The Greatest Comeback In Postseason History
The Red Sox Victors Over Rays After Trailing 7-0 in Seventh Inning
The great David Ortiz finally hit a playoff homerun, the ball majestically drifted a few feet to the left of Pesky Pole and into the hearts of the Fenway faithful. J.D. Drew came through not once but twice, hitting his own vital homerun along with the game-winning single that just floated over the head of Rays’ right fielder Gabe Gross.
For the last few innings, everything was right in the world again for Red Sox fans.
At the same time, everything that could go wrong did for the Rays. For a franchise that has never won more than 70 games in a season until this year, this was supposed to be the win, the one that propelled baseball’s red headed stepchildren to the World Series, from a cute story to baseball immortality.
The Rays Dominate Early
The Rays had the right pitcher on the mound for most of the night in Scott Kazmir, who shut down the Sox for six innings. Kazmir, showing why he is the true ace of the Rays, left with both a seven run lead and a renewed self-confidence after two shaky postseason outings. The Red Sox offense continued on its quest to avoid getting a hit with a runner in scoring position. Poor Jason Varitek has become a black hole on offense, unable to do anything but ground out to short or feebly flail at bad pitches.
The Rays offense continued to light up the Red Sox pitching as though they were playing a game of Simon, with Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria and the terrifying B.J. Upton hitting balls that waved goodbye to Fenway Park on the way out. Upton’s double off the formerly unhittable Jonathon Papelbon put the game tantalizingly out of reach.
First Mistakes for Rays in Series
And then Joe Maddon, the Buddy Holly bespectacled and be-mohawked Rays manager, made the most egregious error of the series by putting the shaky Grant Balfour in for relief. The Rays bullpen, as a whole, had been fairly effective against the Red Sox offense in games three and four. But Balfour has been the weak link after a stellar regular season, unable to throw anything besides a flat fastball over the heart of the plate.
The Red Sox were too good to let Balfour get away with such sloppy pitching, and summarily pounced on the unfortunate Aussie to the tune of four runs in 2/3 of an inning. The worst part for Balfour, however, was letting the clearly injured Ortiz get a little mojo back, which is a very silly thing to do.
Putting Dan Wheeler, a good set-up or middle relief pitcher but a poor closer, in to try to finish the Sox off was mistake two. Wheeler is this season’s version of Joe Borowski, the Indians closer/human rollercoaster who led the league in saves last season while summarily scaring the life out of every Indians fan imaginable. Wheeler was the wrong pitcher on the mound for this moment, and showed it by allowing the Sox to tie.
Finally, it was J.P. Howell’s turn. He got two quick outs before the exceedingly talented Longoria bounced a throw to first that landed in the hands of a rather fortunate Red Sox fan. An intentional walk and a long single later, and the Red Sox had completed the greatest comeback in modern postseason history.
Considering how overrated momentum is in sports, there’s a high probability the Rays will win game six, with the highly effective James Shields facing the ailing, failing Josh Beckett at Tropicana Field. (By the way, for some unknown reason, TBS play-by-play announcer Chip Caray keeps calling Shields “Big Game James.” Seriously, the Rays were as relevant as Madonna until this season, so how many big games has Shields pitched in?)
But for now, the Red Sox and their bewildered fans rejoice and wait for the next game, hoping that it’s not the last game of a very strange series.
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