2013 World Series: Game 4

Posted on October 28, 2013

Koji Uehara #19 of the Boston Red Sox celebrates after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the 2013 World Series at Busch Stadium on Sunday, October 27, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

No World Series game has ever ended with a base runner being picked off. Until last night here in St. Louis. This fun and wacky 2013 World Series between the Red Sox and Cardinals took another bizarre turn last night as the Sox beat the Cards 4-2, evening up the Series at two games apiece and guaranteeing us all a trip back to Boston tomorrow.

As usual my coverage for MLB Photos started hours before the 7:15 CDT first pitch. Once again I headed into the Cardinals clubhouse to shoot some details of the uniforms and equipment that was laying around.

I love shooting stuff like this but it is always hard because this clubhouse is the ballplayers sanctuary. Nobody likes having still photographers hanging around in there. To make it easier the past few days I have gone in at 4pm when the entire team was on the field for pregame stretch and batting practice. When the clubhouse is empty it is much easier to shoot and I don’t feel like I am intruding.

One of my favorite things to shoot are the cartons of autographed team baseballs and piles of autographed team bats that are made especially for the World Series. God knows what happens to all of these collectibles and there is no chance of escaping the clubhouse with any of these items. Too bad because one of these bats would go great in my bat collection!

After shooting the fun stuff in the Cards clubhouse I headed out onto the field to try and make some pretty batting practice pictures. I am a total silhouette whore when it comes to shooting with both my real cameras and my iPhone, so of course I had to try and work the light a little bit before the game. I am not totally happy with what I got and plan on trying to do better today. After all, if you are gonna shoot a cliche you might as well make it as good as possible!

Game time finally rolled around and I went over to my spot for the game, inside first base in the second row on a platform alongside Cardinals team photographer Scott Rovak. We had a great time all night talking about our cats, showing each other pictures of our cats on our iPhones, and spying on my cats with my live video cat cam on my iPhone.

Once the game got going we were locked into a tight 1-1 ballgame and it started looking like one big swing of the bat might break the game open. That’s when Red Sox left fielder Jonny Gomes came to the plate with two on in the top of the 6th inning. I have photographed Gomes many times over his career dating back to his early days with Tampa Bay. The Bay Area kid from Petaluma loves big moments and I told Scott that he was gonna do something huge in that at bat.

On paper Gomes might not scare you with his batting average hovering around .200 but don’t let the numbers fool you. He is a great teammate, a great clubhouse guy, and a clutch hitter who has a flair for the dramatic. With two strikes on him he proved to the packed house at Busch Stadium that he was a force to be reckoned with when he launched a bomb over the fence in left field for a three-run homer putting the Sox up 4-1.

The biggest swing of the night silenced the partisan crowd and sent the Red Sox dugout into and frenzy.  Home runs like this in the World Series create legends, and last night Gomes put himself into Red Sox lore with his blast that eventually won the ballgame for his squad.

Of course this all leads us to the bottom of the 9th inning. With two outs and pinch runner Kolten Wong leading off first base the tying run strode to the plate in the person of slugger Carlos Beltran. This is the guy everyone in St. Louis wanted at the plate. One swing of his bat could tie the game. But no! Red Sox pitcher Koji Uehara picked off Wong in a shocking turn of events that ended the ballgame and made Wong one of the most infamous goats in Series history.

I was pretty happy about all of this because I really want to see this series go the full seven games and head back to Boston, and I got my wish! With the Series now tied at two games each we will be getting on a plane for Boston tomorrow and have another chance to shoot at Fenway Park. That’s what I’m talking about!