BOSTON, 25 October 2004 — With a power-packed lineup that features sluggers like Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, it was Mark Bellhorn who was the unlikely hero of Game One of the 100th World Series with a two-run homer for the Boston Red Sox Saturday.
That might surprise a few people...but not Red Sox manager Terry Francona.
“He’s been a clutch player for us all year,” Francona told reporters after Bellhorn’s dramatic homer in the bottom of the eighth inning snapped a 9-9 tie and gave the Red Sox a wild 11-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park.
“If you watched him all year, he’s really been a pretty good player. He’s got some real big hits for us, and we expected him to.”
Bellhorn, though, did not expect to take center stage in Game One of the Fall Classic.
“I’m not here to be a hero, just here to try and win four games,” he said.
The Red Sox now have one of those four victories thanks primarily to Bellhorn, who drilled Julian Tavarez’s pitch into the right-field seats for his first World Series homer after hitting his previous pitch into the stands but foul.
“The first ball he hit, I thought was a home run right off the bat,” Francona said. “He took really good swings.”
Bellhorn also scored three runs, making him the first Boston Red Sox player to do that in a World Series game. He went 2-for-3 with two walks.
The 30-year-old Bellhorn has taken a lot of good swings through the postseason. He also clubbed home runs in Game Six and Game Seven of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.
With 17 home runs, 82 RBI and a .264 batting average in the regular season, Bellhorn’s numbers do not match up well against the other Boston sluggers.
