Time (For The Rays) To Panic

As I crept into bed last night with the Sox down 7-0 to the unstoppable Tampa Bay Rays, I had a bit of a sad feeling. Not that the Sox were on the brink of losing but that they looked like a bunch of losers going down in only five games to the surging Rays. David Ortiz looked pathetic, going so far as to walk to first base with the bat on his shoulder as he was easily thrown out. Jason Varitek looked like Jason Varitek (that's not a good thing). The starting pitching was horrendous for the fourth game in a row. The leadoff spot was an automatic out. No one was hitting with runners on base.

In short, the Red Sox looked dead playing a team that looked more like the 1927 Yankees than 2008 Rays. Balls were flying off the bats of the Rays and out of the park left and right, even though there was a stiff breeze blowing in from centerfield. Scott Kazmir was getting in and out of jams in the first few innings and being let off the hook by a team that looked like they had no killer instinct or even a desire to be playing baseball in October.

And then something kind of weird happened. Dustin Pedroia drove in a run to make it 7-1 and then Big Papi came to the plate. This was the same Big Papi who was booed by the Fenway (un)Faithful the entire game. I'll let the following photos tell the rest of the story:

With one swing of the bat, Big Papi, the greatest clutch hitter in Red Sox history, makes it a 7-4 game:











After watching Manny Delcarmen implode (again) on the mound, Jonathan Papelbon comes in and pitches two scoreless innings:













JD Drew brings the Red Sox within one run of the Rays with his two run blast. Yes, that was JD Drew. I know, I can't believe it, either:











Coco Crisp ties the game at seven with this single, which also represented the first hit from the leadoff spot by the Red Sox the entire series:











Kevin Youkilis comes around to score on JD Drew's ground rule single in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Red Sox the biggest postseason comeback in the last 79 years:










This kid pretty much sums things up:












This had the feeling of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals game where the Celtics made the greatest playoff comeback in NBA history. This is just the Red Sox' way of trying to trump the Celtics. Gotta love a little competition between two hometown teams.

So now it's back to Tampa Bay with our rotation set up perfectly for the last two games of this series. And I'd be a total liar if I didn't admit that I'm petrified of Josh Beckett in game six. I have no doubt that he could go out and throw a no hitter. . . or give up nine runs in the bottom of the first inning, which would only allow the Red Sox to make an even greater comeback. I said it earlier (even though it was my third prediction), Sox in seven.



Looks like this preview will have to wait.

Red Sox To Defend Their Title

While I've been busy disecting the Patriots and the NFL the last few weeks, the Boston Red Sox have sneakily crept back into the playoffs and will most likely be the wild card team. And last I remembered, that worked out pretty good for them in 2004. It also means another first round series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Orange County, California. And as we all know, the Red Sox own the Angels in the playoffs. I think they've won something like 73 straight playoff games against the Angels.

But here's the funny thing about this year's team: I don't even think they're that good. Maybe I'm just spoiled by undefeated seasons, victory parades and the home town team running up the score, but this year's version of the Red Sox is vastly different than in year's past. Here's a breakdown of their season to date:

• Curt Shilling goes down for the year in spring training.

• The Red Sox start the year in Japan (doesn't that seem like six years ago?) where they have seven different opening ceremonies in five nights. They then fly to Oakland for their opening ceremony and complete the trifecta by being the opposing team in Toronto's home opener. All of this in a span of ten days. I'm tired just thinking about it.

• David Ortiz is out for a month with a writst injury and still hasn't looked the same since coming back. His wrist still clicks when he swings. I'm no medical genius but I'm guessing that's not a good thing.

• JD Drew looks like JD Drew (he may have been the All Star MVP but I still think he sucks) and just returned after missing two months with a mysterous back injury that required an epidural. I guess I shouldn't make fun of him if he just had a baby. He returned to action two nights ago to play a whopping three innings before his back tightened up again and had to be removed.

• Mike Lowell misses a month of action and is playing with a torn labrum in his hip. That sounds like fun, huh?

• Jason Varitek grows old before our eyes and can't hit a fastball or a curveball or a changeup or a meat ball. There are also rumors flying around that he's romantically involved with NESN's Heidi Whatney.

• Julio Lugo went down with an injury (thank goodness) and is currently on the 60 day DL. Jed Lowrie fills in for him and steals his job.

• Josh Beckett has numbness and tingling in his pitching arm, scares half of New England to death by going to see Dr. James Andrews to have a dye test in his elbow, and misses a month.

• Daisuke Matsuzaka throws 100 pitches and can only get out of the fifth inning in nearly every start on his way to his current record of 18-2 even though he's walked 852 batters this year. I don't even bother turning on the games when he's pitching because I know I won't see the end of it.

• Manny Being Manny goes to another level this year and he's finally traded to the Dodgers, where there's talk of him being the NL MVP for only two months of play. He even nicknames himself Mannywood. I still prefer to call him fruitcake. I would take Jason Bay any day of the week and twice on Sunday over Manny by the way.

• Tim Wakefield has missed more than a month of action with various ailments throughout the year and is looking more and more like a 42 year old pitcher.

• Clay Bucholz can't get major leaguers out and the Sox get fed up with his antics by demoting him to Double A, where he still pitches like crap.

• Mike Timlin can't get anyone out and can only be trusted in games where we're either winning by ten or losing by ten.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, these are your 2008 Boston Red Sox. And you know what? I think they're going to win the World Series again this year. They've outscored their opponents by 165 runs this year while playing in the toughest division in all of baseball. But you know what I love about this team- our starting pitching. Who is going to beat Beckett, Matsuzaka and Lester? Beckett is one of the best post season pitchers in baseball history, Matsuzaka will throw so many pitches that he'll literally cause the other team to fall asleep and Lester has been the real ace of this team all year. Their bullpen is a bit shaky but when you have Okajima and Papelbon that's pretty much all you need.

One last note about this year. While I'm happy for the Tampa Rays being in the playoffs, it just doesn't feel like October baseball without the Yankees. If for no other reason, it was always fun watching Alex Rodriguez fail miserably in clutch situations.

Once the schedule is complete, I'll be back with a first round series breakdown. Although, it doesn't even matter because I'm already picking the Sox in four, regardless of their first round opponent. Is it too early to fire up the duck boats?

Josh Beckett is Wicked Smaht

So the talk of the town around here (even bigger than the Elliot #9 Spitzer prostitution story and Mumbles Menino being the 109th highest paid City of Boston employee) is that Josh Beckett has a crippling back injury that may force him into a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In fact, Beckett may only live another month or two because of this rare, newfound terminal condition.

Actually, that's not quite true but based on the coverage of Beckett's 'injury,' you'd think the guy was some kind of number one ace for the defending World Series Champions. Oh, yeah, he is the number one ace for the defending World Series Champions!

I have to admit that I'm not quite sure what's going on here. Is Beckett really injured? He may very well be but I'm not buying it. I just think he's way smahtah than everyone else and has found a way out of going to the season opening series in Japan. And who can blame him? Beckett is the backbone of this team right now and is by far the best pitcher that they have. Do you honestly think that Beckett wants to get on a plane and sit for close to 20 hours straight, pitch against the Oakland A's in Japan and then make the return 20 hour flight home? I'm guessing no.

And he's gotta be looking at Daisuke Matsuzaka and thinking that he got his wife pregnant just so he wouldn't have to go home to Japan so there really must not be much to see there. I've go to believe that Beckett's just looking for a way out of this series and I'm fine with it. Heck, he could have just come out and said that he thinks this is a stupid idea and doesn't want to do it and I would have been totally cool with that, too. Heck, they could have given him an incentive clause in his contract for not going and I would still think he's the best pitcher in the American League.

I wouldn't even be surprised if at some point down the road we find out that Theo Epstein and Terry Francona are behind this 'injury' business. Somehow, they're already setting up their pitching staff so that Beckett can dominate the Billy Crystal and the Yankees the first time we play them this year.

Look, Coco Crap has tried this stunt all spring training by coming up with one ailment after another and no one's been fooled by his injuries. And besides, Coco's gotta go so he can be the stewardess on the plane- there's no other explanation why Coco's still on this team. I wonder if they've told Coco that they only got him a one way ticket.

I think the only thing that's surprising about this 'injury' is that Manny Being Manny didn't think of it first, although I have to believe that Manny probably thinks Japan is the 51st State of the Union.

AL Cy Young went to the wrong guy

I've heard a lot of talk about the AL Cy Young voting since it was announced and everyone seems to be in complete agreement that C.C. Sabathia deserved it based on the following numbers:

Sabathia went 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA and 209 strikeouts, pitching a major league-high 241 innings. He finished the voting with 119 points.

Josh Beckett, 20-7, became the only big leaguer to win 20 games since 2005, compiling a 3.27 ERA with 194 strikeouts in 200 2/3 innings. He finished the voting with 86 points.

So the only thing separating these two candidates was the fact that C.C. pitched 40 more innings? Well, good for him. It took him forty extra innings to win one less game than Beckett. I don't get why this was never brought up in any of the discussions I heard. Granted, those discussions were about staff meetings, what time to close the office on Friday and office supplies, but still, I never heard one mention of this. Anyway, congratulations C.C., you're the AL Cy Young winner for 2007.

Too bad the votes are cast before the playoffs start. C.C. was 1-2 with an 8.80 ERA and 13 walks in three playoff outings. Beckett mowed through the Indians two times in the AL championship series and went 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA in four postseason starts, striking out 35 and walking two. Congratulations, you're a World Series Champion!