Red Sox Win Totally Ordinary Game 5, Take 3-2 Lead To Boston

We made it seven innings before something funky happened and, as far as funky things in this World Series go, it was pretty tame. David Ross was called out on a questionable-on-closer-inspection call at the plate. But all it meant was the difference between a 4-1 Boston win and 3-1 win. Which is to say: not much difference at all. This was a totally normal baseball game.

Ross actually drove in what would be the game-winning run for the Red Sox in the top of the seventh, moments before he was thrown out at home. It gave Boston a 2-1 lead against Wainwright who, until that seventh inning, was engaged in a tight duel with Jon Lester.

Lester—after throwing 7.2 scoreless innings in Game 1—was dominant again and went another 7.2 and struck out seven, while only giving up four hits. The only blemish came in the fourth inning when Matt Holliday smoked a home run 427 feet, tying the score at 1-1. Wainwright matched Lester for most of the night, going seven and striking out 10. David Ortiz continued his bid for Boston Mayor and got to him early in the first inning but Wainwright shook it off and retired the next eight men he faced, the first five by strikeout.

It wasn't more theatrics from Ortiz or some never-before-seen play that did in Wainwright and the Cardinals, though. It was a perfectly mundane sequence from the bottom of the lineup. Rookie Xander Bogaerts singled, Stephen Drew walked and Ross drove Boegarts in on a ground-rule double. That's your ballgame.

If there's one weird thing to take from Game 5 it's that Boston can win the whole thing Wednesday, one year after they finished 26 games behind the Yankees in the AL-East cellar with 69 wins.

Photo credit: Getty