DENVER (AP) -Money well spent.
On Mike Lowell, whose salary Boston was willing to swallow in a trade for Josh Beckett. Lowell became the second World Series Most Valuable Player in franchise history and, as he stood in the infield accepting the MVP trophy and a new car, fans behind the Red Sox dugout began to chant, "Re-sign Lowell."
On Beckett himself, a Florida fire sale find who delivered one of the most dominating postseason pitching performances in baseball history.
On Daisuke Matsuzaka, who won 15 games in the regular season and got better as the playoffs went along. And on Curt Schilling, reeled in with an unprecedented World Series bonus on which he delivered double.
"A lot of people worked really hard to get to this point," general manager Theo Epstein said in the clubhouse after the Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Sunday night to complete the Series sweep. "We made mistakes, but we always believed in the process."
After missing the playoffs last year for the first time in Epstein's tenure, the Red Sox opened the season with a $143 million payroll, second only to the New York Yankees, and tens of millions more than the next extravagant spender.
"Come on, we've got guys out here who don't make anything," first baseman Kevin Youkilis said. "We have three starters right now that are league minimum. Payroll this and that, whatever. It's not a big deal. We went out there and won with guys making the league minimum. There's a lot of payrolls that are high like ours and didn't win."
One of them is New York, which spent more than $1 billion since winning its last World Series title.
Boston has two in four years and the pieces in place for more.
"We have a big payroll, but there are other teams that have big payrolls that haven't had the success," owner Tom Werner said. "And a big part of the success are the other guys who had some of the biggest hits for us."
Boston's payroll allowed it to take chances on a player like Lowell, who was coming off an down-year and making $9 million annually. It allowed the team to add more payroll with midseason reinforcements like Bobby Kielty, who hit the game-clinching homer in the eighth.
"I couldn't ask for a better place to get picked up," said Kielty, who was waived by Oakland. "This is the best team I've ever played for. We are the world champions."
That's also because of a player development staff - the Red Sox spend freely on that, too - that drafted Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon from a sea of eligible prospects and guided them to the majors.
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