The Red Sox Miss Yet Another Opportunity
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by Nejoshi
Staked to a 7-2 in the top of the 8th inning, the Boston Red Sox looked ready to start their last series of the year with the Yankees on the right foot. That promising start became a catastrophic finish as the reliable Red Sox bullpen allowed six runs in the 8th, dropping the game 8-7 and seeing their grip of the AL East loosen to a manageable margin of 4 ½ games. I use the word manageable to emphasize the fact that New York can still actually win this division over the last two weeks.
It seems like Boston just can’t seem to put the nail in the coffin of the Evil Empire, finding ways to keep them at bay in the standings without completely burying their challengers. Credit Joe Torre’s club for refusing to surrender in the late stages of a September game where fatigue from a long six-month regular season is certainly setting in. Instead, they torched one of Boston’s best relievers, Hideki Okajima, for four runs in 1/3 inning, then won the game on an Alex Rodriguez single off Jonathan Papelbon, one of the AL’s most dominant closers.
For all the gaudy numbers A-Rod has put up this season, – they have been absurd – he has to make his money now and in October. The scrutiny of the New York media will be on him now more than ever, especially because the Giants and Jets look to be lost causes through the first week of the NFL season. Rodriguez’s game winning hit wasn’t a homer, or a towering shot, just a simple seeing-eye single that did everything the Yankees wanted. New York’s third basemen looks to be on a personal mission to erase all his playoff failures of the past and prove the doubters wrong.
New York has now won seven of the last eight between the rivals, and appears to have efficiently planted some doubt in the mind of the confident Red Sox who have been cruising at or near the top of baseball for months.
With two games left in the series, the Yankees have the potential to cut their deficit in half entering the final two weeks of the season. But, with their grip on the wildcard getting stronger, New York feels great about their chances of making it to October. Once there, they could make some serious damage, especially if they could avoid the struggling Halos in the first round.
Currently, the Indians and Angels are in a dead lock for the league’s second best record at 86-61. As it stands now, the Yankees, holders of the wildcard, would be slated to play the AL’s second best team. As a fan of the Bronx Bombers, the bias is heavily toward the surging Indians, who are much more inexperienced and don’t possess the phenomenal track record against the pinstripes that Los Angeles can boast about. You can bet fans in the Big Apple will be rooting for the Tribe in the final weeks of the season.
The Red Sox had been searching hard for a promising start from Daisuke Matzusaka, who had struggled mightily during the last month. He gave Boston exactly what they needed, which makes the bullpen’s rare collapse that much more disheartening. In the second game of the series, Boston will look to stop the bleeding when they send their best pitcher, Josh Beckett, to the mound as he goes for his ML-leading 19th win. The hard-throwing right-hander has been considered a contender for the Cy Young award; one would be hard pressed to find a more important start for him to justify his stake at the award than Saturday’s duel against fellow 18-game winner and Cy Young candidate Chien-Ming Wang. One wonders if/when the Red Sox will finally put an end to the Yankees run of AL East titles.
This was first published on The Sports Lounge
