The Red Sox were eliminated from playoff contention after they lost to Baltimore, 4-3, in a ninth-inning rally and Tampa Bay beat New York in a staggering 8-7 come-from-behind win within a matter of minutes. What can you say about what we saw tonight? Tom Caron referred to it as "A kick to the you-know-whats." We'll go with that.
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They'll probably make the playoffs despite Jonathan Papelbon's first blown save since May 9th as Baltimore beat the Red Sox, 7-5, last night. Baltimore took two of three games this week with a fourth today.
Jacoby Ellsbury usually gets more than one hit in a game for the Red Sox. He had only one hit on Tuesday, a single, and made it count by driving in the winning run in the ninth inning in a 3-2 win over Cleveland. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, in as a pinch-runner for Jason Varitek, scored the run.
Jon Lester improved to 8-2 despite a less than stellar pitching performance in a 6-4 victory over the Yankees, Boston's fourth straight win, fourth straight win in the Bronx in 2011, and and sixth in seven games against New York. The Sox are now just percentage points behing the Yankees in the A.L. East.
Theo found more of John Henry's money to spend and gave raises to Jonathan Papelbon and Jacoby Ellsbury. Papelbon gets $12 million for 2011. Only Mariano Rivera gets paid more as a relief pitcher at $15 million. Ellsbury jumps from $496,000 to $2.4 million after playing in only 18 games in 2010. If you're scoring at home, the Red Sox payroll will be about $163 million for 2011.
The White Sox swept the Red Sox and finally put the Boston squad out of its misery for 2010. As the Globe says, just look at Terry Francona's lineup against Tampa Bay: Daniel Nava, Ryan Kalish, Yamaico Navarro, and Lars Anderson are all starting. As for Jonathan Papelbon, well, he's had better nights.
The Red Sox did a little bit of everything in Wednesday's 7-5 victory over the Angels. Home runs, timely pitching, and help from the LAA powered Boston to a 9th straight win this season over the Angels.
Timing is everything. One second, you're looking at a long plane ride home, a long period of soul-searching, and months and months of talking about referees. A second later, you're in ecstasy, shocked and delighted, on your way to the elimination rounds of the World Cup. And as gravy, you send Slovenia packing.
So...about that regular season.
Sticking it in the face of everyone who was skeptical about their ability to turn it on when it mattered (not that, you know, we ever doubted or anything), the Celtics won their fourth straight playoff game last night, sticking it to a Magic team that may have actually given them their best shot last night.
We've dealt with worse. We know that you woke up this morning to a world you don't recognize, where our glory days are indubitably behind us, where you don't know if you can trust your neighbor anymore, where living in Boston doesn't feel any better than living in Cincinnati or Oklahoma.
We are talking about sports here, by the way.
Pity the crew that was responsible for staffing the TD Garden on Monday. Not only were they responsible for not one, but two games on a holiday Monday, they weren't given the option of leaving early. Instead, they had to endure every painful moment of one terribly lousy Garden day.
Atlanta's coach Mike Woodson viewed this game as a measuring stick for his squad. The Hawks measured up well with the Celtics and won, 97-86. Atlanta led 72-70 after three quarters and outscored the veteran C's crew 25-16 in the fourth.
Former Celtics player Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 24 points. Jamal Crawford added 18 points. Paul Pierce led Boston with 24. Pierce went to the floor once, came up limping, went to see the trainer, and returned with a brace thing on his leg.
Boston dropped to 8-2 with their second home loss of the season. Comcast Sportsnet said the second home loss of 2008-09 took place on January 7. If you're wondering how the rag-tag Hawks won, check the box score and look for "Rebounds." Or, go with Kevin Garnett, who said Atlanta simply "beat us."
“The season doesn’t wind down. It just comes to a crashing halt,” Boston manager Terry Francona.
That quote wraps up the entire sports day as the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots were on the losing end of comebacks today.
With most of September left to go, it's too early to say anything definitively. But it sure seems this morning like the Red Sox dealt Tampa Bay a devastating blow in the AL Wild Card race last night.
It wasn't enough to get everybody free tacos, but Jacoby Ellsbury made history in the Red Sox' win over Chicago last night, stealing his 55th base of the season and breaking Tommy Harper's club record.
Never known for being a fleet team, the Sox have gone entire seasons witout the entire roster stealing 55 bases. Just in case you remember only those dark days, the Globe has provided us with a stolen base primer. The low point in recent years, according to our research, was 1983 (shut up; it's recent to us), when a team full of sluggards and plodders managed to swipe only 30 bases the whole season (leader with 11: Jerry Remy). So as far as team records go, stolen bases was a nice, easy, attainable one. Which doesn't mean our hat's not off to Jacoby, or that we're not going to eat a taco in his honor later today.
The folks who operate the Fenway Park scoreboard have been missing out on a key opportunity to help out the team. Just keep those two red circles on the scoreboard lit anytime the Sox are up at bat. Before you know it, baseballs will be clanging off the Green Monster like nobody's business.
Red Sox fans, though spending the entire month of August being tossed around in the Dryer of Emotion, could at least pretty much count on a win when Josh Beckett pitches. Even, apparently, when Josh Beckett pitches lousy.
Another All Star Game, another win for the American League. It's been 13 years since the Junior Circuit lost (not counting the tie game, which America lost); the 1996 game featured only one Red Sox player (Mo Vaughn) and two youngsters named Alex R. and Pedro M. making their ASG debuts. It was a long time ago. Last night, the AL used a lights-out performance by its bullpen to seal down a 4-3 win in St. Louis.
The Riverfront Times has photos of Red Sox All Star pitchers Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Papelbon making Boston look classy at the Playboy All Star bash in St. Louis. It may be Wakefield's first All Star game, but at least he looks like he's seen a woman before, which is more than we can say for Paps. (Some photos NSFW.)
So said Jonathan Papelbon afterwards. And if you're one of the millions who figured that (hour-long rain delay) + (10-1 lead) = (bedtime), we understand. Unfortunately, among the snoozing millions were the Sox bullpen, who turned a 10-1 lead into a devastating 11-10 loss in no time. This was ugly.
The Red Sox clearly felt their happy fans needed a little tension and drama last night. Why not? The Sox have proven so far this year that they can beat the Yankees in blowouts, in pitching masterpieces, in slugfests, in New York, in Boston, for richer, for even richer...why not save the good times for the end just once?
Why is Derek Jeter making this face? Is it just because the Yankees have now lost all seven games to the Red Sox this year? Is it because first place in the AL East just changed hands? Or is he just going loco after having to stand in the field for long inning after long inning while his pitching staff lets the Sox run around the bases?
We're old school Sox fans here at Bostonist, which means that we haven't been able to shake the "what are they going to do to break your heart this time" mentality that was drilled into us at an early age. But we've heard so much about this new Red Sox fan philosophy - the "of course they're going to get it done, when have they ever not?" outlook - that we're going to use Monday's Red Sox-Twins showdown as a reason to try it out.
Well, Red Sox fans - it's OK to hate instant replay now.
For the first time since it was hurriedly instituted late last season, the umps went to the tape last night at Fenway, reviewing what was called a double by Omir Santos, realizing that it hit the angstrom unit between the top of the wall and a ledge, and called it a home run. A game-winning, pefect-Jonathan-Papelbon-season-spoiling home run. 3-2 Mets. Papelbon on instant replay: "No. Not a fan of it."
Act I, In Which We Are Rocked Like Hurricanes
OK, the excitement's mostly died down, but we can still string it out for one more day.
That's our own Jonathan Papelbon, who can afford any number of dogs that won't destroy priceless artifacts after signing a one-year deal for $6.25 million. Papelbon was under contract for 2009, but this helps the Sox avoid arbitration (Theo hates arbitration) and gives a sweet payday to one of the best closers in the league.
Much as we respect what Jonathan Papelbon is able to do on a mound -- and the way the guy knows how to celebrate -- we're going to call shenanigans on a remark he made Friday down in Florida.
Here, in the Bostonist confessional, it's OK to be honest. Did you give up last night? Did you see Daisuke get rocked for five early runs, (and Delcarmen for two more) look at the anemic Sox lineup, and think, "I don't need this agony and misery tonight"?
That was a long wait for some bad news, wasn't it? The bad news is that past results are NOT indicative of future success, and apparently the Angels aren't going to go away quietly after all. Now the Red Sox have to learn from the adversity that they had to wait for until the second round in 2004 and 2007.