Boston Red Sox sweep World Series

The Red Sox, once one of the most cursed sports franchises with no titles from 1918 to 2004, now are deemed as a baseball powerhouse.

  Though the Rockies, who dominated a remarkable 21 of 22 games to get to the best-of-seven-games World Series, made attempts with Brad Hawpe's homer in the seventh inning and Garrett Atkin's two-run home run in the eighth, it was too little too late.

  Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon sealed the deal, coming out of the bullpen for the final five outs in front of a the sellout crowd of 50,041 at Denver's Coors Field.

  Red Sox lefthander Jon Lester, who was undergoing chemotherapy at this time last year for lymphoma, held the Rockies to three hits and three walks with three strikeouts over 5 2/3 scoreless innings for the victory. 

    Aaron Cook, the only Rockies starter to last more than 4 2/3 innings in the World Series, gave up three runs on three hits with two strikeouts over six innings. 

    In the first inning rookie Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double to left field off Cook, Ellsbury reached third on Dustin Pedroia's groundout to third. Then David Ortiz gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead with a single through the right side. 

    The Rockies led off the second inning with Todd Helton's double to left, where Manny Ramirez misread the ball and took a few steps in before realising it would go over his head. Lester induced a grounder to short from Atkins for the first out and then a fly out to centre from Ryan Spilborghs.

  The Red Sox led off the fifth inning with a double to left by Mike Lowell and one out later, Jason Varitek hit an RBI single through the right side. Julio Lugo followed with a single up the middle, but Cook struck out Lester and Ellsbury to exit the inning down only 2-0.

  Lowell pushed the Red Sox closer to the title win with a leadoff home run in the seventh, ripping Cook's 1-0 pitch to give Boston a 3-0 lead. 

    Hawpe's home run in the bottom of the seventh to right field off Delcarmen, cut Boston's lead to 3-1. One out later, pinch hitter Cory Sullivan singled up the middle to prompt a call to righthander Mike Timlin.

  In the eighth pinch hitter Bobby Kielty ripped lefthander Brian Fuente's first pitch to the left to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead with the leadoff home run. Giving their fans some hope, the Rockies charged back in the bottom of the eighth when Helton hit a one-out single through the left side off reliever Hideki Okajima and Atkins drilled his home run to prompt a call to Papelbon who retired Spilborghs and Hawpe to end the eighth.