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Carroll's bid to be hero comes up just a bit short

Gerry Fraley, Special To The Rocky

Published October 29, 2007 at midnight

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Half-kidding, Rockies No. 3 hitter Matt Holliday had unkind words Sunday night for a forgotten figure in baseball history.

The inventor of the no-doubles defense.

"He got us," Holliday said.

In the no-doubles defense, a team with a one-run lead has outfielders play deep to cut off extra-base hits. The gamble is the opponent can put together three consecutive singles to get the tying run.

The move prevented what would have been an extra-base hit by Jamey Carroll and enabled Boston to hold on for a 4-3 victory to complete a World Series sweep of the Rockies at Coors Field.

The Red Sox went to the no-doubles alignment as closer Jonathan Papelbon started the ninth inning. With one out, Carroll pulled a 96-mph fastball to left field. Carroll hit the ball as well as he can, and for an instant he seemed to have struck a tying homer.

"I don't hit them enough to know if I got it or not," said Carroll, who has only nine homers in 1,511 career major league at-bats. "I knew I hit it well. I was thinking that hopefully it would go over his head."

If the Red Sox were in a normal alignment with starter Manny Ramirez in left, the ball would have bounced off the wall and gone for at least a double and possibly a triple. In the no-doubles defense, with the more accomplished defender Jacoby Ellsbury in left after a switch in the eighth, it turned into a heartbreaking out. Ellsbury twisted and turned his way to gather in the liner at the wall.

Carroll never saw Ellsbury's play. As Carroll always does, he put his head down and broke into a sprint immediately after making contact.

When he looked up and saw that Ellsbury had made the play, "I had a few different emotions," Carroll said.

Carroll was put into a difficult spot.

He entered the game in the eighth as part of a double switch.

He had not had an at-bat since Oct. 12, in the second game of the National League Championship Series.

This was only his fourth plate appearance since the memorable game-winning sacrifice fly against San Diego in the Oct. 1 playoff game.

"I was hoping something good could happen," Carroll said. "It just came up a little short."