Former Yankees star reveals how Red Sox ‘got lucky’ with ‘04 ALCS comeback
With the calendar turning to 2024, it’s now been 20 years since the Boston Red Sox made their historic comeback from down 3-0 in the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.
It’s typically viewed as one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. But not if you ask Gary Sheffield.
“The bottom line is they got lucky, and that’s what happened,” Sheffield said in an appearance on the “Foul Territory” show.
The former Yankees All-Star said he disagreed with some of the stories that have been floating around over the years. He refutes stories from Red Sox players that their team was fired up by a comment made at the time.
Sheffield suggested that it was a quote from teammate Kenny Lofton that “got them going.” But looking back at this article from the New York Post, the Red Sox got a lot of motivation from a quote made by someone named “Gary Sheffield,” who claimed the quote itself was “bogus.”
The former Yankees outfielder also says the Red Sox weren’t “loose,” like former Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar has famously claimed. Sheffield says the Red Sox were “scared.”
“I remember going the first base and (Millar) was like, ‘Man, y’all gonna do us like this? Y’all can’t let us get one?’ Who talks like that in the middle of a game?’ That’s guys that’s scared, you know?” Sheffield said.
So why did the Yankees lose the series? He boiled it down to one word: pitching.
“I don’t like to call out one thing. I wouldn’t say I’m blaming them. That’s just what we had. We didn’t have the pitchers that the Boston Red Sox had,” Sheffield said. “Mike Mussina was our ace. Mike Mussina’s a great pitcher. He’s a Hall of Famer. But he’s always been a No. 3 starter.”
Sheffield says it came down to Boston having strong and deeper pitching that came up late in the series. Plus, he says Yankees manager Joe Torre “made some moves that blew it.” In particular, he highlighted Torre hesitating to put in Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera to pitch two full innings in back-to-back games. (He claims this happened in Game 4. But the box score suggests he mixed up some things.)
“The eighth and ninth innings is what cost us that series, and I blamed Joe Torre for a long time and then I finally let it go,” Sheffield said.
At first glance, you could say Sheffield had a great series in the 2004 ALCS, hitting .333 with a .978 OPS. That’s until you look at his numbers over the last four games of the series, where he went 1-for-17 at the plate with four walks (a .057 average and .297 OPS).
