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.

Boston 8 Tampa Bay 7

So the Rays win in 5 and are going to the World Ser.....what? Sox won? No no.....Rays were up 7-0, Sox couldn't hit anything. Fangraphs had it as a 99.3% chance of Rays win, nobody comes back from that. Course nobody comes back from down 3-0 against the Yankees either.

Kazmir was great, pitching 6 innings of 2 hit ball, walking 3 and striking out 7. But to start the 7th Grant Balfour came out to pitch, he was terrific all season. Today? Well, Jed Lowrie lead off with a double, but Varitek and Kotsay each hit fly outs. Crisp singled, Pedroia singled and the Sox had their first run. Then Big Pappy, in a deep slump, hits a 3 run homer. 7-4 Rays. Dan Wheeler comes in and gets Youk to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 8th Wheeler walked Bay, then JD Drew hit a home run and it was a 1 run game suddenly. Lowrie flied out and pinch hitter Sean Casey struck out. Kotsay doubled, then in a 10 pitch at bat Crisp singled to right. Gabe Gross' throw home was....well it was awful, I have no idea where he was throwing it. He had to throw home, it was the tying run and it should have been a close play. Instead it wasn't. Crisp was thrown out at 2nd but he had to think the throw was going home. So after 8 it is tied, how can you let a team come back from down by 7?

In the Ray's half of the 9th Jason Bartlett led off with a single, I figured we'd see a bunt but Iwamura flied out to left instead. Upton walked, considering he had hit 3 home runs so far this series, not such a bad thing for the Sox but then Pena batting behind him had 3 homers too. But Pena hit into a double play to end the inning.

Bottom of the 9th Sox fans had to think this was their chance with Pedroia, Ortiz and Youk to bat, but 2 quick outs and it didn't look so good. Youk hit a soft grounder that Longoria made a nice pickup on but then threw it away, Youk to 2nd. They walked Bay intentionally, yeah I likely would have done it too. But 3 Straight balls to Drew and he could wait for his pitch, which he drove over Gross' head in right and the Sox win.

Now I don't think the Sox will come back to win the series but, they have done it before. Former Jays and Canadians in the game: Gross was 0 for 3 with a walk, and made that terrible throw that allowed Kotsay to score the winning run. Bay was 0 for 3 with 2 walks and a run. Kevin Cash caught the 9th inning.

Red Sox of the Day: Drew (.554 WPA), Crisp (.211) and Masterton (.143). Francona deserves a nod for bringing Papelbon in in the 7th with the team down by 7. He pitched 2 innings, and stopped the bleeding.....well after allowing a double off the LF wall that scored 2 runs. Suckage Sox: DiceK (-.276), Lowrie (-.097) and Pedroia (-.950).

Rays of the Day: Upton (.251, 3 for 4 with a homer and 4 RBI) and Kazmir (.221). Suckage Rays: Wheeler (-.399) and Howell (-.357).

The other interesting bit of news from the game Schilling threw his first pitch for the Sox today, but was just the ceremonial first pitch. Game 6 is Saturday, Beckett who has been awful in the playoffs, Sox have to hope he finds how to pitch like the playoff hero he once was. James Shields starts for the Rays. Should be interesting.

Rays 9 Red Sox 8

Hey there is a former Jay in this series that I totally forgot about, Mike Timlin. Of course, Francona had forgotten about him too, at least until the 11th inning of last night's game. I'm not sure why he didn't go to Paul Byrd before Timlin, but having a couple of weeks didn't improve Timlin's control, he walked the first 2 batters then got an out on a hit and run moving the runners to second and third. An intentional walk then BJ pop fly that was just deep enough to score a speedy Fernando Perez and Timlin got a loss.

Timlin has a fond place in my heart for getting the last out in the Jay's first World Series win against the Braves but he really should have retired before this season. But then when you score 8 runs in a game you really ought to win before the 11th inning. Beckett had his second straight awful playoff start in row. He really doesn't look good, there must be some sort of injury that he's trying to pitch thru. He only pitched 4.1 and gave up 9 hits, 8 earned and 3 home runs. In between Beckett and Timlin there was 5.2 innings of shutout relief.

Scott Kazmir, for the Rays wasn't much better, lasting 4.1 as well, giving up 6 hits 5 earned and 3 homers of his own. The Rays bullpen weren't as good as the Sox' pen, they gave up 3 runs over the next 2.2 innings to allow the Sox to tied the game. Then Dan Wheeler came in and pitched 3.1 scoreless innings to get the games to extras.

So what did other former Jays and Canadians do in last night's game? Gabe Gross went 0 for 3. Kevin Cash got into the game to catch for an inning and Jason Bay was one of the offensive heroes of the game going 3 for 5 driving in 4.

Rays of the Day: Dan Wheeler (.346 WPA), Evan Longoria (.327), B.J.Upton (.234), Dave Price (.137) and J.P. Howell (.126). Suckage Rays were Kazir (-.332), Grant Balfour (-.210), Trever Miller (-.128). and Willy Aybar (-.099).

Red Sox of the Day: Dustin Pedroia (.473, with 2 homers), Jason Bay (.398), Papelbon (.201) and Okajima (.149). Suckage Sox Beckett (-.711!!), Timlin (-.363), Mark Kotsay (-.261), Ellsbury (-.254) and Youk (-.118).

Tonight's game has the old man Jamie Moyer (3.71, 16-7) starting for the Phillies against Hiroki Kuroda (3.73, 9-10).

Yesterday was a good day for teams that won their first ALDS game, as the Rays and Red Sox went 2-0 up on their ALDS foes.  Chicago at least is going home, but the Angels seem pretty much done. 

Tampa Bay 6, Chicago 2:  Tampa beat Chicago behind a good start from Scott Kazmir and solid work from it's bullpen.  Former Bluebird Banter target Akinori Iwamura hit a 2-run home run, Dioner Navarro and Carl Crawford had good days at the plate, B.J. Upton tripled and scored, and Rocco Baldelli chipped in with an RBI single. Toronto media favourite Orlando Cabrera did do a nice job leading off for the Chi Sox, with 2 hits in 4 appearances.  Matt Garza will face John Danks in game 3 on Sunday with the Sox facing elimination. 

Boston 7, Los Angeles of Anaheim 5:  It has been years and I still cannot get over how stupid that name is.  Ervin Santana gave up 4 runs in the first inning to put Boston out on top, but the Angels fought back to tie this game at 5 going into the 9th inning.  Enter K-Rod, perhaps having one of the most overrated seasons for a closer of all time.  J.D. Drew hit a 2-run bomb, Papelbon shut down the Angels, and the Sox won again. Boston and the Angels will also play their game 3 on Sunday with the Halos facing elimination and turning to Joe Saunders.  Josh Beckett pitches for the Sox.

I was going to write something about Cito this morning but this on Mockingbird said everything I wanted to, with less typing for me.

We are rolling into Boston at just the wrong time, they scored 37 runs in a three game series against Texas but then we'll throw better pitchers up against them than Francisco, Mendoza and Hunter. Let's see them got 37 against Doc, AJ and Marcum. On the other hand, let's not see that.

Speaking of the Red Sox, Jonathan Papelbon isn't unhappy Manny is gone. Papelbon isn't one of the great interviews of all time.....

A piece on MLB.com on 2008 first round draft picks mentioned David Cooper:

As the first first-rounder to sign, Cooper has taken advantage of the extra playing time. He's been twice promoted and the Cal product is now in the Class A Advanced Florida State League. Combined, he's hit an impressive .336 in 52 games with a .923 OPS, driving in 44 runs in 211 at-bats.

Russ Adams seems to have found himself at the plate at Triple A batting .395 with 3 homeruns and 10 RBI in his last ten games. I guess it won't mean anything for him but I'd like to see someone else at third other than Scoot while Rolen is on the DL.

I guess you all heard that the White Sox hit four homeruns. I'm not sure what the big deal is, we've hit five this month. What? They hit four in a row! Oh ok.