Red Sox push air out of Rockies

DENVER -- The good folks of Denver bundled up, in black overcoats and purple scarves, on a chilly night begging for a fireplace. They twirled white towels above their heads incessantly and shouted themselves hoarse, erupting at the word “mountains” in “God Bless America,” doing their earnest best to will their hometown heroes to victory.

They had supported and endured their Colorado Rockies for 15 long and often undistinguished seasons, and for the first time the World Series had graced Denver.

And they waited for this?

The Rockies dropped another bomb Saturday, and their storybook season could come to a sweeping end tonight. The Boston Red Sox thumped the Rockies again, this time by a 10-5 score. The Red Sox lead the series three games to none, a lead no team has ever blown in a World Series.

“One win away,” Boston shortstop Julio Lugo said. “I’ll get my ring and go to Disneyland.”

The Red Sox have outscored the Rockies, 25-7, in the series, and the starting pitcher for Colorado tonight has not pitched in two months.

Party time for the Red Sox?

“Yeah, we feel there’s going to be a party tomorrow,” Lugo said after the game.

Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez warned against premature celebration, in his wacky Manny-being-Manny way.

“We don’t want to eat the cake before your birthday,” Ramirez said.

For the first time in 87 years, a team batted rookies first and second in the World Series. That worked out ridiculously well for the Red Sox: Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia combined for seven hits, including three doubles by Ellsbury.

“They’re setting the table as well as you could ever want,” Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle said. “They put us in some very difficult positions when you get into the middle of the lineup: Do you want to go with Big Papi [David Ortiz] or Manny or [Mike] Lowell? That’s not easy duty for anyone.”

The Rockies conjured up a brief bit of magic, a reminder of the run that swept them into the World Series.

They scored two runs in the sixth inning and three in the seventh, slashing a 6-0 lead to 6-5 behind the power of Matt Holliday, inspiring dreams of victories and parades. But Ellsbury foiled them in the eighth inning, doubling home one run and scoring another, and the Rockies remained 0 for the World Series.

The Red Sox piled on six runs in the third inning and appeared content to ride Daisuke Matsuzaka from there. In the sixth inning, with that six-run lead, Boston Manager Terry Francona pulled Ortiz, his first baseman, for defensive purposes.

For a few minutes there, that move appeared as ill-advised as San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker removing Russ Ortiz and giving him the game ball before the Angels roared back to erase a 5-0 lead in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series.

When Matsuzaka walked back-to-back batters with one out in the sixth, after walking one in the first five innings, Francona removed him, shutout intact.

Javier Lopez, in his first appearance in the series, gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Brad Hawpe and Yorvit Torrealba, and the Rockies cut the lead to 6-2.

In the seventh, after Mike Timlin gave up consecutive singles to Kazuo Matsui and Troy Tulowitzki, Francona summoned Hideki Okajima, who had faced seven batters in Game 2 and retired them all.

But Holliday crushed Okajima’s first pitch for a home run -- a three-run, 437-foot home run beyond dead center -- and the Rockies closed to within one. Todd Helton followed with a single, putting the potential tying run on base, but Okajima retired the next three batters.

That helped preserve the victory for Matsuzaka, his Japanese countryman.

Boston battered Colorado starter Josh Fogg for 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings and six runs, all in the third inning. Ellsbury doubled twice, the first and last batter Fogg faced in the inning.

The interim was a bloody one: Ortiz doubled in one run, Lowell doubled in two runs, and even Matsuzaka singled in two runs.

In the end, Ramirez unintentionally offered words of consolation for the Rockies, reminding everyone that he meant what he said last week, that losing in the playoffs is not the end of the world.

“The sun,” Ramirez said, “will come out for everybody the next day.”

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com