In 2004, the Boston Red Sox pulled off the miracle of a lifetime. Down 3-0 in the ALCS to the Yankees, Boston came back from rock bottom to win four in a row and advance to the World Series, where they ultimately swept the Cardinals to break the “Curse of the Bambino.”
It all started thanks to a stolen base by Dave Roberts in the ninth inning of Game 4. Pinch-running for Kevin Millar, Roberts took off for second base and barely made it in safely. Bill Mueller then sent a line drive up the middle off of Mariano Rivera to score Roberts and tie the game. The Red Sox walked off to win Game 4, and came from behind to do the same in Game 5. The rest is history. Curt Schilling dominated the Yanks on a bad ankle to help force Game 7, where Boston jumped out to a huge early lead and never looked back.
But what would baseball look like had the Red Sox not come back and won that series. What if Dave Roberts was unable to steal second base? As you’re about to see, many things would change.
Roberts’ stolen base happened with nobody out, so if he was caught, the Yankees would have gotten the final two outs after that, clinching the pennant and sweeping the Red Sox.
It’s anybody’s guess as to what would have happened in the World Series. The Yankees would have had a whole week off, while the Cardinals had to rally from a 3-2 deficit to beat the Astros in the NLCS. The series would’ve been a great matchup, no doubt, but it’s unclear who would’ve won. Perhaps the Yankees would have continued their dynasty and won No. 27 right there. Or maybe St. Louis would have won, which means they would’ve won a title in two out of three seasons, given that they won it in 2006.
But the Red Sox curse would live on for at least another year. Some big changes could have then occurred. First off, it’s very possible that Pedro Martinez would’ve re-signed with the Red Sox as opposed to leaving and going to the Mets. There was also some speculation by announcers Dave O’Brien and Rick Sutcliffe during Game 3 of the 04’ World Series, that if the ALCS hadn’t gotten to a Game 7, perhaps the Sox would have given Carlos Beltran a call, as Johnny Damon had struggled in the series up until Game 7, and Beltran was a free agent.
Perhaps Damon would have been shipped off and Beltran would have become a member of the Sox. Maybe Beltran or Damon would have slid over to right field and Trot Nixon ended up being the odd man out. This is no guarantee, however.
In 2005, Boston was swept by the eventual World Champion White Sox in the ALDS. But with Pedro Martinez still on their side, and possibly even Beltran. Boston probably would have won the AL East in ‘05, and avoided Chicago in the first round. They would’ve matched up against the Angels, and probably made quick work of them, as they had in ‘04.
Imagine a rotation that consists of Martinez, Schilling, Tim Wakefield, and David Wells. That rotation would be unstoppable.
Boston then would have matched up against the Yankees or the White Sox. There’s no telling who it would’ve been, but I imagine the White Sox would have won that series. They were a runaway train that year, as the Red Sox were the previous year. Things could change in the ALCS however.
If we had Boston against Chicago, the ALCS would’ve been a knock down, drag out fight. We can assume that a stacked Red Sox team would battle the young White Sox hard and the series would have reached a Game 7. Again, it’s hard to say who would win. Boston would be loaded, but Chicago had a ton of postseason magic. Regardless, I think we can assume that whoever won the series would have been able to handle the Houston Astros in the World Series. At least one of the two long tormented franchises would have ended years of futility.
Without Carlos Beltran, the Mets probably wouldn’t have gotten very far in the 2006 playoffs, if they had even made it. They were the closest to stopping the Cardinals magical run. Without them, we wouldn’t have the moment where Yadier Molina hit the home run off Aaron Heilman, or the moment where Adam Wainwright froze Beltran to strike him out and send St. Louis to the series. The Cardinals probably still would have won the pennant, however, and defeated Detroit in the World Series.
For Boston, 2007 would probably come even easier than it had in real life. At that point, Martinez began to struggle with his health. It is possible, however, that the Red Sox would have never signed Daisuke Matsuzaka with “Pedey” still on their side. If Beltran was with Boston, they would have had an even nastier lineup than they had that year. It would have consisted of Beltran, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek. That would be one tough lineup to contain. We can assume Boston would have won it all in 2007, as they did in real time, but there wouldn’t really be a place for Jacoby Ellsbury, if Beltran was manning center field. If not, Ellsbury would have still had his chance and the only real difference would be that Martinez was still part of the team.
From then on, everything else would have most likely played out similarly, with the Red Sox losing the ALCS in 2008 to the Rays and then in the 09’ ALDS to the Angels. But it would be interesting to see what baseball would look like had the Red Sox not managed to make their epic comeback in the ‘04 ALCS, and were forced to wait at least another year until the curse was broken.
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