Dude, some of us have ben Sox fans for 20, 30, 40 years. Take it from us, there never was a curse...the Red Sox were simply not good enough.
It is the manager's job to make that change, period. All competetive pitchers (well except Clemens, he woulda been out of there after 4 with a (fill in the blank) __________ injury) would have wanted to stay in. You don't leave that decision up to the pitcher.
If you recall, the combo of Embree, Timlin and Williamson had been virtually unhittable...I'm not sure they'd given up an earned run in the series. This was the year of the bullpen by committee, and down the stretch they had developed one of the best back ends of the BP in baseball. Yet Grady chooses not to use them???
Pedro gets no blame because he deserves no blame. 2003's result was Little's doing. You could even see when Pedro finished the 7th, some guys were hugging him, as if he were done. Then when he came out for the 8th, Theo and the owners were shown shaking their heads. And after Jeter's hit they were like "what the fk?" And after every other hit they looked more shocked and pissed. Everyone in the park, everyone watching at home knew it was the wrong move to leave Pedro in.
Little fkn blows and if not for him the Sox might be going for their 3rd WS title in 4 years.