Baseball: The Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 last night to win the World Series and record their second four-game sweep of the Fall Classic in four years.
Boston, who had gone 86 years without winning a World Series before sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, repeated the feat by outscoring the Rockies a cumulative 29-10.
Starter Jon Lester took the win, Jonathan Papelbon notched the save and World Series MVP Mike Lowell paced a nine-hit attack with a double and home run.
Papelbon struck out Seth Smith for the final out, touching off wild celebrations at the mound.
"This team has got a lot of heart," team captain Varitek said "We just beat a very, very good team, an excellent team. We had to do the little things, and we were able to."
The Rockies, who won 21 of 22 games to storm into the post-season and their first World Series, never found their stride after waiting eight days for the Series to begin.
Boston scored single runs in the first and fifth innings and made it 3-0 on Lowell's homer in the seventh off starter and loser Aaron Cook.
Colorado's Brad Hawpe skied a solo shot to right in the bottom of the seventh to bring the Rockies to 3-1 before Boston restored their three-run cushion on the first pitch of the eighth, Bobby Kielty hitting a pinch-hit homer.
But Colorado would not go down without a fight.
Garrett Atkins clubbed a two-run homer off Hideki Okajima as the Rockies got back to 4-3 in the eighth before hard-throwing Papelbon was summoned to get the last five outs for his third save of the series.
"It doesn't get old," said Boston manager Terry Francona after his second title in four years. "I'm so proud of our organisation."