New faces produce familiar result as Red Sox advance to ALCS

The Red Sox lost 8-of-9 egular-season games to the Angels, but won the ALDS in four games. Damian Strohmeyer/SI Related Links Red Sox finish off Angels 3-2 to reach ALCS John Donovan's Mailbag Comments, questions or obviously unfounded criticism? To e-mail Donovan, use the form below. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

BOSTON -- The leather furniture was shoved neatly to the side. Huge sheets of plastic covered the couches and chairs and big screen TVs and everything else that needed covering. The cans of Budweiser were plentiful, the Brut icy cold, the music pumped to a volume that would make the surgeon general consider slapping warning labels on the whole ear-assaulting circus.

The Red Sox, clearly, have this celebration thing down to a science.

Monday night at Fenway Park, the one-time pathetic Sox -- a team that used to whine about curses and ghosts and 86 years of failure and frustration -- launched their latest postseason party after yet another big playoff series win, one that moves them another step closer to their third World Series title in five years. It was a win both familiar and new, filled with drama and unlikely heroes and, maybe more than anything, the promise of more to come.

"Around here," said Sean Casey, the likeable veteran infielder now consigned to bench work with the new-breed Sox, "they expect to win."

The Sox beat the Angels in Game 4 of their best-of-five American League Division Series, 3-2 (Recap | Box Score), kicking off another Boston "Wheee!" party on rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie's run-scoring, two-out single in the bottom of the ninth. On Friday, the defending World Series champion Sox -- who also won way back in 2004, breaking that 86-year string -- will play the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the AL Championship Series in St. Petersburg, Fla. The winner advances to the World Series.

Getting to this point may be old hat for the new Sox, but the way they get there seems to be different every time. The three runs the Red Sox scored on this chilly October night were knocked in by a second-year player (Dustin Pedroia) and a pair of rookies (Lowrie and Jacoby Ellsbury). Two of the three runs were scored by two midseason acquisitions, Mark Kotsay and Jason Bay. The starting pitcher, Jon Lester, who didn't give up an earned run in two starts in this series, is a 24-year-old who can now be considered the team's ace.

Many of the stars of the '04 and '07 Series have moved on. Manny Ramirez is gone. Curt Schilling is all but retired. Johnny Damon is a Yankee, and has been for years. David Ortiz was mostly silent in this series. These are the new, regenerated Sox, built on youth and ingenious trades. "We've had a lot of guys come up and contribute for us this season," said the outfielder Ellsbury, who knocked in Kotsay -- acquired in a midseason trade with the Braves -- with a fifth-inning groundout. "Guys have been doing that all year."

The Sox won this game and this series their way, but it could just as easily be said that the AL West champion Angels, who won 100 games this season, more than any team in baseball, lost it their way. The always-charging Angels tied the game in the eighth inning on a two-out, two-run single by their big offseason acquisition, outfielder Torii Hunter. And then they promptly threw it away on a gutsy -- and what many will call foolish -- squeeze bunt in the top of the ninth. Shortstop Erick Aybar missed on the bunt attempt with one out. Pinch runner Reggie Willits was caught breaking for home and tagged out by catcher Jason Varitek.

The Angels could have gone several ways with that play, sending the speedy Willits on contact or counting on Aybar to send a pop fly into the outfield, where even a short fly could have scored the run. Instead, manager Mike Scioscia went with the type of call that got the Angels here. It backfired. "It was a buntable ball," Scioscia said of the pitch from Boston reliever Manny Delcarmen. "Erick just didn't get it done. And that happens."

In the bottom half of the inning, Bay -- acquired from Pittsburgh in the three-way deal that sent the unhappy Ramirez to the Dodgers -- lifted a Scot Shields pitch into short right that bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double. An out later, Lowrie grounded a Shields curve into right field past diving second baseman Howie Kendrick. And the party began.

"[Sunday] night, Shields struck me out with three curve balls," Lowrie said, "so I was kinda looking for it. He left one up in the zone tonight."

It doesn't get easier for the Sox from here. They lost the season series to the Rays, 10-8. They do not have home-field advantage. They are injured. Third baseman Mike Lowell's hip is so bad he's had to be replaced on the roster, making him ineligible to play in the ALCS. Outfielder J.D. Drew's back is still bothering him. And one-time ace Josh Beckett's oblique injury is still a big question.

But the Angels beat the Sox 8-of-9 times during the regular season and, in the end, proved barely to be a factor once the postseason began. "It's a different season," Casey explained simply. "This is the postseason."

Shortly after 1 a.m. Monday night, after most of the champagne bottles were emptied and the beer had been drunk and the more than 38,000 fans were finally ushered out of the grand old stadium, four figures were spotted running the Fenway Park basepaths. One of them, in jacket and red tie, was the team's principal owner, 59-year-old John W. Henry.

At the end of the run, as he slowly jogged into home, he looked up, threw his tie over his shoulder, smiled broadly and hugged his fellow party-goers. Like his team, Henry seemed absolutely re-energized. Winning in Boston will do that.