Sports Redux: Second Comes Right After First

Let's face it, kids. Barring a miracle, the Sox are Wild Card-bound. The Rays, who we spent the entire summer waiting for to go away, are real. And they're spectacular. They clubbed Tim Wakefield last night, and walked out of the series with a bigger lead than when they started. Again. Tampa Bay's 10-3 rout of the Sox clinched the season series, which means the Rays own the tiebreaker now (they don't do one-game playoffs if both teams make the postseason anyway.)

This one was almost too ugly to talk about. David Ortiz hit two home runs to drive in all three Boston runs, but the Rays put eight runs up early and never looked back. At least Terry Francona got to do bullpen auditions, as seven guys came in to mop up for Wakefield. If you're keeping score, Delcarmen was very good (OK, OK), Okajima, Smith and Aardsma were fine, and Hansack, Lopez and Pauley need work. Blame it on the bullpen phones (second item).

So we're finally resigning ourselves to the fact that the wild card looks like where we're headed. And reminding ourselves that the Red Sox have never lost a game to AnaheimOrWhatever in the ALDS, whether home-field was ours (2007) or theirs (2004). Yes, they've been the runaway team in the West all year, but they haven't had to dig deep for a month, and they can't be that happy to see the Red Sox coming their way.

Injury update: Mike Lowell's feeling all kinds of hip pain, but still hopes to play in Toronto this weekend. J.D. Drew's still in pain; he can swing, but can't run. And our DH spot is taken. Julio Lugo remains forgotten, but not gone.

The Patriots probably weren't going to take Miami lightly this weekend; even though the Dolphins were lucky to get to 1-15 last year and have lost to the Jets and Cardinals this year, Belichick won't underprepare for them. Especially after Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter opened his big mouth and said "it shouldn't be that hard" to beat Matt Cassel, predicting the first Dolphins win of the season. He says the Dolphins will "throw the kitchen sink" at Matt, which admittedly would be a better strategy than sending Miami defenders after him. In case you're wondering, Porter has a long and storied career as a bonehead.

In the last week at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter passed Lou Gehrig to become the all-time leader in hits at the old barn. And Curt Schilling wrote on his blog that it couldn't happen to a better guy than Jeter. No, really. Is this the first stage of the thawing of the Cold War? Well, that and the Yankees watching the playoffs on TV.