What is the significance of the bloody sock

We had to do something because the team was on the brink. We'd lost the first three games of the series to the Yankees, and any loss in the next four games would end our season against our archrivals -- again. We won Game 4. We won Game 5.

But it would mean nothing if I didn't help win Game 6. I went through my pitch-day schedule as normally as I could -- routine is very important to me, and I was doing everything to convince myself that this was just another start.

I went to Yankee Stadium five hours before the game, like usual. I met with my catcher, Jason Varitek, to go over how we'd pitch to all the Yankee hitters.

I watched video and then started my stretch routine when I always do, one hour and 40 minutes before game time. After my stretch, they injected my ankle and foot with painkillers and anti-inflammatories. I remember walking around the clubhouse afterward -- you know when your foot falls asleep and it's totally weird to walk, and you can't feel where you're stepping? That's what I felt like, because half of my foot was numb. And I'm about an hour away from what could be the most important game of my life.

Fifty minutes before game time I went to sit in the dugout for my customary 12 minutes, after which I went out to the bullpen 38 minutes before the game. Why 38? It's my uniform number. I noticed some blood oozing out of my ankle.

But I didn't feel any pain, so that was good. During my warmups, I had no image of what would happen, how my ankle would hold up under the stress of pitching. I had faith in God that this would work out. People still wonder about it. My velocity wasn't up to par, but I was hitting my spots.

I threw some good splitters. I had the hitters guessing. My pitches were moving the way they were supposed to. As each inning went by I felt like something special was happening -- you can just feel it. It was like an out-of-body experience. I always feed off the crowd's energy, even on the road, but on this night I was so locked in, concentrating so hard, that I didn't even notice the fans.

Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I prayed for the strength to compete, not win, and after the start of the game I knew that the Lord had heard me. During all this, one of the stitches busted, and the blood started really coming through my sock. I knew the tendon was still OK, and that's all I cared about. I just prayed that it would hold out for a while. After the game people were speculating that the sock thing was staged.

I threw six shutout innings, gave up one run in the seventh, and came out before the eighth with a lead. I was totally exhausted -- more mentally than physically because of the stakes involved for both my team and New England. I had prayed for strength and gotten it.

Some people roll their eyes when I talk about my faith, but it was paramount that day in my life. It was like the Lord took a megaphone and showed me what I was capable of.

We won the game , thanks to some other guys also -- Keith Foulke, Mark Bellhorn -- and lived to see the showdown Game 7. We won that, too, thanks to Derek Lowe and Johnny Damon. People remember what I did in Game 6, and I appreciate and am humbled by that. It was an awesome feeling. But you know what? That's what I came to Boston to do. It's what I was supposed to do. And for that magical night, the Man Upstairs agreed. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Boston Red Sox. The Bulls are bringing fun back to Chicago, one dunk at a time.

Chicago Bulls. Two batters in, he fired one high and tight to Alex Rodriguez , reminiscent of the pitch Pedro Martinez threw to Hideki Matsui one day earlier. Schilling was locked in, but so, too, was Yankees right-hander Jon Lieber, who had outdueled Martinez in Game 2 and took a shutout into the fourth inning of Game 6. But after Jason Varitek gave the Sox a lead in that frame with an RBI single, Mark Bellhorn came up with a three-run homer off the chest of a fan wearing a black pullover in the left-field seats that was originally ruled a double.

Back in those days, there was no instant replay. The umpires huddled, however, and got it right. Third-base coach Dale Sveum had a perfect view, and was adamant in making sure the umpiring crew reversed the call. The first time it felt like the Yankees might actually come back and win Game 6 was in the bottom of the eighth, just after they had clipped the deficit to With Miguel Cairo on second and Derek Jeter at first and nobody out, A-Rod hit a tapper to the right side of the mound, toward the first-base line.

Reliever Bronson Arroyo picked it up and went to tag Rodriguez. Suddenly, the ball traveled all the way down the right-field line and it looked like Cairo had scored, with Jeter roaring to third and A-Rod taking second.

But plenty of people -- including most of the umpires -- saw what actually did happen. Rodriguez, in a pure act of desperation, flat-out swatted the ball out of Arroyo's hand as he went for the tag. There would be one more adventure for the Red Sox to get through before becoming the first team in history to force Game 7 after trailing in a series.

Keith Foulke, running on fumes, had to get through the ninth. With two on and two outs, and Tony Clark representing the winning run at the plate, Foulke at last ended Game 6 with an elevated mph fastball for a strikeout on a pitch. The pitch was Foulke's th in a span of three days, and the normally stoic right-hander pumped his fist in triumph.

By Ian Browne. So were the Red Sox, who needed just one more win to complete the miracle.