Baseball Today - Friday, Oct. 19
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SCOREBOARD Friday, Oct. 19
No games scheduled.
STARS
-Josh Beckett, Red Sox, pitched eight innings, allowing one earned run and striking out 11 in a 7-1 victory over Cleveland in Game 5 of the ALCS.
BACK TO BOSTON
Josh Beckett, blocking out everything but Jason Varitek's target, dominated the Cleveland Indians for the second time and Manny Ramirez drove in the go-ahead run with a 390-foot single as the Red Sox stayed alive in the AL championship series with a 7-1 win Thursday night in Game 5. Kevin Youkilis set the tone with a first-inning homer off C.C. Sabathia. The Red Sox, trailing 3-2, sent the best-of-seven series back to Fenway Park.
TORRE OUT
Joe Torre rejected a $5 million, one-year contract to return as manager of the New York Yankees on Thursday. Torre led the Yankees to the postseason in each of his 12 seasons with the club, including four World Series championships, 6 AL pennants and 10 AL East titles, but they have gone without a Series championship in the last seven years and haven't even reached it since 2003. Under Torre, the Yankees went 1,173-767. He trails only Joe McCarthy (1,460) for wins among Yankees managers.
SPEAKING
''We weren't trying to win three games in one night. We were just going out there to play the game, go out there and fight and do whatever we had to do to win.'' - Kevin Youkilis, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, a triple, and three RBIs as Boston defeated Cleveland 7-1 on Thursday night to pull to within 3-2 in the ALCS and force the series back to Boston.