Everyone (understandably) forgets the 2004 American League Division Series.
When you think about the 2004 Boston Red Sox, you think of the historic comeback in the American League Championship Series and a clean sweep in the World Series to exorcise 86 years of demons.
But that postseason road to glory actually began in sunny SoCal with an easy three-game sweep of the Anaheim Angels.
Game 1 of the 2004 ALDS kicks off NESN’s latest “Red Sox Encore” series Monday night at 8:30 p.m. ET. Here’s what you might have forgotten about that game:
1. The Red Sox started the series on the road
Boston finished the season with 98 wins, three games behind the New York Yankees in the race for the American League East crown. The Sox were six games better than the Angels, but because Boston technically entered the playoffs as the wild-card winner, it had to go across the country to start the best-of-five series with two on the road in Orange County. On paper, it looked like a potential challenge for a Red Sox team that was just five games over .500 away from Fenway Park.
2. Ortiz gets it started — of course
It’s fitting, given how the 2004 playoffs eventually played out, that David Ortiz got the Red Sox on the board early. Ortiz’s single gave Boston a 1-0 lead after the top half of the first inning, an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish. In fact, Boston led just about the entire series, and the Angels led just once the entire three-game set. Ortiz, you may recall, solidified himself as a Red Sox legend that fall. He’d finish the playoffs hitting .400 (22-for-55) with five home runs and 19 RBIs.
3. Here comes the boom
The game ended in the fourth inning. The Red Sox offense — which scored 52 more runs than any other team in 2004 — came alive in a big way the second (and third) time through the order. David Ortiz’s leadoff walk started the inning on a concerning note for Angels starter Jarrod Washburn, who then served up a two-run home run to Kevin Millar one batter later. The parade continued, and the game broken open when the Red Sox plated two more on a Chone Figgins throwing error. That chased Washburn, and the real knockout blow came as the Red Sox hit around the order. Manny Ramirez’s monster three-run home run off Scot Shields to deep, deep left field was really all she wrote.
4. The ankle
This is the least famous of all of Curt Schilling’s ankle hoopla. The big right-hander pitched very well in his first postseason start with the Red Sox, but he ran into trouble in the seventh inning when he re-aggravated a nagging ankle injury. Things went from bad to worse for Schilling and the Red Sox when an MRI revealed a serious tendon injury. Of course, that tendon injury eventually would become the stuff of legend for Schilling and the 2004 Red Sox.
5. The cowboys become the idiots
The 2003 Red Sox were galvanized by the “Cowboy up” mantra created by Kevin Millar. The 2004 team, on the other hand, lovingly was dubbed “the idiots” by Johnny Damon prior to Game 1 of the ALDS.
“We are not the cowboys anymore,” Damon told reporters. “We are just the idiots this year. We feel like we can win every game, we feel like we have to have fun, and I think that’s why this team is liked by so many people out there.”
But, as Angels manager Mike Scioscia and his team learned in Game 1, being “idiots” didn’t keep the Red Sox from being really, really good.
“If they are (idiots), they are idiots who can play ball,” he said. “I tell you, they are tough.”
