BOSTON - Given a bit of help by the umpires and a lot more by the St. Louis Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox turned this World Series opener into a laugher.
Mike Napoli hit a three-run double right after the umps reversed a blown call, Jon Lester made an early lead stand up and the Red Sox romped past sloppy St. Louis 8-1 Wednesday night for their ninth consecutive Series victory.
A season before Major League Baseball is expected to expand instant replay, fans got to see a preview. The entire six-man crew huddled in the first inning and flipped a ruling on a force out at second base - without looking at any video.
“I think based on their group conversation, surprisingly, to a certain extent, they overturned it and I think got the call right,” Boston Manager John Farrell said.
Most everything went right for the Red Sox.
David Ortiz was robbed of a grand slam by Carlos Beltran - a catch that sent the star right fielder to a hospital with bruised ribs - but Big Papi later hit a two-run home run following third baseman David Freese’s bad throw.
The Red Sox also capitalized on two errors by short-stop Pete Kozma to extend a Series winning streak that began when they swept St. Louis in 2004. Boston never trailed at any point in those four games and, thanks to this hideous display by the Cardinals, coasted on a rollicking night at Fenway Park.
It got so bad for St. Louis that the sellout crowd literally laughed when pitcher Adam Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina, who’ve combined to win six Gold Gloves, let an easy popup drop untouched between them.
Serious-minded St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny didn’t find anything funny, especially when the umpires gathered in the first and changed a call by Dana DeMuth at second base.
“Basically, the explanation is that’s not a play I’ve ever seen before. And I’m pretty sure there were six umpires on the field that had never seen that play before, either,” Matheny said.
“It’s a pretty tough time to debut that overruled call in the World Series. Now, I get that trying to get the right call, I get that. Tough one to swallow,” he said.
There was no dispute, however, that the umpires correctly ruled that Kozma had not caught a soft toss from second baseman Matt Carpenter on a potential force out.
“There’s five of us out here, OK? And all five of us agreed 100 percent that it wasn’t a catch. Our job is to get it right,” crew chief John Hirschbeck told Matheny on audio played on the Fox telecast.
The normally slick-fielding Cardinals looked sloppy at every turn. Wainwright bounced a pick off throw, Molina let a pitch skitter off his mitt, center fielder Shane Robinson bobbled the carom on Napoli’s double and there was a wild pitch.
The Cardinal Way? More like, no way.
“We had a wake up call. That is not the kind of team that we’ve been all season,” Matheny said. “And they’re frustrated. I’m sure embarrassed to a point.”
Game 2 is tonight, with 22-year-old rookie sensation Michael Wacha starting for St. Louis against John Lackey. Wacha is 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA this postseason.
Beltran is day to day after X-rays were negative.
Lester blanked the Cardinals on five hits over 7 2/3 innings for his third win this postseason.
“He was locating both sides of the plate. His cutter is so tough on righties. He was pretty impressive tonight,” Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said.
Ryan Dempster gave up Matt Holliday’s lead off home run in the ninth.
Boston brought the beards and made it a most hairy night for St. Louis. The Cardinals wrecked themselves with just their second three-error game of the season.
The umpires made a mistake, too, but at least they got to fix it in a hurry.
After the control-conscious Wainwright walked lead off man Jacoby Ellsbury, Pedroia singled him to second with one out.
Ortiz then hit a slow grounder to Carpenter, and it didn’t appear the Cardinals could turn a double play. Hurrying, Kozma let the backhanded flip glance off his glove.
DeMuth instantly called Pedroia out, indicating that Kozma dropped the ball while trying to transfer it to his throwing hand. Farrell quickly popped out of the dugout to argue while Pedroia went to the bench.
“I was just trying to slide in there to break up two. I saw it wasn’t on the transfer,” Pedroia said. “They call you out, you have to run off. There’s a lot of great umpires out there. They put their heads together and got it right and that’s the most important thing.”
World Series glance WEDNESDAY’S GAME Boston 8, St. Louis 1, Boston leads series 1-0 TODAY’S GAME All times Central St. Louis (Wacha 4-1) at Boston (Lackey 10-13), 7:07 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAME Boston (Peavy 12-5) at St. Louis (Kelly 10-5), 7:07 p.m.
SUNDAY’S GAME Boston (Buchholz 12-1) at St. Louis (Lynn 15-10), 7:15 p.m.
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/24/2013