The 2007 World Series

GRIPPING HIS WORLD SERIES MOST VALUABLE PLAYER TROPHY, A REWARD FOR HIS TIMELY HITTING, BOSTON THIRD BASEMAN MIKE LOWELL DEFTLY IDENTIFIED THE TRANSFORMATION THAT THE 2007 WORLD SERIES BROUGHT TO THE RED SOX FRANCHISE. "WITH THE RED SOX," HE SAID, "PEOPLE EXPECT YOU TO WIN."

THE RED SOX EXPECTED TO WIN? TALK about putting a Bucky Bleeping Dent into the broadside of history. It's official, made certain by a four-game sweep of the game but overmatched Colorado Rockies: These are not your father's Red Sox.

The 2004 world championship gave New England a great cathartic cry. This one was confirmation that the Red Sox are indeed winners, that there are no such things as curses anymore and that ground balls don't always trickle through first basemen's legs.

The Red Sox are on the kind of run that seems charmed compared to what previous generations of fans endured. This time they made the Rockies, a team that entered the Series on a 21-1 streak, look like the junior varsity, allowing them to hold the lead in only three of the 36 innings.

Red Sox fans could get used to this.

GAME 1, at Boston
RED SOX 13, ROCKIES 1

The Colorado Rockies entered their first Fall Classic with claims to being both the hottest and coldest World Series team of all time. Hot Rox: They were the first club to enter the Series on a 21-1 run. Cold Rox: Game 1 was their first in nine days. If most people at the 103rd World Series weren't quite sure what to make of the Rockies—their purple pinstripes, a DH hitting ninth and a 40-day undefeated stretch on the road—the Red Sox were not among them. Boston knew exactly what to make of the Rockies: roadkill.

The Red Sox led 1-0 after the second pitch they saw, which Dustin Pedroia whacked for a home run off Jeff Francis, pitching on 13 days' rest. The Sox led 3-0 after seven batters, 6-1 by the time Francis left after four innings and 13-1 before the fifth inning ended. The whirlwind scoring mercifully ceased thereafter, as if a referee had stopped the fight.

No team ever took a worse beating in Game 1 of a Series. It was this bad for the Rockies.

•Francis allowed the most base runners (13) of any Game 1 starter in 25 years and did so in the fewest innings of all 206 Game 1 starters.

•Franklin Morales became the first relief pitcher in postseason history to allow seven runs without getting three outs.