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Andrew Zarzour had mixed emotions as he watched the rest of Game Four unfold. On the one hand, he had just pitched one of his worst games — if not THE worst — as a professional ball-player. On national TV. In the World Series. Giving up a new Series record of FIVE home runs.
Yet on the other hand, his counterpart Derek Lowe also struggled big-time and was chased away early. And even if LA lost 30-7 now, Zarzour wouldn't be saddled with the loss. When he left the game, the score was tied 7-7. Big Z mostly stayed to himself in the dugout, putting a cool towel over his head, trying to sort through and process all that had happened.
Out on the field, though, the two teams played out one of the wildest World Series games in recent memory, producing a frenzy of excitement for fans and the huge TV audience.
Boston took an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, then LA tied it up 8-8 with a run in the top of the eighth. Boston fans thought their beloved Sox had clinched Game Four when the home team piled up three runs in the bottom of the eighth to take an 11-8 lead courtesy of a Larry Walker HR smash down the right field line, which barely snaked inside the foul pole.
Zarzour couldn't help but grin a little, thankful that he hadn't given up that long ball, Boston's sixth of the night. Instead it was reliever B.K. Kim, who walked the first two batters of the inning to set up Walker's bash. Zarzour knew the feeling as he watched Kim's "oh crap" expression while the ball was traveling out of the park.
But that home run only seemed to charge up the Dodgers even more. Here was a team that hadn't really been challenged all during the post-season. Now they had their chance to show their true mettle, by trying to rally from three runs down in the ninth inning against the storied Boston Red Sox, in Fenway Park -- to clinch the World Championship.
Going into the top of the ninth, the LA dugout was a buzz of activity, kind of like a pregame huddle before a football or basketball game. Young Josh Hamilton, who like Zarzour was playing in his first World Series at age 21, was the most vocal one of them all. You almost expected him to yell "FREEDOM!!!!" a la Mel Gibson in Braveheart as the team prepared to go to the plate.
"Boys, the champaign is waiting for us," Hamilton crowed as he moved into the on-deck circle. "Let's go get some!!!"
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