 Okajima is the first Japanese pitcher to appear in the World Series |
Boston Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven World Series as they beat the Colorado Rockies 2-1 in game two. Boston's opening win was mainly thanks to some outstanding hitting, but they showed another string to their bow as their pitchers stole the show.
Curt Schilling limited the Rockies to one early run before Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon made the game safe.
Mike Lowell struck in the fourth and fifth innings for Boston, who travel to Denver for game three on Saturday.
 | He was perfect, just absolutely perfect with every single pitch Curt Schilling on Boston pitcher Hideki Okajima |
The Rockies, reeling from their 13-1 annihilation in game one, took a morale-boosting lead in the first inning through Todd Helton. But their lack of firepower over the two games remains a serious concern for manager Clint Hurdle, who said his players would have to up their game.
"It's disappointing, but we're going to go home and play some baseball," he said.
"We scored two runs in 18 innings in this ballpark. That makes it tough to win. I anticipate us playing better baseball when we get home."
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Okajima, the first Japanese pitcher to appear in a World Series game, pitched flawlessly with four strike-outs. "He was perfect, just absolutely perfect with every single pitch," said his fellow pitcher Schilling.
"And that's a hell of a line-up to go through."
But Schilling said Boston would not be taking their 2-0 lead for granted.
"Regardless of us being up 2-0, whatever percentages say, it's irrelevant," he said.
"We're both here because we really didn't pay attention to statistics. We played the games at hand."
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