I saw it coming, and I am sure Boston Red Sox fans everywhere knew it was coming. The Red Sox had just tied the fifth game of the ALCS. With two outs in the New York Yankees’ half of the ninth inning, Ruben Sierra drew a walk. It was time. Boston fans gave a collective sigh as if they knew what was about to happen.

Tony Clark, a year removed from playing for the Red Sox, stepped to the plate. Two outs in the ninth with a man on base in an elimination game against the Yankees. Yep, the Sox were doomed. 

The pitch was made, and there it was: a long shot down the right field line. Clark, the Yankees substitute’s substitute first baseman, was going to do it. It was inevitable. The smash was going to be a double, maybe a triple, and the runner was definitely going to score. 

Then, something that never happens happened. The Sox got a break. The ball bounced once on the warning track and ricocheted off the top of the right centerfield wall, caroming just barely into the stands. Ground-rule double! Sierra, by rule, would have to stay at third. No run scored. The game was still tied – amazing! The next batter would foul out, and the Sox were out of the jam.

The monumental break saved the game and the series for the Red Sox, and it eventually led the way for David Ortiz to drive in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning, sending the series back to New York. As history would have it, the Red Sox went on to win the next and final two games; for the first time, they beat the Yankees in an elimination series.

To me, the turning point was that friendly bounce. After that bounce, everything changed. The Red Sox suddenly made all of the right moves, and the Yankees did not; Boston had all of the right players and New York, for the first time, did not.

For example, over the last 22 innings of the series, Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez, the two major off-season offensive acquisitions for the Yankees, went a combined 2-20 with 0 RBIs. The supposed big-shot pitchers also acquired in the off-season, Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, and late trading deadline pick up Esteban Loaiza, pitched a combined 9 2/3 innings. They gave up nine earned runs and were responsible for two losses.

The funny thing is, Boston tried to sign both Vazquez and Rodriquez before the season started, but the Yankees, as usual, purely outbid them. The Red Sox would have to settle for Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke. The two pitchers proved not bad for a consolation prize; they pitched a combined 9 1/3 innings after the ground-rule double by Clark, allowing only one run.

All of this led to Boston’s outscoring the Yankees 15-5 over those final 22 innings and set the stage for the Red Sox to finish the second to last chapter of the greatest sports story of all time. 

The final chapter, summing up 86 years of heartache and bitter defeat, will be written if the Red Sox defeat the Cardinals in the World Series. After Tuesday’s game, the Red Sox were leadng the series 3-0.