Boston Up 2-0 in Series

It didn't matter if the Boston Red Sox scored thirteen runs or two. Their pitchers shut down the Colorado Rockies for the first two games of the 2007 World Series.

The Red Sox won Game One 13-1 and Game Two 2-1 at Fenway Park and will head to Denver halfway to their second championship in four years. The Rockies, who swept the National League playoffs and had won 21 of their last 22 games, find themselves in a hole only one team has climbed out of in 20 years. Since 1987 only the 1996 Yankees have lost Game One (let alone Game Two) and come back to win the World Series.

The Sox led Game One after their first batter and never looked back. Dustin Pedroia led off with a home run that just hit the top of the Green Monster. Kevin Youkilis followed with a double to right-center, Manny Ramirez drove him in with a single, and J.D. Drew's double brought home Ramirez.
Those three runs were all Josh Beckett would need, but his team didn't stop there. Up 3-1 in the second, they got their three run lead back when David Ortiz brought home Youkilis with a double.

They got two more runs in the fourth off Jeff Francis, then exploded for seven in the fifth. Five Red Sox players drove in two runs (Pedroia, Ortiz, Ramirez, Drew and Jason Varitek). Eight players scored, with Youkilis and Ramirez crossing the plate three times.

Colorado's only run came when Ryan Spilborghs drove in Garrett Atkins in the second.

Beckett, who is 4-0 in the postseason, struck out nine around six hits in seven innings

The Rockies struck first in Game Two when Willy Taveras was hit by Curt Schilling to start the game, went to third on Matt Holliday's hit and was brought home by Todd Helton.

But Schilling didn't allow another run in 5 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and striking out four. Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon shut down the Rockies the rest of the way.

Lowell scored the tying run in the fourth inning on Varitek's sacrifice fly, then drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth with a double that brought home Ortiz.

Okajima relieved Schilling in the sixth and shut out Colorado for 2 1/3 innings. Papelbon entered with two out in the eighth and gave up a hit to Holliday, but recovered by picking him off first, then throwing a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.

Schilling was not an automatic choice for the second game. Terry Francona had considered starting Tim Wakefield rather than pitch him in a game in Denver, concerned that his knuckleball could have problems in the Rocky Mountain air.

The Sox have won five straight postseason games and six straight World Series games dating back to 2004.

Game Three is Saturday at Coors Field in Denver. It and all other World Series games will air live on Fox.