Astros hope they can emulate 2004 Red Sox - Houston Chronicle

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It was in October 2004 that the Boston Red Sox accomplished the miraculous by mastering the mundane task of winning one game at a time, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

It had never happened, and it hasn’t happened since in baseball, for a team to come from three games down to win a best-of-seven playoff series.

But with their 4-3 Game 5 win over the Rays on Thursday at Petco Park in San Diego, the Astros are halfway home. They’ve narrowed the gap to 3-2 entering Game 6 on Friday, with Game 7, if necessary, to follow on Saturday.

Watching from his home in the Austin area as the Astros continue battling back from the deck will be Kevin Millar, the former Red Sox player and co-host of the MLB Network show “Intentional Talk,” who most famously enunciated the Red Sox’s step-by-step approach to achieving the impossible.

Speaking to columnist Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe before Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, Millar said, “I’ll tell you this: Don’t let us win today. We’ve got (Pedro Martinez) tomorrow, (Curt Schilling) in Game 6, and in Game 7, anything can happen. We could have you out there. We could put you at second base. In Game 7, anything can happen.”

Millar’s conversation with Shaughnessy was recorded on film and became a staple of the ESPN documentary “Four Days in October.”

Coincidentally, or not, Astros third baseman Alex Bregman appeared Thursday afternoon on “Intentional Talk” and told Millar that he and his Astros teammates watched “Four Days in October” on Wednesday night after their Game 4 victory.

“That was pretty great,” Millar said. “He’s all ballplayer.”

Millar said his prediction to Shaughnessy was prompted by a column critical of the Red Sox’s play in three straight losses to the Yankees, including a 19-8 pasting in Game 3.

“He had written that we were a pack of frauds, and my ears got a little hot about that,” Millar said. “So when he came into the clubhouse, first I made fun of his hair, and then I got into the whole shtick of how they’d better win tonight because of if we won, we had (Martinez and Schilling) for Games 5 and 6 and that in Game 7 we would win it regardless, and that’s how it went down.”

The Red Sox would stretch their winning streak to eight games, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series to capture their first championship in 86 years, and the 2004 ALCS remains a signature series in the game’s history. Millar said it comes to mind this time each year.

“Every time this time of year or any time a series in any sport goes 0-3, it gets brought up,” Millar said. “It was the mighty Yankees, and we had to win four in a row, and they were leading in the ninth inning in Game 4. It was pretty remarkable.”

No team has matched the Red Sox’s comeback since, but Millar said he expects it to happen eventually.

“It’s not like the Cal Ripken record being broken that will never happen,” he said. “If you look at this series, the Astros could be up 3-1. The Rays were amazing on defense, and the Astros were smashing the baseball but couldn’t get a run.”

There are, of course, considerable differences in the two situations. The Red Sox and Yankees were familiar foes, while the Astros and Rays had not played this year before the ALCS.

More ominous for the Astros is that while the Red Sox were able to call on a future Hall of Famer in Martinez and one of baseball’s best playoff pitchers in Schilling, the Astros “are running on fumes when it comes to pitching,”

“But they still believe they can come back,” he added. “They still believe they can win the series.”

One similarity to 2004 that could work in the Astros’ favor was that once the Red Sox started coming back, they didn’t have to stop. There was a rainout prior to Game 3 at Fenway Park, so there were no days off between Games 4 and 5 in Boston and Games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium.

“I loved playing every day,” Millar said, “As much as you need days off. you feel worse coming back after a day off. You’re in baseball shape. That definitely is a factor when you can go into a series without a day off.”

There are no venue changes in this ALCS, and Millar said the move from Boston to New York wasn’t a factor for the Red Sox in 2004.

“It was right next door, and with the rivalry, there was nothing better in baseball.” he said. “When you’re a player, you don’t even know what day it is sometime. You just know you’ve got a game at 7.”

As always, the game comes down to whoever shines down the stretch, be it Randy Arozarena or Brandon Lowe for the Rays or George Springer or Jose Altuve for the Astros.

“(The Astros) have been in this situation. They have guys who have done it,” Millar said. “Can they get the pitching?”

david.barron@chron.com

twitter.com/dfbarron

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