Boston Massacre a Record Breaker

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 11, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BOSTON —

He was the second coming of Bill Buckner on Saturday night, vilified by his own fans for his second crucial error in three games--one that essentially cost his team the game, one that cost his team the lead.

But with a few prodigious swings of his bat, Boston Red Sox third baseman John Valentin turned into the new Carlton Fisk, an October hero whose playoff performance will go down in New England baseball lore.

Valentin hit a pair of two-run home runs and a three-run double Sunday night to lead the Red Sox’s 23-7 obliteration--that’s no misprint--of the Cleveland Indians in Game 4 of the American League division series before 33,898 in Fenway Park.

Boston’s herculean hitting display--the Red Sox banged out 24 hits, 12 for extra bases-- --evened the series, 2-2, and forced a deciding Game 5 tonight in Cleveland’s Jacobs Field, where Indian right-hander Charles Nagy will oppose Boston right-hander Bret Saberhagen.

The Red Sox, who scored in every inning but the sixth, set a major league record for runs in a postseason game, breaking the mark set by the New York Yankees in an 18-4 victory over the New York Giants in the 1936 World Series.

They also set a record for hits in a playoff game, breaking Atlanta’s record of 22, set in a National League championship series Game 7 victory over St. Louis in 1996.

Now the Red Sox will attempt to become only the fourth team to overcome a 2-0 deficit and win a five-game series, a feat accomplished by the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers over the Angels, the 1984 San Diego Padres over the Chicago Cubs and the 1995 Seattle Mariners over the Yankees.

“The score doesn’t matter, as long as we won the game,” said Valentin, who missed much of September because of a knee injury. “A lot of guys had good days, and this will be something we remember, but the game starts off 0-0 [tonight], and hopefully we can pull it out.”

Valentin, whose two-run double snapped a seventh-inning tie and led Boston to a 9-3 win in Game 3 on Saturday, smashed a two-run homer to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the first, singled in the second, homered over the screen above the Green Monster in the third and poked a three-run double to left in the fourth.

All-Star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra returned to the lineup after sitting out Game 3 because of a bruised right wrist, and he singled in three at-bats before being pulled in the sixth.

But his offense was hardly needed.

The six through nine hitters--Mike Stanley, Jason Varitek, Scott Hatteberg (pinch-hit in eighth), Darren Lewis and Trot Nixon--combined to go an incredible 15 for 20 with 15 runs and 12 RBIs and keyed five-run innings in the second and fourth.

Stanley had three singles, a double and an RBI triple, bringing his division series average to .625 (10 for 16), Varitek had a single, two doubles and a three-run home run in the fifth, and Nixon had two-run doubles in the second and seventh innings and a sacrifice fly in the third.

“You can never compare one playoff situation to another, but we have guys who have been in this situation two years in a row,” Lewis said. “We’re more experienced, more relaxed and have a better idea of how to get the job done.”

Three days ago, the Indians left Cleveland with a 2-0 series lead, flush with confidence from their 11-1 thrashing of the Red Sox in Game 2. Now it’s the Indians who are reeling and the Red Sox who are rolling.

“We felt all along we could play with those guys,” Saberhagen said. “I’m sure they wanted to get this series over with as soon as possible, but we’re a team that never gives up.”

Indeed, the Red Sox were relentless Sunday night, pounding six Cleveland pitchers into submission and circling the bases so often some in the Indian dugout must have been dizzy.

“Everything that we threw up there they hit,” Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove said, “and when it came down, it wasn’t where we were standing. That’s about as simple as I can get with it.”

Hargrove figured his choice of a Game 4 starter was simple, but it will be heavily criticized by Cleveland fans and media members who feel Hargrove might have managed the Indians right out of the playoffs.

Hargrove’s decision to start ace Bartolo Colon on three days’ rest backfired--the ragged right-hander had virtually no command of his pitches Sunday night and didn’t make it out of the second inning, giving up seven runs and six hits in one-plus innings.

Now Cleveland will pin its playoff hopes on Nagy, who will start on three days’ rest but against a Red Sox lineup that is oozing confidence. Saberhagen, who was bombed for six runs and five hits in 2 2/3 innings of Game 2, will also be starting on three days’ rest but threw only 65 pitches Thursday.

“I hope they left a few runs for [today],” Saberhagen said. “This was amazing. Hopefully we’ll get some rest, but the postseason seems to have a way of getting your energy going.”

Not for the Indians this weekend. An offense that scored 1,009 runs continued to sputter Sunday night, especially cleanup batter Manny Ramirez, who led baseball with 165 RBIs but is 0 for 15 in this division series.

Red Sox fans serenaded the right fielder with a chant of “Manny’s hitless . . . Manny’s hitless,” in the eighth and ninth innings.

Cleveland will need his lethal bat, as well as the rest of its lineup, to begin producing if the Indians hope to earn an AL championship series berth against the Yankees.

“This was embarrassing, it was humiliating, but the good part about it is none of those runs mean anything [tonight],” Indian catcher Sandy Alomar said. “[Tonight] is 0-0.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

TODAY’S GAME 5

Boston (Bret Saberhagen)

at Cleveland (Charles Nagy)

5:15 p.m., Channel 11

Series tied, 2-2

SUNDAY’S RECORDS

MOST RUNS IN POSTSEASON GAME

One team

Boston, Oct. 10, 1999, vs. Cleveland.......... 23

x-N.Y. Yankees, Oct. 2, 1936, vs. N.Y. Giants. 18