Red Sox Make It Halfway Home

Oct 26, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Bob Nightengale

BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox shattered the Colorado Rockies' magical ride at Fenway Park and now will see if they can maintain their own streak as they head to the thin air of Coors Field this weekend.

The Red Sox got their fifth consecutive postseason win, beating the Rockies 2-1 Thursday to take a 2-0 lead in the World Series.

The Rockies, who came into the World Series with one loss in the last 38 days, have lost twice in 48 hours. One night after being pummeled by the Red Sox for 13 runs, they were beaten by the Boston pitching staff, managing five singles -- four by left fielder Matt Holliday.

"We're not really worried about being down 2-0. We're still confident," said Rockies DH Ryan Spilborghs, who struck out in all three of his at-bats. "At least we didn't get blown out again."

The Red Sox are two wins away from their second title in four seasons. They've won six consecutive World Series games. The last team not to win a championship with a 2-0 lead is the 1996 Atlanta Braves.

"Well, we've done a lot of things that people haven't expected us to do all year," said manager Clint Hurdle, whose Rockies had won 21 of 22 games entering the Series. "All we need to do is win, what, four out of five? We've got to win Game 3."

The Red Sox, who had outscored the opposition 43-6 in their previous four postseason games entering Thursday, leaned on their pitching this night. Curt Schilling gave up one run in 5â..." innings, departing with runners on first and second. No problem. Japanese reliever Hideki Okajima came in and stole the show.

Okajima retired all seven batters he faced, striking out four. Closer Jonathan Papelbon did the rest, pitching the final 1â..." innings, including a pickoff of Holliday at first base to end the eighth.

"This was the Pap-Okajima show," Schilling said. "That was just phenomenal to watch. Okajima was just perfect, just absolutely perfect, every single pitch."

The Rockies must find ways to produce on offense. They hit .222 in their National League Championship Series sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks and have scored 22 runs in their last seven postseason games.

"It's not like all of a sudden we're not good hitters anymore," Spilborghs said. "They've just been pitching us great."

World Series Game 3

Boston Red Sox at Colorado Rockies

Saturday, 8:35 p.m. ET, Fox

Starting pitchers: Red Sox RH Daisuke Matsuzaka (15-12, 4.40 ERA) vs. Rockies RH Josh Fogg (10-9, 4.94)

The following fields overflowed:

OBJECT = c1base26 c01_final_26.jpg26 c01_final_B_26.jpg26 c1basegamebox26 (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.