2007 World Series

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. Francona also became the first manager to win his first eight World Series 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).

Background
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 eight-day layoff was the most in MLB history, caused by their sweep in the NLCS, the ALCS going seven games, and scheduling by MLB.

Per the 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement, 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.

Game 1
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts

The Red Sox cruised to a blowout win in Game 1 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 hit by Baltimore's Don Buford 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 seventeen hits, and three bases-loaded walks. The Red Sox finished with thirteen runs, the most ever in a World Series Game 1, and tied another record with nine extra base hits. The game was also the highest scoring World Series game since 2002.

Game 2
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 ($undefined 1/2$ IP, one run, four hits) and Boston's bullpen (Okajima, $5 1/3$ IP; Papelbon, $2 1/3$ 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 2, including a base hit off Papelbon with two outs in the eighth. Before throwing another pitch, Papelbon caught Holliday leaning too far off first base and picked him off—Papelbon's first career pickoff.

Game 3
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. Game 3 was also the 600th World Series game ever played. The Red Sox struck first with a six-run third inning highlighted by rookie Jacoby Ellsbury hitting two doubles in the same inning. Starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched five innings of scoreless ball and left in the sixth with no runs allowed. As part of the six-run third 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 $1 1/3$ innings. The Rockies' bats came to life in the sixth and seventh 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 eighth, 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 four-out save, getting Holliday to fly out on one pitch, leaving runners on first and second. Jason Varitek would tack on Boston's tenth run in the top of the ninth 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 third base in the World Series since 1975. Papelbon came back out in the bottom of the ninth to complete the save, getting the first two outs before surrendering a two-out triple to Brad Hawpe, then finishing the game with a groundout from Yorvit Torrealba. The Red Sox took Game 3 by a final score of 10–5.

The Red Sox continued to set World Series records during Game 3:
 * Ellsbury (four hits) and Pedroia (three) combined to score three runs and drive in four, while being the first rookies to bat 1–2 in a World Series lineup.
 * Ellsbury became the third rookie in Series history with four hits in a game, joining Freddie Lindstrom of the New York Giants (Game 5, 1924) and Joe Garagiola of the Cardinals (Game 4, 1946).
 * Matsuzaka became the first Japanese pitcher to start and win a World Series game. The only pitchers in Red Sox history, other than Matsuzaka, to have two RBI and be the winning pitcher were Babe Ruth in and Cy Young in.
 * The Red Sox' sixteen doubles tied a World Series record, set by the Champion Cardinals. The Red Sox would break the record in Game 4, finishing with eighteen.

Game 4
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 first 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 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 pitcher Hideki Okajima allowed a one-out single to Todd Helton followed by a Garrett Atkins two-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.

Composite line score
2007 World Series (4–0): Boston Red Sox (A.L.) over Colorado Rockies (N.L.)

Ticket controversy


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. 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. The Rockies organization said that they were the victims of a denial-of-service attack; The FBI has started its own investigation into these claims. Ticket sales resumed the next day, with all three home games selling out within $2 2/3$ 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. 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. 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.

Celebration
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. 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 Red Sox World Series win in 2007 added to the success of Boston-area teams in recent years. Adding to it would be the Celtics, when they won their 17th championship, their first championship since, the last time the Red Sox lost in the World Series, $2 1/2$ months later. Adding to this success was the New England Patriots Super Bowl victories in 2001, 2003, and 2004, along with the Boston Bruins in  and the Red Sox three years earlier in.

Broadcasting
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 in Boston, while Jack Corrigan and Jeff Kingery called it for the Rockies on KOA in Denver. Per contractual obligation, the non-flagship stations on the teams' radio networks carried the ESPN Radio broadcasts.