Championship Series Day 9

Boston 4 Tampa Bay 2

Do you get the feeling the Sox don't start getting interested in a playoff series until they are a loss away from from being eliminated? They were terrible this series until the 7th inning of game 5 when they seems to decide "ok we are down by 7 with 3 innings to go, it is time to start playing".

Today, Beckett still didn't look right but worked his way thru 5 innings and only gave up the 2 runs on solo homers. Okajima, Masterson and Papelbon pitched the last 4 innings and didn't give up a hit.

Offensively Youk drove in 2 with a solo homer and a ground out with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Varitek came out of a deep slump (season long) long enough to hit a solo homer and Ortiz drove home 1 with a 2 out single. Crisp went 3 for 4 with a walk and was picked off once. Ortiz and Drew each went 2 for 4 with a walk.

For the Rays James Shields fought thru 5.2 innings with poor control, gave up 9 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned and 3 walks. The Ray's pen shut down the Sox for 3.1 inning, but by then it was too late. Offensively, other than Upton (man is he amazing or what) and Bartlett's (??) solo homers they did nothing.

Canadians and former Jays: Bay went 0 for 3 with a walk and looked bad at the plate. Gross was 0 for 1 with a strike out, looked awful in the field and was removed for a pinch hitter his second time up. He has been terrible this series, I very much doubt we'll see him tomorrow. Trever Miller, who pitched for the Jays a few years, back got the final out for the Rays. Hinske still hasn't appeared in a game.

Sox of the Day: Ortiz (.178 WPA), Okajima (.097) and Masterson (.093). Suckage Sox (Sock?) Lowrie (-.090). Ray of the Day: Bartlett (.265). Suckage Rays: Iwamura (-.143), JP Howell (-.098) and Longoria (-.096).

Tomorrow night, Game 7, has Jon Lester, who was thumped in game 3, against Matt Garza, who was great in the same game and who we saw way too much of against the Jays this season. It should be a great game.