Red Sox are rolling, and the Indians are helping them

World Series Coverage   Monday John Donovan: Rox, Sox built to last Albert Chen: Ellsbury an unlikely hero Joe Sheehan: Scenes, notes from clincher Red Sox celebrate World Series victory Sunday Sox clip Rockies 4-3 to win World Series John Donovan's Report Card for Game 4 Jon Heyman's 15 Greatest Mr. Octobers Lowell takes home Series MVP honors Dynasty in the making for Red Sox? Clock strikes midnight for Rockies' ride Time.com: Red Sox are the new Yankees Saturday Red Sox down Rockies 10-5, take 3-0 lead John Donovan's Report Card for Game 3 Tom Verducci: The Sox are superior John Donovan: The Coors Field factor Jon Heyman: Four keys to Game 3 Friday Melissa Segura: Corpas gets his wish John Donovan: Rockies' lumber slumber Jon Heyman: How the Sox got Beckett Joe Sheehan: Electric night at Fenway Thursday Schilling, bullpen shut down Rockies 2-1 John Donovan's Report Card for Game 2 Tom Verducci's five cuts for Thursday Albert Chen on the Red Sox's bullpen John Donovan: Rockies turn to a rookie Joe Sheehan: Postseason drama lacking Tale of the Tape: Rockies vs. Red Sox World Series Fungoes Joe Lemire on Rockies-Red Sox Schedule/Box Scores Game 1: Red Sox 13, Rockies 1 Game 2: Red Sox 2, Rockies 1 Game 3: Red Sox 10, Rockies 5 Game 4: Red Sox 4, Rockies 3

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BOSTON -- They have a knack, these Red Sox do. It's impossible to deny now. The Sox have a knack for comebacks.

OK, OK, so it's true, too, that the Indians have done their part in helping the Sox with their latest up-from-the-dead act. Truth be told, in this American League Championship Series, it's sometimes hard to figure out who's pulling off the biggest comeback -- the Sox, pushing off elimination to make it a series with two straight wins, or the Indians, who have clearly come back down to earth.

Whatever the case, the ALCS is even now at three games apiece, necessitating a deciding Game 7 Sunday night at Fenway Park with a ride to the World Series going to the winner. Not surprisingly, the Indians are a little down in the mouth at the whole prospect of letting the Sox back in this thing. Chief Wahoo is definitely not wa-hooing at the moment.

And the Red Sox? With six wins in their last seven do-or-die postseason games, this comeback thing is starting to fit them pretty well.

"We go home or they go home," said Boston shortstop Julio Lugo, one of the unlikely heroes in Boston's 12-2 drubbing of the Indians here in Game 6 Saturday night. "We're not expecting to go home."

The Sox, down 3-1 after four games, are trying to make their third big comeback in the ALCS. No other team in AL history has come from a 3-1 hole more than once. If the Sox win Sunday night, they'll have done it three times, equalling their bounceback against the California Angels in 1986 and -- we haven't forgotten already, have we? -- the now-famous 2004 rebound against the Yankees.

Saturday night, they turned the trick, first and foremost, with another near-legendary performance from starter Curt Schilling, who frustrated the Cleveland hitters by allowing only two runs on six hits over seven always-in-control innings. Schilling had an up-and-down year in a lot of ways -- he was 3-6 in his last 11 starts with a 4.36 ERA -- but, Saturday against the Indians, he further cemented his place as a big-time postseason ace.

Schilling, whose famous bloody sock game at Yankees Stadium in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS is a thing of lore in these parts, is now 6-0 with a 1.15 ERA when he pitches in a Game 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 of a seven-game series. More impressive: Schilling has taken to the mound five times in the postseason with his team facing elimination. His team has never lost one of those games. After Saturday night, he is 4-0, with a 1.37 ERA, with 33 strikeouts and only five walks in 37 1/3 innings.

"(Schilling) really, really, pitched like the guy that we need," Boston manager Terry Francona said.

It's one thing for Schilling to come through in a postseason pinch. It's entirely different when right fielder J.D. Drew suddenly becomes Mr. Clutch, or shortstop Lugo, or even battered and booed reliever Eric Gagne. Yet all three of them teamed with Schilling to play at least a small part in smacking around the Indians and evening up this series.

Drew, a favorite punching bag for the Fenway faithful, started things in the first inning. The always-languid Drew -- this guy is about as aggressive at the plate as Nicole Richie -- stepped out of character on a 3-1 count, jumping on a fastball from suddenly slammable Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona and lining a grand slam to center field. The shot was so unexpected -- yet so welcome -- that the same crowd that had savaged him all season called him out for a bow after he ducked into the dugout.

"That was great," he said in typically no-pulse fashion.

"This is not an easy place not to do well," Francona said. "Saying that we're thrilled [at Drew's sudden aggressiveness] would be an understatement."

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