I was unable to write yesterday because the Red Sox extra inning game went too long into the night, but today was an off day so i'll kind of combine today's and yesterday's. The Red Sox lost two days ago, but yesterday, with a win, still had a chance to put the pressure on the Rays by moving a half a game behind them for first in the AL East. If the Red Sox lose the game, they'd be 2.5 back have the momentum drained as the Rays would have won a series in Fenway. For those of you who don't see the importance of winning the division, while they are going to the playoffs anyway. The winner of the division gets either the Twins or White Sox in the first round. The loser of the division has to go to Anahiem to play the league leading Angels.
The Rays struck first in the game on a Willy Aybar triple in the 2nd inning. Aybar himself would have also scored on the play, on the misplay at 3rd, but Jason Bay, the left fielder, was backing him up. That proved to be a crucial play as the Rays did not score again in the inning. If Manny Ramirez had been playing left field, he'd be in the bathroom, not backing up 3rd. Bay might not be as good of a hitter as Manny, although it is close, but he plays harder, that's for sure.
The Sox tied the game up 1-1 in the 3rd on an RBI double from MVPedroia, but that would be it offensively for a while. Both sides, Andy Sonnanstine for the Rays, and Josh Beckett for the Red Sox, pitched great games and the offenses just kept leaving guys on base. The two teams combined to leave 29 men on base in the game. Is that lack of clutch hitting or just plain clutch pitching? I don't know. Maybe it was a little bit of both.
I'm going to fast forward to the 14th inning now, because you probably don't want to hear the story of a bunch of zeros. The Red Sox had already used Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson, Manny Delcarmen and Javy Lopez and, with Papelbon having pitched each of the last three nights and thus pretty much unavailable, had to go to Mike Timlin. Timlin has been reliable over the years, in fact this was his 1050th career appearance, tied most all time for a right hander, but this year he has had injury problems and looked lost at time with his diminishing velocity. He allowed two to reach base and eventually someone was going to drive in a run. Carlos Pena, a former Red Sox, blasted a three shot run to break the tie and give the Rays a 4-1 lead.
The Red Sox last shot was in the bottom of the 14th. Troy Percival came in to close. He did not get an out and one of the men he let on base scored, but Jason Hammel shut the door for his first save of the season, giving the Rays a 2.5 game lead in the division, a 2-1 series victory in Boston, and the momentum heading into next week's series in Tampa.
The Red Sox play red hot Toronto for three over the weekend before making that trip to Tampa. The Rays go to New York for 3, a series which, although I am unfamiliar to doing this, I will actaully be hoping for a Yankee sweep to position the Red Sox to take the division. The Yankees can't hurt anyone right now as they are in 4th and all but eliminated.
