Red Sox Win the 2004 World Series, Ending an 86-Year Drought

The Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series on October 27, 2004, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 at Busch Stadium to finish a four-game sweep. It was Boston’s first championship since 1918, ending an 86-year wait. The title came one week after the Red Sox became the first team in Major League Baseball history to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.

The Night the Red Sox Won the World Series

Game 4 was close only on the scoreboard. Johnny Damon homered on the fourth pitch of the game, and Trot Nixon added a two-run double in the third inning for a 3-0 lead. Derek Lowe held the Cardinals to three hits and one walk over seven scoreless innings. Bronson Arroyo, Alan Embree and Keith Foulke finished the shutout.

The last out came in the ninth. Edgar Renteria hit a one-hopper back to Foulke, who flipped the ball to Doug Mientkiewicz at first base. The crowd at Busch Stadium was 52,037, and Fox’s broadcast of Game 4 drew about 28.8 million viewers, the most of the series.

The sky added its own footnote. A total lunar eclipse was under way during the game, the first known eclipse to coincide with a World Series game.

Four Straight Wins Over the Yankees

The World Series sweep is remembered alongside what came just before it. In the American League Championship Series, the New York Yankees won the first three games, finishing with a 19-8 rout at Fenway Park. No team had ever recovered from that deficit.

Here is how Boston turned it around:

Game	Date	Result	Turning point
4	October 17	Red Sox 6, Yankees 4 (12 innings)	Dave Roberts stole second in the ninth, Bill Mueller singled him home, and David Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the 12th
5	October 18	Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 (14 innings)	Ortiz singled home Damon in a game lasting 5 hours, 49 minutes
6	October 19	Red Sox 4, Yankees 2	Mark Bellhorn hit a three-run homer; Curt Schilling, his sock visibly stained with blood, allowed one run in seven innings
7	October 20	Red Sox 10, Yankees 3	Ortiz homered in the first and Damon hit a grand slam in the second

Game 7 at Yankee Stadium was decided early. Damon added a second home run in the fourth inning and drove in six runs, and Lowe allowed one hit in six innings.

How the Sweep of St. Louis Unfolded

St. Louis was the National League champion, but Boston won every game of the World Series.

• Game 1, October 23, Fenway Park: Red Sox 11, Cardinals 9, the highest-scoring game of the series.
• Game 2, October 24, Fenway Park: Red Sox 6, Cardinals 2, with Schilling earning the win.
• Game 3, October 26, Busch Stadium: Red Sox 4, Cardinals 1, behind Pedro Martinez.
• Game 4, October 27, Busch Stadium: Red Sox 3, Cardinals 0.

Left fielder Manny Ramirez was named World Series MVP after going 7 for 16 with a home run and four runs batted in.

Why 1918 Mattered to Boston

The Red Sox had been one of baseball’s best early franchises, winning five World Series between 1903 and 1918. After the 1918 season, the team sold Babe Ruth, “the Bambino,” to the Yankees. New York went on to win title after title, while Boston kept coming close and falling short.

The near misses became part of the region’s identity. The Red Sox lost the World Series in seven games to St. Louis in both 1946 and 1967, and lost to the New York Mets in 1986. Writers and fans called the pattern the “Curse of the Bambino.”

That history explains the emotion of 2004. Writing about the Game 7 win over the Yankees, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy said that fans had been “liberated from 8½ decades of torment and torture” at the hands of New York.

The Rolling Rally and the Legacy of 2004

Boston celebrated on Saturday, October 30, 2004, with a “rolling rally.” Instead of a traditional parade with stops and speeches, players rode amphibious duck boats along a route of about three miles, which Mayor Thomas Menino planned without stops for safety reasons. Crowd estimates topped 3 million people, which would make it one of the largest gatherings in the city’s history.

The title changed how the franchise was seen. The Red Sox won again in 2007, 2013 and 2018, and the “curse” turned from an explanation into a period piece. Ortiz, Ramirez, Martinez and Schilling’s bloody sock became the shorthand for one of the most retold stretches in American sports.

To place the run on the calendar, open the 2004 calendar and count from October 17 to October 27: the days between dates calculator confirms the eight straight wins fit inside 11 calendar days. Boston’s parade landed the day before Halloween, and less than a week before Election Day, when the country’s attention shifted to the Bush-Kerry race covered in our article on the 2004 presidential election.