Colorado Rockies-Boston Red Sox World Series: Chances in Game 2

We continue to look back at some of the key moments of the 2007 World Series featuring the Colorado Rockies and the Boston Red Sox.

It was 13 years ago tonight that the Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox met in Game 2 of the 2007 World Series. Boston would post a 2-1 win to take a 2-0 lead in the series, but there were certainly chances for the Rockies to even the series before it would shift to Colorado.

Colorado hopped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Boston starter Curt Schilling thanks in part to Schilling’s wildness (hitting leadoff batter Willy Taveras) and a throwing error by Mike Lowell that allowed Taveras to move to third before scoring on Todd Helton’s groundout to give Colorado its first Fall Classic lead.

Boston would battle back to score single runs in the fourth and fifth innings against Colorado starter Ubaldo Jimenez to take a 2-1 edge. The rest of the game would be a tense affair as the Rockies tried to steal back from the momentum from the home team.

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Colorado would have a runner on second in both the sixth and eighth innings, including Matt Holliday logging a one-out single and Helton drawing a walk against Schilling to put an end to the Boston starter’s outing. Hideki Okajima entered the game and promptly extinguished the potential rally, however, getting Garrett Atkins to ground out and striking out Brad Hawpe to end the frame.

That strikeout was one of 10 on the night for Colorado batters, including six in the final 3.2 innings.

Okajima would work into the eighth when he was relieved by Jonathan Papelbon. The first batter he faced was Holliday, who turned an 0-2 pitch into an infield single. However, in a shocking moment, Holliday was picked off by the Boston closer before a single pitch was delivered to Helton.

Helton, Atkins, and Hawpe would go down in order in the top of the ninth to secure the Boston win.

While Colorado was trying to tie the game, Boston was trying to stretch their lead but was unsuccessful against four Rockies relievers who combined to scatter three hits and a pair of walks in 3.1 scoreless innings of work after the departure of Jimenez.

Note: This is the second of a four-part series where we look back at key moments from each of the 2007 World Series games featuring the Rockies and Red Sox.