Hitters, pitchers were monsters at Fenway

It's no secret why the Red Sox finished their regular season at Fenway Park with the second-best home record (55-26) in the majors, trailing only the Yankees (54-24). The Sox were built to flourish in the Fens and proved it by leading the majors in runs scored at home (517) and topping the American League in batting (.304), on-base percentage (.379), slugging (.506), and batting average allowed (.255).

Curt Schilling, whose greatest fear before signing with the Sox was how he would fare at Fenway, finished his first season going 12-1 with a 3.45 ERA in Boston to anchor the staff.

"It's been unbelievable," Schilling said of pitching at Fenway. "These people are just incredible. I had 18 starts and I felt them every game, every inning. Every time I needed them, they were there."

Up and down the Sox lineup, players fared dramatically better this season at home than they have while living out of suitcases. Consider some of the splits: Bill Mueller has hit .344 at Fenway and .228 on the road; Kevin Millar .350 at home, .238 away; Jason Varitek .336 in the Fens, .256 on the road; Johnny Damon .330 on Yawkey Way, .275 on the road; David Ortiz .326 at home, .265 away.

"We're really happy how we finished up at home," Damon said. "We're back on track, where we wanted to be."

With 111 home runs at Fenway and 101 on the road, the Sox topped the 100 mark at home and on the road for the third time in franchise history. They also reached the marks last year and 2001.

The Sox sold out all 81 home games, joining the Indians (1996-2000), Rockies (1996) and Giants (2000) as the only teams in history to sell out an entire season. The Sox, who have sold out 145 consecutive games since May 15, 2003, surpassed 2.8 million in home attendance for the first time and established a club record for a fifth straight season.

Playing it safe
Manny Ramirez left the game after the fifth inning to protect his hamstrings, which have nagged him much of the season. "He's got the twinge still," manager Terry Francona said. "He actually said he kind of felt it a little bit on his first swing." When Ramirez alerted Francona, the manager said he replaced the slugger to try to prevent losing him for "four or five days." . . . Ellis Burks was grateful for the sustained standing ovation he received when he stepped from the dugout after the top of the eighth to acknowledge the fans for their support through the years. Burks plans to retire after the season. "New England has been very good to me," he said. "It was a pleasure playing here for all the years and I'm going to miss it." Burks bowed repeatedly to the crowd before his teammates converged on him and hugged him. Later, the crowd chanted for Burks to bat, but he was unable to play. "My knee was bothering me," he said. "I had it drained [Friday]." It was still kind of swollen and very sore." . . . With 11 runs in the game, the Sox have scored 904 this season, topping 900 for the sixth time in club history. The Sox, who lead the majors in runs, are far short of the team record of 1,027, set in 154 games in 1950. They scored 961 runs last year, 928 in 1996, 907 in '48, and 902 in '50 . . . By winning the season series against the Yankees (11-8), the Sox would benefit only if the teams tied for the division title and both were guaranteed playoff spots. In that case, the Sox would clinch the division by virtue of winning the season series and the Yankees would enter the playoffs as the wild card. But the chances of that scenario occurring are highly remote . . . The Sox struck out 11 times to bring their season total to 1,140, a franchise record for a season. The previous high was 1,131 in 2001 . . . As they inch closer to clinching the wild card, the Sox quietly are making plans to set up their rotation for the playoffs. They plan to use Pedro Astacio in a spot start to line things up for Game 1 Oct. 5 in whichever city they find themselves after the races are settled. The Sox have yet to say whether they will go with Schilling or Pedro Martinez in the opener of the Division Series . . . Sox chairman Tom Werner came away with a souvenir when he chased down Mueller's solo home run over the Yankees bullpen in the fifth inning. Werner and Katie Couric, who had bleacher seats, were standing in the tunnel behind the bullpen when Mueller went deep . . . Before the game, the Sox honored Charlie Hamilton as he completed an 11,000-mile bike ride to all 30 major league parks to raise money for the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, which supports cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. Hamilton, 40, a software engineer from Provincetown, began his trek at an exhibition game between the Sox and Braves April 2 in Atlanta.

Travel concerns
The Sox held a team meeting before the game to discuss alternatives for reaching St. Petersburg, Fla., for a three-game series against the Devil Rays amid concerns about Hurricane Jeanne, which lashed Florida with fierce winds and five to 10 inches of rain. Much of the area lost power by early in the day, roads were flooded, and schools were ordered closed today.

"We had numerous suggestions," Francona said. "Somebody wanted to go to Vegas."

Normally, the Sox would have flown to Tampa after the game and bused 20 minutes to St. Petersburg. But their plans changed throughout the day. After rejecting the option of flying to Miami and busing more than four hours to St. Petersburg, they decided to fly last night to Fort Myers and bus about two hours to the hotel. Then, because of concerns about bridge and road closings, they scuttled that plan and opted to fly to Tampa this morning. They planned to depart about 8:15.

"We'll try to give ourselves enough time where if there is a problem, we don't get into an embarrassing situation," Francona said.

The Devil Rays took some flak earlier this month for arriving late for a game in New York because of Hurricane Frances.

The Sox typically send their pitcher for the first game of a road series on an earlier flight to assure he is well-rested, but they were unable to do so with Bronson Arroyo, who was scheduled to travel with them.

Arroyo is scheduled to face lefthanded rookie Scott Kazmir, who blanked the Sox for six innings in beating them, 5-2, Sept. 14 at Fenway.