s bruisers on the Patriots.

As for his comment about NL teams, I have to grudgingly agree.  The  National League seems to be suffering a severe shortage in good, young consistent pitching at all levels; starting, middle relief, set-up as well as closers.  But, that’s comment for a blog entry in and of itself.  It’s off-season winter talk.

Mike Lowell’s MVP is well-deserved.  AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick offers these thoughts and observations about Lowell;

Earlier in the Series, Lowell called himself “the throw-in” on the 2005 deal with Florida that brought ace Josh Beckett to Boston. Nobody looks at Lowell that way anymore.

“Pretty good throw-in, I guess,” Lowell said, drenched in champagne as he clutched his glistening trophy in the raucous Red Sox clubhouse. “Icing on the cake. This is just extra special.”

“I’m on Cloud 9. It’s unbelievable,” said Lowell, a survivor of testicular cancer. “We’ve got a lot of people to give credit to.”
 
A key cog in Boston’s powerful lineup, Lowell bats fifth behind David Ortiz and  Manny Ramirez.

Few could have done it better this year.

Lowell homered, doubled and scored twice in the Game 4 clincher at Coors Field, dirtying his uniform with a headfirst slide at the plate that typified his whatever-it-takes attitude. He hit .400 (6-for-15) in the Series with four RBIs, three walks and a team-high six runs.

Lowell, who also won a World Series ring with the Marlins in 2003, hit .348 this postseason with two homers and 13 RBIs. He did it quietly, like almost everything. But that doesn’t mean it went unnoticed.

It may be a pipe-dream, but here’s hoping that Mike Lowell finds himself playing 3rd base for the Phillies.  But after the season he’s had and his World Series MVP, it’s too much of a long-shot to bet on.

On the Colorado Rockies behalf, their phenomenal late-season 21 out of 22 game run will be remembered for years to come, as will the Phillies’ September charge to catch and overtake the Mets to win the NL East. 

The Rockies have a lot of real good young players and are going to be a force in the NL Central for years to come.

Well, the 2007 season which has been memorable has drawn to a close.  This blog will be around throughout the off-season commenting on the various award recipients, the annual winter exhibition series in Japan, the winter meetings, the trades, free agency, arbitration, etc. as well as bringing many more all-time baseball highlights, through to spring training for 2008.

Many thanks for your readership throughout these past two seasons. Stay tuned and stay surfing to Blogging Baseball.

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Red Sox leadoff man 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia, who hit 8 homeruns the entire season, became only the 2nd leadoff hitter ever to lead off a World Series with a homerun.  Starter Josh Beckett was beyond awesome on the mound and the Colorado Rockies, off of an 8 day layoff awaiting the AL pennant winner, went totally flat and were unable to cope with Beckett.  These factors plus a 17 hit Red Sox offensive explosion added up to a 13-1 Boston rout in game one of the world series.  Boston’s win also ended Colorado’s 10 game winning streak and 21 wins in 22 games run.

AP sportswriter Ronald Blum reports on how the game started for Yahoo sports;

Beckett got off to the most overpowering start since Sandy Koufax…

Beckett began by fanning Willy Taveras, Kaz Matsui, Matt Holliday and [Todd] Helton, becoming the first pitcher to strike out the first four batters in a Series game since Koufax got five  Yankees to start the 1963 Series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. And what a five those were: Tony Kubek, Bobby Richardson, Tom Tresh, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

Then, in the bottom of the 1st inning, Pedroia pounded lefthander Jeff Francis’ second pitch over what they call the “Green Monster” in leftfield and Boston scored two more 1st inning runs as the Rockies pulled their infield in with a runner on third. Leftfielder Manny Ramirez, who went 3 for 4 for the game with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs, singled over Troy Tulowitzki — who might have caught the ball had he been in his normal position, but he was playing in on the shift.  Rightfielder J.D. Drew doubled to made it 3-0.

AP sportswriter Blum notes;

The only other player to homer starting a Series was Baltimore’s Don Buford against Tom Seaver and the 1969 Miracle Mets.

In the 2nd, while the game remained competitive, shortstop Tulowitzki drove in the Rockies’ only run with a double to centerfield to narrow the score to 3-1.

From there, the Sox plundered Francis for another run in the 2nd inning, 2 more runs in the 4th as the lefthander got through his final inning.   The Sox scored 7 more runs with two out in the 5th inning, all charged to rookie lefthander starter and reliever Franklin Morales, although reliever Ryan Speier contributed to the mess walking the 3 hitters he faced.  Mercifully, Matt Herges came on to get 1st baseman Kevin Youkilis to fly out to rightfield end the onslaught.  

Rockies’ relievers Herges, Jeremy Affeldt and LaTroy Hawkins held the Red Sox scoreless over the final 2 1/3 innings, but  by then, the game was way out of control.

Beckett was masterful through 7 innings allowing only the one run on sic hits while walking one, striking out nine and keeping the Rockies off-balance throughout.  Relievers Mike Timlin and Eric Gagne were perfect over the final 2 innings to seal the rout.

For the boxscores and recap on Wednesday’s game, click here.

The Rockies, who lost for only the 2nd time in their last 23 games, need to shake the rust off in order that they not, as the lead on the Yahoo sports’  Steve Henson column turns the phrase, “flatline fast,” and that the series not get out of control.  Thursday’s game two at Fenway Park features rookie Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4) facing veteran and future Hall of Famer Curt Schilling (9-8) with his 10-2 career post-season record.

For the boxscores and recap on Thursday’s game, click here.

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