Re-viewing a Yankees-Red Sox Classic - 2003 ALCS Game Three

Since the Yankees have stumbled out of the gate here in 2021, I've decided to take a trip down memory lane. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry was hot as ever in 2003 as the titans of the American League clashed in the ALCS. The hype for Game Three was palpable. Roger Clemens faced off against Pedro Martinez on a Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park.

I remember watching the game live nearly 18 years ago and thinking in the moment that it was one of the greatest games I had ever seen. Through the power of YouTube, I re-watched it for the first time since then to see if that remains true and documented my thoughts along the way. Without further ado, here's a "live-blog" of a game from 2003, because that's what make sense in 2021.

Intro

It's a beautiful day for baseball in Boston and we've got Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the booth for the game. I'm not alone is disliking broadcasts that involve these guys, but they were pretty much the voice of the Yankees on TV during their October runs around this time. So their presence is actually bringing back some good memories.

A Pedro-Clemens showdown was always must see TV.

PSzalapski & Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Buck tries to make the point that people are calling this game the toughest ticket to get in Boston sports history. Something tells me that Game 163 in 1978 and any number of Celtics-Lakers showdowns were probably tougher, but OK. McCarver chimes in that this is a re-match - Clemens versus Pedro - of Game Three of the ALCS in 1999, but this time the series is tied and the Red Sox are a much better team. Fair point, Tim, and a foreboding message for 2004.

Buck reveals someone hiding in the booth next to him to call the game along with them. Bret Boone! With frosted hair! I had almost forgotten his utterly forgettable one-and-done gig with Fox for this series. Looking apathetic as ever, he makes a point about how the shadows at Fenway will make it even tougher than usual against these two great pitchers, then says it doesn't really matter...thanks, Bret.

Top First

Leading things off for the Yankees and playing third base is Enrique Wilson, and I'm reminded of Joe Torre's obsession with starting Wilson against Pedro because of the success he had against him in a very limited number of plate appearances. He promptly flies out to center where Johnny Damon is wearing flip-up sunglasses, I feel like you never see those anymore.

Derek Jeter lines a base hit just past a diving Bill Mueller at third base. That brings up Jason Giambi. A Giambi groundout to second is sandwiched between mumbling comments from Boone where the only thing he says clearly is "shadows". McCarver chimes in with a meaningless comment on which side of the bag Garciaparra stepped on to make the out.

Bernie Williams also grounds out to second as Pedro makes quick work of the Yankees.

Bottom First

Clemens - the winningest pitcher in Fenway Park history as Buck reminds us - takes the mound with Damon leading things off. He hits a hot shot to third, a tough play that Wilson makes look even tougher as he takes the hop off his leg and fails to even make a throw.

2003 marked the second time in 5 years that the Yankees and Red Sox met in the ALCS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2003ALCSLogo.png

Batting second and playing second base is Todd Walker, who I always confuse with Neil Walker. A Fox graphic shows that Walker's .393 career average against Clemens is the best of any batter with at least 25 at-bats versus The Rocket. As Clemens is clearly pre-occupied with Damon at first, the crowd chants "RO-GER!" and Walker ropes a double off the Green Monster.

Up comes Nomar Garciaparra with runners on second and third, no outs. Nomar strikes out looking in an at bat where he looked mostly looked pretty uncomfortable. Now I'm remembering how much he struggled in this series.

Batting cleanup is Manny Ramirez who lines the second pitch he sees to center field for a clean base hit and a 2-0 Red Sox lead. It was a really good splitter from Clemens that Ramirez dismissed with ease. Manny was many things, some of them pretty bad things, but he was definitely one of the best hitters I've ever seen.

David Ortiz steps up to the plate and during the at bat Buck let's us know that Clemens is definitively calling 2003 his last season in baseball...anyway, Ortiz's babyface is a little bit startling compared to his later career, which I'm obviously more familiar with. He works a full count, and the Red Sox are being much more patient with Clemens than the Yankees are with Pedro. Ortiz strikes out looking and with Ramirez running on the pitch, Posada beats him by about 10 feet with the throw for the strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play. Buck makes no mention of this and simply says the inning is now over.

Top Second

Naturally, Jorge Posada leads off and McCarver does acknowledge the play he made to end the first. Posada plays wall ball with the Green Monster for a lead-off double.

Playing first base and batting seventh is Nick Johnson. Johnson's young but discerning batting eye fit right in with these veteran Yankees but he just couldn't stay healthy in New York or anywhere else he played. He works a full count before grounding out to the pitcher.

Hideki Matsui follows Johnson and pops up to second which brings right fielder Karim Garcia to the plate. Garcia was part of a revolving door of players the Yankees put in right field after Paul O'Neill retired in 2001. He wasn't a Yankee for long, but he comes up with a run-scoring base hit here and will make the game even more "fun" later.

Batting ninth and playing second base is Alfonso Soriano. McCarver tells us this is the first time he's hitting ninth since April 15, 2002. He breaks his bat on a fly out to left field. Inning over, Red Sox with a 2-1 lead.

Bottom Second

Leading off is Kevin Millar who strikes out before Buck can really flesh out how he started the whole "Idiots" thing with the Red Sox. Win-win.

Trot Nixon is up next and Boone speaks again - I forgot he was there - and says that sometimes Clemens will throw a slider. OK. The home plate umpire gets something in his eye so they show highlights of Clemens' career in Boston. The 20-strike out game, etc. He's considerably skinnier in those clips. Nixon grounds out to second.

Batting eighth is Bill Mueller who had a career year in 2003, earning the AL batting title with a .326 average. He lines out to Johnson at first, but not before we get a brief glimpse of Ben Affleck and J.Lo who are in attendance. Clemens has himself a much needed 1-2-3 inning. Buck makes a Gigli reference, because it's 2003.

Top Third

Wilson leads off and demonstrates why he should never be a leadoff hitter. His strikeout brings up Jeter who deposits the first pitch he sees - a breaking ball - over the Green Monster and out of the stadium to tie the game. Pedro is still pitching much better than Clemens at this point, but the Yankees are taking advantage of every little Red Sox mistake. This is what the Yankees did best in the late 90's/early 2000's.

Derek Jeter tied the game with a blast that reached Lansdowne St. in the third inning.

Ryosuke Yagi/Wikimedia Commons

Pedro proves he's unfazed by the Jeter equalizer and strikes Giambi out looking on one of the filthiest curveballs you'll ever see. Bernie Williams then works a deep count with Pedro, desperately trying to lay off his curveball and mostly succeeding in that. Buck mentions that the shadows are gone now. We may never here from Boone again. Bernie can't lay off a high fastball and Pedro ends the inning with a strikeout.

Bottom Third

Catcher Jason Varitek leads off for the Red Sox and since he wasn't officially the Red Sox captain yet, he doesn't have the obnoxious (for baseball) "C" sewn onto the front of his jersey, which is nice. As batters tended to do in Yankee-Red Sox games of this era, Varitek works a full count. The payoff pitch results in a fly out to center, and turns the order over.

As Damon steps up, sideline reporter Chris Myers tells us that Damon is recovering from a concussion he suffered earlier that week. Myers indicates that the only treatment doctors gave him was Tylenol. Sports were different in 2003. Damon is credited with an infield single on a play that was definitely an error on Jeter at short as he unsuccessfully attempted a backhand stab.

Todd Walker flies out to center and Nomar Garciaparra - still looking very unsettled at the plate - grounds out to short to end the inning.

Top Fourth

Posada leads off the fourth and our friends in the booth are noting how Pedro is throwing mainly breaking balls to Yankee batters. Boone wonders if it's by design against Yankee batters, then readily admits that he's never seen Pedro pitch against them so he can't be sure. I'll give Bret the benefit of the doubt here and say that when Fox sent him game tape to prep for the series his VCR was broken. Anyway, a pitcher as good and durable as Pedro can get by and actually thrive on just breaking balls and off-speed stuff when facing a formidable lineup. This is definitely by design, but Posada draws a walk after seeing nothing but curveballs.

Pedro is clearly losing some of his command at this point as Nick Johnson lines a base hit over the head of Ramirez in left field and Matsui follows it up with an even harder hit ball to right that bounces over the low fence for a ground-rule double. The Yankees take the lead, 3-2, with no outs and runners on second and third.

Before Karim Garcia gets a chance to bring those runners home, Pedro deals a fastball headed straight for the back of his head, which he narrowly avoids. This was clearly purposeful on Pedro's part and Garcia has some choice words for the pitcher. The umpire warns both benches and as Joe Torre comes out to see what's going on, Garcia is awarded first base. Replays show that the ball clearly hit his bat after sailing behind his head, but may have just grazed his jersey before that. McCarver then feels the need to tell the audience that this wouldn't happen in the National League because there's no designated hitter there and the pitcher would have to hit. Sure, Tim.

With the bases now loaded, the free-swinging Soriano promptly grounds into a run-scoring double play. As Garcia trots off the field, he spews some more venom, this time directed at second baseman Todd Walker and the plot starts to thicken. As Garcia reaches the Yankee dugout, Pedro points to him (or maybe Jorge Posada), then his head, as if to suggest he'll hit him for real next time. Both benches clear, cautiously, in case anything escalates further. Roger Clemens starts to get hot, and needs to be restrained. From the booth McCarver is still amazingly blaming this on the designated hitter rule, and Joe Torre starts an atypically animated conversation with the umpires. Posada, now with his catcher's gear on in the dugout, also starts verbally jabbing with Pedro.

The perfect antidote to excitement, Enrique Wilson, steps up as things cool off, for now, and before he pops up to end the inning, replays are shown of Garcia clearly sliding well past second base and into Walker's legs on the previously play. The Yankees walk away with a 4-2 lead.

Bottom Fourth

Just as we think we've seen the height of the drama for the day, Clemens throws a high, inside fastball on a 1-2 pitch to Manny Ramirez who takes offense to the pitch, despite it missing him by about a foot or more. He takes a few steps toward to pitcher's mound while Clemens screams at the top of his lungs at him and before the two get near each other, both benches have now sprinted out onto the field. While that fracas is going on, Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer makes a very unwise decision to start running after Pedro, who makes an equally unwise decision to grab the 72-year old man by the head with both hands and throw him into the ground.

As he was prone to do, Manny Ramirez brought some unnecessary drama to the game in the fourth inning.

Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons

While this is a scary moment, it actually has the effect of calming the scene down. The Yankee contingent immediately focus on Zimmer to make sure he is OK, and he does get to his feet and walk back to the dugout on his own relatively quickly. While the crowd chanted "Yankees suck" and "Roger", the rest of the Red Sox focused on getting Ramirez to cool down, which took a little while. The umpires then have a conference to try and make sense of this mayhem, which is of course impossible.

The broadcasters are equally perplexed and Fox shows some clips of Pedro hitting both Soriano and Jeter on the wrist in a game back in July. If this game happened in 2021, I think it's highly probable that Pedro, Clemens, Ramirez and Garcia would all be ejected from the game at this point. And if McCarver was calling it, he'd no doubt have a simple solution to prevent any of it in the first place...

After the umpires confer with the managers, no action is taken as Fox shows some more clips, this time of Clemens beaning Mike Piazza back in 2000. Fair and balanced as ever, those people at Fox.

Play resumes and Ramirez feebly swings at an outside fastball for the first out. Ortiz then connects on the first pitch he sees from Clemens for a deep fly ball that dies in Fenway's right field and Millar grounds out to third for what would have been another very quick 1-2-3 inning had Ramirez not overreacted. Clemens is in cruise control now and Pedro is on the ropes. You would think having the benches clear twice would have the Boston crowd riled up and in the Yankees' heads, but New York has all of the momentum right now.

Top Fifth

A shaken up Pedro faces Jeter to lead things off and Trot Nixon makes a great play in the odd configuration in right field to rob him of an extra base hit. Giambi then pops out to left field and Williams grounds out to second.

So much for Pedro being shaken up. After a good at bat from Jeter, he's again making quick work of the heart of the order for the Yankees.

Bottom Fifth

During Trot Nixon's at bat to lead it off, Boone gives us some audio gold. He let's the audience know that despite what's gone on here, the players still need to just put their emotions aside and win an important game. Where else can you get insight like that, folks?

A Nixon ground out, and a pair of strikeouts for Mueller and Varitek ends the fifth inning and these dominant pitchers appear to be heeding Bret Boone's sage advice. Clemens isn't doing anything fancy, mainly relying on two-seam fastballs and splitters, but it's working.

Top Sixth

Pedro starts off Posada with a pitch inside that comes much closer to hitting him than the Clemens pitch to Ramirez. Posada has no reaction. He works the count full before going down swinging on another nasty breaking ball from Pedro. There are some long stares from both men and a few choice words from Pedro after the strikeout. Buck notes that there's a feeling in the atmosphere that the fighting during this game isn't over yet. He's not wrong.

Nick Johnson also goes down swinging on a fastball up in the zone. That's followed by a Matsui groundout to first and Pedro's clearly fueling himself on the tension in the game thus far.

Bottom Sixth

Back to the top of the order for the Red Sox and Johnny Damon pokes a single to left field. Chris Myers reports that beer sales at Fenway have ceased since the Ramirez blow-up. Maybe Pedro could use one to cool off.

Clemens really doesn't like it when Damon is on first and goes to 3-0 on Walker. Good old Mel Stottlemyre - who was featured in a certain book written by some guy - comes out to talk to The Rocket, but he issues the free pass anyway. Clemens gets back on track by striking out Garciaparra, who still looks completely lost at the plate.

The crowd grows nervous and eager in anticipation as Ramirez steps up to the plate for the first time since the mayhem a few innings ago. In what I'm sure is a complete coincidence, Fox puts a Viagra ad on the greenscreen behind home plate for the at bat. All of the tension fizzles when Ramirez grounds weakly to short for an inning-ending double play.

Top Seventh

Pedro comes out for a seventh inning of work and Garcia is leading off. No drama for this at bat either as he grounds out to first. The Ramirez altercation has sapped the life out of these loaded lineups. Soriano goes down swinging followed by a chopper to third from Enrique Wilson for an easy out which ends the inning. Wilson was the made the leadoff man specifically because of his "success" against Pedro and is now 0-4, which should surprise no one but Joe Torre.

Bottom Seventh

Although Clemens was dealing, Torre calls on Felix Heredia to face David Ortiz here in the seventh. This game happened 18 years ago and I know the outcome, yet seeing Heredia trot out from the bullpen in a big spot here still makes me nervous. Also coming into the game to (finally) replace Wilson at third is Bret's brother and current Yankee manager, Aaron Boone. Bret has nothing to say about it, naturally.

Heredia may have come in solely to face Ortiz anyway, but his walk confirms it, as well as my uneasy feeling when seeing him come out to start the inning. Torre replaces him with Jose Contreras and I definitely don't recall the fact that he had become the main setup guy for Mariano by the end of 2003. Anyway, I feel much better about him being in the game rather than Heredia. He then surrenders a line drive single to center which puts runners on first and third with no outs, which shows you how much I know. These are the first signs of offensive life in this game since the fourth inning.

Contreras relies on his splitter to induce a double play ball from Trot Nixon, but Ortiz does score from third on the play. He then walks Mueller and Bret Boone again acknowledges that he hasn't seen the Yankees play and asks Buck and McCarver if they might use Mariano Rivera here and try to get seven outs out of him. They give him a hard no. Aaron Boone makes a nifty play in foul territory on a Varitek flare to end the inning. His brother's silence seems to indicate that he's unimpressed.

Top Eighth

Just before cutting to a commercial after the end of the seventh, Fox showed a glimpse of the Boston bullpen with Mike Timlin and Alan Embree warming up. One thing I remember very clearly about this series was how dominant both of those guys were in the late innings. Which made it even more mind boggling when Grady Little didn't go to them with the series on the line in Game Seven.

Timlin comes in to replace Pedro here in the eighth and I'm expecting nothing more from the Yankee bats in this game. Jeter strikes out swinging to start the inning and Giambi grounds out to Garciaparra who was positioned on the first base side of second base. These types of shifts are commonplace now but were pretty unusual in 2003. Giambi is the only Yankee batter getting this kind of shift from the Boston fielders.

Bernie Williams strikes out looking to end the inning on a very hittable pitch right down the middle. At 0-4 with two strikeouts, Bernie was definitely in Bernieland for this game.

Bottom Eighth

A fresh-faced Mariano Rivera takes the mound to start the eighth as Joe Torre is looking to him for the final six outs of the game, which was pretty common come October for The Sandman.

Mariano Rivera was a rare calming presence in an otherwise crazy game.

Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons

Damon leads it off and hits a dribbler toward the second baseman, but Rivera shows his athleticism with a quick burst off the mound and a smooth play to get the first out. Rivera would give Ron Guidry a run for his money in a "greatest athlete for a Yankee pitcher" contest.

Walker lifts a fly ball deep to left that Matsui handles just shy of the track in front of the Green Monster for the second out.

Garciaparra then hits a routine groundball to Jeter whose errant throw pulls Nick Johnson off first base towards home. Johnson makes the tag for the out on Garciaparra who would have been easily safe had he been running full speed. Did I mention yet that Nomar is lost in space here?

Rivera's half way there.

Top Ninth

The other half of Boston's dynamic duo, the lefty Alan Embree, enters the game to start the ninth with a bunch of lefties due up later in the inning. Embree looks like he spends most of his offseason in biker bars. He induces a groundout to first from Posada and gears up for the string of lefties in the Yankee lineup.

Nick Johnson fights off an inside pitch for a bloop single to center. Matsui comes up next and during his at bat Fox cuts to the on-deck circle which features Ruben Sierra. Big Rube was far from spectacular in his two stints as a Yankee, but I always loved watching him hit with his crazy, all-or-nothing approach at the plate. He would pinch hit for Garcia should Matsui not hit into a double play, but Matsui does just that and the inning is over. The law firm of Timlin & Embree strike again.

Bottom Ninth

Before the action starts up again, Fox returns from commercial while yet another surreal scene is playing out at Fenway. Buck tells the audience that the person being escorted out of the Yankee bullpen is a fan who had jumped from the stands into it. Yankee reliever Jeff Nelson is seen buttoning up his shirt, Jorge Posada is back near home plate, but Buck tells us that he had sprinted out to the bullpen, and Karim Garcia has a towel on his hand, seemingly to stop some kind of bleeding.

Jorge Posada sprinted from home plate to get it on the action in the bullpen.

Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons

Fox replays show a partially blocked view of what was happening. Best we can tell, the fan jumped into the bullpen (located just beyond right field) and initiated some kind of confrontation with Nelson. Seeing what was going on, Garcia must have hopped the fence and either tried to separate the two, or more likely was throwing punches at the fan, hence the bleeding. Eventually Nelson and the fan were separated by a combination of Fenway park security the rest of the Yankee bullpen. The fan continued screaming and pointing, while a hatless Nelson had a mostly unbuttoned shirt, but was otherwise unscathed.

Garcia's hand is hurt enough that he comes out of the game and is replaced by Juan Rivera, part of the aforementioned  revolving door in right field. Order is eventually restored, and the craziest part about all of this is that it's probably only the second or third craziest thing that's happened during this game.

Leading off the inning is none other than Manny Ramirez. He grounds out weakly to first and Buck tells us that the "fan" that started the ruckus in the bullpen was actually a groundskeeper employed by the Red Sox. Before we can wrap our heads around that, Ortiz wraps his bat around a Rivera cutter and the ball slices down the first base line as Nick Johnson makes a difficult backhand snag in foul territory for the second out of the inning. No way Giambi makes that play.

Now Kevin Millar is the last hope for the Red Sox. He hits a lazy fly ball to dead center field that Bernie Williams handles easily to seal the victory and bring an end one of the strangest episodes ever of the Yankees-Red Sox saga.

As Buck wraps things up, Fox shows a reaction shot of Ben Affleck on the flyout to end the game. He got really excited, then really dejected. J.Lo was nowhere in sight.

They throw it down to the field where Chris Myers has Derek Jeter who offers some classic non-answer answers. Here's a summary: It's important that the Yankees come back and play hard tomorrow, he didn't see what happened in the bullpen, and the Pedro-Zimmer thing was unfortunate.

Up next is Joe Torre who adds a little more flavor: He absolutely thinks Pedro intended to hit Garcia in the head, he thinks it's ridiculous to think that Clemens was trying to retaliate on the pitch that Ramirez took offense to, and he also didn't see what happened in the bullpen, but was pretty sure that Garcia got hurt because he threw a punch.

As the broadcast booth signs off, Buck mentions that tomorrow's starters will be David Wells and John Burkett, who I forgot pitched for the Red Sox for a little while. Turns out they would be rained out the next day so Game Four turned into Mike Mussina vs. Tim Wakefield instead.

Final Thought

Given all of the violence and craziness in this game, I feel a Jerry Springer-style Final Thought is in order. I noted at the outset that in the moment, this game felt like an instant classic.

Taking any of the non-baseball drama out of this game, it was still a highly entertaining affair. Two all-time great pitchers facing off against two of the best lineups in baseball and mostly keeping them at bay. You can't ask for much more out of a big game in October.

Add in the real and pseudo beanballs, lots of antagonistic chatter, and a bar room brawl in the bullpen, and that puts this game in the stratosphere. If someone knew nothing about the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, you would show them this game to give them a feel for it as it encapsulates both the baseball and dramatic aspects of it perfectly. In short, the game was as good as I remember, no more, no less.

Till next time, take care of yourselves and each other.