The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash., John McGrath Column: Sox Rookie Now Part of Series Lore

Oct 28, 05:40 AM

Current Headlines: By John McGrath, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

Oct. 28--DENVER -- For a brief and shining moment Saturday -- well brief, anyway -- the Boston Red Sox had all they could handle in the Colorado Rockies.

The Sox had watched almost all of their comfortable lead evaporate in the cool evening air, from 6-0 in the third inning to 6-5 in the top of the eighth.

With the towel-waving crowd in a frenzy, Colorado's home-field advantage suddenly seemed like it had less to do with altitude than attitude.

If fans could generate the energy the Rockies needed for a thrilling comeback in Game 3, all bets were off.

And then rookie Jacoby Ellsbury stepped to the left side of the plate, with two on and nobody out, to face left-handed reliever Brian Fuentes.

So much for the thrilling comeback. So much for the Rockies' attempt to become the seventh team in 103 years to win the World Series after dropping its first two games on the road.

Ellsbury pulled the first pitch he saw from Fuentes and dropped it down the right-field line. The ball fell a few inches in front of outfielder Brad Hawpe, whose attempt to steal Ellsbury's thunder were lost the moment his sliding-catch attempt turned up empty.

Besides, there was only so much thunder to be had during the 4-hour-and-19-minute marathon, and Ellsbury wasn't inclined to share it with anybody from the Rockies.

"He plays with a lot of confidence," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Ellsbury, who began the season at Double-A Portland. "He's a good player and he is aware of the situations around him. He prepares. So it's not just false bravado or acting like he's confident. He should be confident. He's a good player and he knows how to play the game."

Here's how swell this World Series thing is looking for Boston: Without a designated hitter in a National League ballpark, Francona was forced to assemble a batting order that would assign one of Boston's heavy hitters -- David Ortiz or Kevin Youkilis -- to first base, with the "loser" taking a seat on the bench.

Francona chose his usual DH, Ortiz, to bat third, behind either Ellsbury, another left-handed hitter, or the switch-hitting Coco Crisp.

Which prompted another dilemma associated with spacious Coors Field: Who would play center -- Ellsbury or Crisp?

Crisp hasn't been hitting a lick -- .156 in the postseason -- but could bring a veteran's moxie to the position, where his .998 fielding percentage this season was second only to the Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki.

Francona decided on Ellsbury, an Oregon State product who is among the fast-rising stars from baseball's draft class of 2005. Ellsbury usually batted ninth after his August call-up from Triple-A Pawtucket, but without the DH, that spot was occupied by starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

"So all of the sudden you take a guy that was at the bottom of the order, and you elevate him to the top of the order," Francona said before Game 3. "There were some other ways we could have done it, but this is how we felt."

So how did the Ortiz-to-first-base, Ellsbury-to-leadoff work?

Well, let's see. Ellsbury led off the game with an infield single, wasting no time putting pressure on Colorado starter Josh Fogg.

In the third inning, Ellsbury led off with a double in the gap. After Dustin Pedroia reached on another infield single, Ortiz avenged his early strikeout with a line drive to right field, and the second rout in four days between these mismatched teams appeared to be in full swing.

When the Red Sox batted around, Ellsbury hit another shot that narrowly escaped Cory Sullivan in center. It was Ellsbury's second double of the inning, tying a quirky record set in 2001 by Arizona's Matt Williams.

The Rockies scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth and rallied for three more, behind a Matt Holliday home run, in the bottom of the seventh, but really, this was decided when Francona decided on a lineup card that had Ellsbury batting first, followed by fellow rookie Pedroia.

"With our lineup, I feel like I just need to get on base," said Ellsbury, who was 4-for-5 with three extra-base hits.

"With Dustin behind me, and David and Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell behind Dustin, you've gotta like our chances."

Trailing 3-0 in the best-of-seven World Series, the Rockies are close to becoming this year's version of the 2005 Houston Astros, a franchise that waited 43 years to reach the Fall Classic -- and then got bounced in five days.

When Rockies manager Clint Hurdle was asked about the daunting record of Series teams that've fallen three games behind, he answered: "I don't know the record."

Informed it was 0-22, Hurdle shrugged and said: "OK, so it looks like we're in groundbreaking territory."

Unfortunately for the Rockies, the groundbreaking-territory line at this World Series is long, and Jacoby Ellsbury just took a spot at the front of it.

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