Red Sox complete turnaround

BOSTON - The Dropkick Murphys sang "Tessie." A Red Sox Nation gathering of 37,165 strong stood, cheered or groaned at all the appropriate moments and joined, as always, in joyous unison on "Sweet Caroline" in the eighth.

Sausages sizzled on the grills along Yawkey Way, the Citgo sign blinked above the Green Monster in left, the Prudential Building presided over the skyline to the right and the iconic logo of two red socks was mowed into the infield grass.

No ballpark has as many quaint traditions as Fenway Park. And the Boston Red Sox, the Olde Towne team, filled in the rest of the classic scene by completing another comeback with an 11-2 win over the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last night. With that, they earned their 12th pennant and second trip to the World Series in the last 4 years.

They'll host the Colorado Rockies in Game 1 on Wednesday night.

Daisuke Matsuzaka kept Boston in the game for five innings, then turned it over to Hideki Okajima and Jonathon Papelbon. Rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia had five RBI in the rout.

So the Indians will have all winter to regret that they didn't finish off the Red Sox when they had the chance last Thursday at Jacobs Field, that they let the Red Sox come back to their quirky home field.

Boston stayed alive behind a commanding performance from starting pitcher Josh Beckett. Once the action shifted back to the Fens, that turned out to be the edge that the Sox needed.

They outscored Cleveland 23-4 in the final two games.

"After we lost that third game in Cleveland, we were trying to find a way to turn it around," Pedroia said. "Nobody wanted to go home, nobody wanted to say goodbye. Once we got it back here, we thought we had a real chance."

It was the third time since the ALCS was expanded to a best-of-seven format that the Red Sox came back to win after falling behind three games to one. They also did it in 1986 and 2004. The only other team to do it even once is the 1985 Royals.

"We won three in a row. Then they won three in a row," said Indians manager Eric Wedge with a shrug. "Any time you go to a seventh game in a series like this, you know it's going to be a lot of back and forth."

Most Valuable Player: Beckett. He won Game 1 and the crucial Game 5 and had a 1.93 earned run average to show for it.

Honorable mention: Boston leftfielder Manny Ramirez. He may be flaky, but he sure can hit. His final line: .409 (9-for-22), nine walks, two homers, 10 RBI.