BOSTON’S Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis each smashed home runs as the Red Sox routed Cleveland 11-2 to win the American League championship and advance to the World Series.
The Red Sox, who lost three of the first four games, took the American League finals 4-3 and will play the National League champion Colorado Rockies in the best-of-seven final.
Boston’s comeback from a 3-1 deficit to Cleveland was only the 11th time in more than a century of play-off baseball that a team has rallied to advance.
The Red Sox had been the most recent to achieve the feat when they rallied from 3-0 down in 2004 to beat the New York Yankees, the first club in major league history to make such a reversal from the brink of elimination.
Boston scored one run in each of the first three innings against the Indians to seize command early and never trailed.
They outscored Cleveland 30-5 in the last three games, blasting Cleveland 7-1 in game five and 12-2 in game six to set the stage for the decider, but the Sox late power surge in game seven was too much for Cleveland to handle.
The Sox won five of the first 15 World Series titles, including the first back in 1903, but had not won the Series since 1918 until a 2004 breakthrough
The Rockies have won 21 of their past 22 games and will make their World Series debut in Wednesday’s opener at Fenway Park in Boston.
Agence France-Presse
Source: foxsports.com.au
