The Joy Of Sox.....

Well fans of the Tampa Bay Rays now know what REAL baseball fans have known for years.  There are no sure things in baseball.  The Rays got that harsh dose of reality a little after midnight last night, as the Boston Red Sox completed one of the most improbable comebacks in MLB post-season history.

  It seemed for most of this game, that a comeback and a win would be all but impossible.  For the fourth game in a row, the Rays jumped all over the Red Sox starting pitcher.  Again, a starting pitcher gave up a long ball before the home team Sox had even swung a bat.  Simply put, Dice-K did not have it last night, he looked like a guy overcome by the moment.  It was one of Dice-K's oddest starts of the year.  Instead of his usual control and walk problems, he just had problems recording outs.  The Rays tuned up Dice-k, and battered him with a relentless attack that lasted the entire four innings that he was able to pitch.  On the otherside, it seemed Scott Kazmir taking the hill for game five, was much ado about nothing.  Kazmir dominated the Sox for six innings, allowing only two hits, and no runs.

  The funny part about the game last night, was a curious move made by manager Terry Francona.  If I have said once, I have said it a million times, in big games, when the game needs saving right then and there, I have often said that Francona has been very reluctant to use closer Jonathan Papelbon.  So there he was, running out of the pen, with no outs and two on in the top of the 7th inning.  It was really and odd move for Francona, after all, runners were @ second and third with no outs, in a game they were trailing 5-0. Of course Papelbon could not prevent those runners courtesy of Manny Delcarmen to score, but he provided the Sox a life line for two innings, and kept the game within reach, well not really, it was 7-0.  The move to me seemed to invigorate the Sox and the crowd.

  So there it was, Journey playing Don't Stop Believing, in the bottom in the 7th, the crowd going crazy, in a game the Sox were trailing 7-0 with only nine outs left.  They say that Yankee Stadium has ghost, and that may be true, however Fenway may have few lurking around as well.  The Sox managed to piece together a rally, started by MVP Dustin Pedoria's rbi, and capped by Big Papi's three run homer (sorry about the Big Pop Fly comment big guy).  As nice as that was, the Sox were still down three runs with only six outs left, against the best bullpen in baseball.  A bullpen by that way that had not blown a lead of three runs or more all season.  None of that mattered when JD Drew crushed a Dan Wheeler fastball and sent that pitch into then night.  Drews homer got the Sox to within one run, still a few more miracles would be needed.  After Drew's bomb to right, Mark Kotsay, gets a two out double, no doubt his biggest hit as a Red Sox.  Kotsay's hit enabled Coco Crisp to have the greatest at bat in his big league career.  Crisp battled pitch after pitch, fouling off ball after ball, until he finally willed the Dan Wheeler offering into shallow right field.  Kotsay running for life and a game six in Tampa, scored easily, to tie the score...7-7.

Once again, the Sox would have to endure a little magic from the bullpen, as Justin Masterson got Carlos Pena to roll into a two on one out inning ending double play.  Masterson's unreal efforts allowed the Sox a chance in the bottom of the 9th. 

  Now as a Sox fan you had to like the guys coming up in the 9th, Dustin Pedoria and Big Papi and Kevin Youlilis.  Both guys had come up huge in the 7th, and if they got on, new Boston legend Jason Bay would be there to end the game and propel the Sox to a game six.  It seemed the script had been written for the Sox, but alas the plan did not go as scripted.  Both Pedoria and Ortiz failed to reach base, and the Sox needed Youkilis to leg one out, and an assist from Evan Longoria to get that man in scoring position.  There he was, Jd Drew, perhaps the last guy you would ever want batting with the game on the line.  Drew though acted like a man that had been there a 1000 times  before.  He stood in, and was very patient at the plate, he looked at some bad pitches, and a few close ones, however he waited until he got his pitch  That pitch was a poorly placed 3-1 slider from J.P. Howell, that Drew took and drove to deep right field, just passed the out stretching Gabe Gross. 

  Once again the Boston Red Sox have outrun the enevtiable.  Once again they have looked down the barrel of an elimination game, and once again they were triumph.  The Sox have now given these Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a moment of pause, a moment to think maybe they aren't destiny's child after all.  All of that remains to be seen, it will be worked out in a game six.  But thanks to Jd Drew and company, the Boston Red Sox live to play another day.