| Year: | 2007 |
| Runnerup: | Colorado Rockies (0) |
| Runnerup Manager: | Clint Hurdle |
| Runnerup Games: | 90-73, .552, GB: ½ |
| Champion: | Boston Red Sox (4) |
| Champion Manager: | Terry Francona |
| Champion Games: | 96-66, .593, GA: 2 |
| Date: | October 24 – October 28 |
| Mvp: | Mike Lowell |
| Television: | FOX (U.S.), RSN (Canada), NASN (Europe), Five (UK), ESPN Latin America, (Dominican Republic) |
| Announcers: | Joe Buck , Tim McCarver |
| Radio Network: | ESPN |
| Radio Announcers: | Jon Miller , Joe Morgan |
| Umpires: | Ed Montague, Laz Díaz, Ted Barrett, Chuck Meriwether, Mike Everitt, Mike Reilly[1] |
| Alcs: | Boston Red Sox over Cleveland Indians (4–3) |
| Nlcs: | Colorado Rockies over Arizona Diamondbacks (4–0) |
The 2007 World Series, the 103rd edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, began on Wednesday, October 24 and ended on Sunday, October 28.
It featured the National League champion Colorado Rockies—making their first World Series appearance—and the American League champion Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox won the Series in four games, sweeping the Rockies to collect their second World Series championship in four seasons and their seventh overall; it also marked the third sweep in four years by the AL champion.
Terry Francona became the second Red Sox manager to win two World Series titles, joining Bill Carrigan, who won the 1915 and 1916 Series. Including the last three games of the ALCS, the Red Sox outscored their opposition 59–15 over their final seven games. The Rockies, meanwhile, became the first National League team to get swept in a World Series after sweeping the League Championship Series, and just the second team ever to suffer such a fate (1990 Oakland Athletics).
See also: 2007 in baseball. The Rockies entered the Series having won 21 of their last 22 games, going back to the end of the regular season, including sweeps of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS. They also beat the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card tiebreaker. The Red Sox swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALDS and defeated the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS after trailing three games to one, taking the final three contests by a combined score of 30–5. Neither participating team was in the previous year's postseason. The Rockies 8-day layoff was the most in MLB history, caused by their sweep in the NLCS, the ALCS going 7 games, and scheduling by the MLB.
Per the 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement,[2] the Red Sox had home field advantage in the World Series following the American League's 5–4 win in the 2007 All-Star Game. The first two games took place in Boston, with Games 3 and 4 in Denver.
AL Boston Red Sox (4) vs NL Colorado Rockies (0)
| Game | Score | Date | Location | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado Rockies - 1, Boston Red Sox - 13 | October 24 | Fenway Park | 36,733[3] |
| 2 | Colorado Rockies - 1, Boston Red Sox - 2 | October 25 | Fenway Park | 36,730[4] |
| 3 | Boston Red Sox - 10, Colorado Rockies - 5 | October 27 | Coors Field | 49,983[5] |
| 4 | Boston Red Sox - 4, Colorado Rockies - 3 | October 28 | Coors Field | 50,041[6] |
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts
The Red Sox cruised to a blowout win in Game One behind ALCS MVP Josh Beckett, who struck out nine batters, including the first four he faced, en route to his fourth win of the 2007 postseason (and the sixth of his career). Rookie Dustin Pedroia led off the Sox' first inning with a home run over the Green Monster in Fenway Park. Pedroia's homer was only the second lead-off home run to start a World Series; the only other one was in 1969). Boston scored three runs in the first inning, which proved to be all the runs they would need, and added seven more in the fifth inning, in which Boston had the last six of its 17 hits, and three bases-loaded walks. The Red Sox finished with 13 runs, the most ever in a World Series Game One, and tied another record with nine extra base hits.
Thursday, October 25, 2007 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts
After the debacle of Game 1, Colorado appeared to return to form, scoring quickly on a groundout by Todd Helton. However, postseason veteran Curt Schilling (5⅓ IP, 1 run, 4 hits) and Boston's bullpen (Okajima, 2⅓ IP; Papelbon, 1⅓ IP) allowed no other runs in the contest. Mike Lowell's RBI double gave Boston the lead after Jason Varitek's sacrifice fly had tied the game in the middle innings. Matt Holliday had four of Colorado's five hits in Game Two, including a base hit off Papelbon with two outs in the 8th. Before throwing another pitch, Papelbon caught Holliday leaning too far off first base and picked him off—Papelbon's first career pickoff.
Saturday, October 27, 2007 at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado
This was the first World Series game ever played in Colorado. At 4 hours 19 minutes, it became the longest nine-inning game in World Series history. The Red Sox struck first with a six-run 3rd inning highlighted by rookie Jacoby Ellsbury hitting two doubles in the same inning. Starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched 5 innings of scoreless ball and left in the sixth with no runs allowed. As part of the six-run 3rd inning, Matsuzaka helped himself with a bases loaded two-RBI single. It was his first base hit and RBI in the Major Leagues. Colorado starter Josh Fogg was taken out of the game after just 2⅔ IP. The Rockies' bats came to life in the 6th and 7th innings against a normally solid but shaky Boston bullpen. NLCS MVP Matt Holliday brought the Rockies to within one run of the lead with a three-run home run off Hideki Okajima. Rookies Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia, who had four and three hits, respectively, on the night—the first time in World Series history two rookies each had at least three hits in a game—would get those runs back for the Red Sox in the top of the 8th, scoring Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp on back-to-back RBI doubles, raising Boston's lead to 9 - 5. Jonathan Papelbon came on for a 4-out save, getting Holliday to fly out on one pitch, leaving runners on 1st and 2nd. Jason Varitek would tack on Boston's 10th run in the top of the 9th with a sacrifice fly, scoring Mike Lowell who, not generally considered a stolen base threat, had just stolen third base—the first time a Red Sox baserunner stole 3rd base in the World Series since 1975. Papelbon came back out in the bottom of the 9th to complete the save, getting the first two outs before surrendering a 2-out triple to Brad Hawpe, then finishing the game with a groundout from Yorvit Torrealba. The Red Sox took Game Three by a final of 10 - 5.
The Red Sox continued to set World Series records during Game Three:
Sunday, October 28, 2007 at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado
The Boston Red Sox struck offensively early in the game. Boston Rookie Jacoby Ellsbury began the 1st inning with a double and was advanced by Dustin Pedroia with a groundout, followed by an RBI single from David Ortiz. In the seventh inning, series MVP Mike Lowell hit a home run to give Boston a 3–0 lead. The Colorado Rockies offense answered when left fielder Brad Hawpe hit a home run off of a Manny Delcarmen fastball, bringing the Rockies within two. Relief pitcher Brian Fuentes gave back that run abruptly, allowing Boston pinch-hitter Bobby Kielty to hit a ball into the left field stands on the first pitch of the inning, extending the Red Sox lead to 4–1. In the next inning Boston Red Sox pitcher Hideki Okajima allowed a one-out single to Todd Helton followed by a Garrett Atkins 2-run home run, bringing the Rockies within one. Jonathan Papelbon relieved Okajima and earned his third save of the series. At 12:06 am EDT on Monday, October 29, Papelbon struck out Colorado pinch hitter Seth Smith for the final out of the 2007 World Series. Boston had won its second World Series title in four years and seventh all-time.
2007 World Series (4-0): Boston Red Sox (A.L.) over Colorado Rockies (N.L.)
On October 17, 2007, a week before the first game of the World Series, the Colorado Rockies announced that tickets would be made available to the general public via online sales only, despite prior arrangements to sell the tickets at local retail outlets.[7] Five days later, California-based ticket vendor Paciolan, Inc., the sole contractor authorized by the Colorado Rockies to distribute tickets, was forced to suspend sales after less than an hour due to an exorbitant number of purchase attempts.[8]
The Rockies organization said that they were the victims of a denial-of-service attack; [9] The FBI has started its own investigation into these claims.[10] Ticket sales resumed the next day, with all three home games selling out within 2½ hours.
The Red Sox also relied primarily on online sales to sell the game tickets, although some Fenway Park tickets were sold on the phone and at the box office. The Sox held a random drawing for the right to buy post season tickets on October 15, and winners bought tickets at a private online sale.[11] Street prices were lower in Boston this time than in 2004: the average price, according to StubHub, was about $1500 in 2007, down about $300 from three years previously.[12] Some Sox fans found that it was cheaper to travel to Denver to see World Series games than to pay the street price for Boston game tickets.[13]
While the celebratory crowd at Kenmore Square was not as unruly as had been the case in 2004, cars were overturned and 37 arrests were made.[14] The Red Sox victory parade, yet again called a "Rolling Rally" as in 2004, was on October 30, 2007 with closer Jonathan Papelbon doing his infamous "Riverdance" while local punk band the Dropkick Murphys played their hit "I'm Shipping Up to Boston".
The World Series was televised by FOX in the United States, with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver as booth announcers. The starting time for each television broadcast was 8:00 pm EDT/6:00 pm MDT. The series broke with the recent tradition of starting the World Series on a Saturday, as Major League Baseball had become convinced that weekend games drew lower television ratings. Prior to this season, every World Series since 1985 had opened on a Saturday, with the exception of the 1990 World Series.
Rogers Sportsnet (RSN) in Canada used the MLB International feed with Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe as booth announcers. NASN showed the games live to most of Europe, while in the UK, all games were shown terrestrially on Five. NHK aired the Series in Japan.
On radio, the Series was broadcast nationally by ESPN Radio, with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan announcing. Locally, Joe Castiglione and Glenn Geffner called the Series for the Red Sox on WRKO-AM in Boston, while Jack Corrigan and Jeff Kingery called it for the Rockies on KOA-AM in Denver. Per contractual obligation, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts.