The Red Sox were off tonight, but last night they were far from it. They had their last remaining regular season game with the division leading Rays. If the Sox were to win, they would come out of the series with a road series win and a virtual tie. If they were to lose, it would be the 3rd straight series lost to the Rays and the Sox would be 3 back in the loss column.
Tim Wakefield got the start which was not a good move. Wakefield struggles in domes because there is no wind. Wakefield is a knuckleballer and without some wind, that knuckleball is just going to be a flat mess, the equivilant of a batting practice fastball. Wakefield's ERA is 1.70 higher this season in domes as opposed to open stadiums. Nonetheless, he got an early 2-0 lead to work with thanks to a top of the 1st 2 run homerun by Big Papi.
That would be the highlight of the night. Wakefield went on to give up 3 in the first, 2 in the 2nd, and 1 in the third, and inning he did not finish. He was relieved by Devern Hansack who gave up 2 unearned, on an error by the pitcher Hansack, to finish the 3rd and the Red Sox were down early 8-2.
The Sox did they to crawl back. They got a 4th inning solo shot by Senor Clutch, David Ortiz, his 2nd of the night and 21st of the season. Unless he gets 9 more homeruns in the next 10 games, this will be the first time since his Minnesota days, 2002, that he didn't have 30 homeruns. Unless he gets 16 RBIs as well, it will be his first sub 100 RBI season since that same season, 2002, in what has been a down year plagued by injuries for Ortiz.
Unfortunately, Ortiz's homerun would not be the mental boost the Red Sox needed. They would not score again as everyone else in the lineup besides Ortiz went a combined 4-28. The Red Sox fall 3 games back in the loss column and the Magic Number for the Rays is 10.
Although the Red Sox were off tonight, the Rays were not, as they looked to lower that Magic Number and build a 2.5 game advantage. However, the Red Sox got some help from the Twins, who beat the Rays, getting to their bullpen, despite the fact that young Rays' phenom Evan Longoria had 3 homeruns. The Magic Number remained at 10 and the Sox remained a repsectible 1.5 back of the Rays, still breathing down the neck of baseball's feel good story of the year.
The Red Sox will look to make up that ground against the Jays, who they recently took 3 of 4 from. Paul Byrd, Jon Lester, and Daisuke Matsuzaka will go in that order for the Sox. After that it's 4 at home against Cleveland and 3 at home against the Yankees and that's it before the playoffs, where the Red Sox hope to be. And it looks like they shall be there as their Magic Number to clinch the Wild Card and a playoff berth is 4.
Keywords: Boston Red Sox, Daisuke Matsuzaka, David Ortiz, Devern Hansack, Jon Lester, Paul Byrd, Tim Wakefield
