Unbiased Postseason Recap: Day Fourteen
by SC on Oct 17, 2008 12:45 AM EDT
in Post-Game
42 comments
Red Sox 8, Rays 7 (Tampa Bay leads series, 3-2)
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas
In other words, holy crap. Wow. Man.
I am as much a hater of TV buzz talk as anyone, probably moreso than most. I hate "knowing how to win" and "grit" unless it's John Wayne charging at Robert Duvall.
But if you don't think this game could play a major, major role in the psyche of the Tampa Bay Rays, then you've just plain not watched baseball things happen before.
I'm rooting for Tampa Bay, too, but I don't care how much you hate Boston -- give them some props for this. Down 7-0, getting totally dominated by a team that had blown them out in two straight games, their backs against the wall. It was all but over, just like last year against Cleveland, just like 2004 against the Yankees.
Three innings. Eight runs. David Ortiz awakens from his slumber, J.D. Drew adds to his budding postseason legend, Coco Crisp with an INCREDIBLE at-bat, Pedroia and Lowrie keepin' on keepin' on...
Man. Wow. Come on.
This is not a team that plans to go down without a big-time fight, and right now, they have momentum. They changed that game seemingly at will. The Fenway Faithful roared back into lively form.
Sure, they're going to St. Pete now. But they've been here before. They're the team to beat, the defending World Champions.
...is Tampa Bay going to be able to pull it together?
I hope so. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my doubts.
And beyond all that, what a game. What a classic of a game. Absolutely amazing.
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That was freaking amazing
and kinda made me miss watching the O’s, where the bullpen totally shits the hot tub. An epic battle with Coco Crisp!?!? Cheez and rice.
Nice touch bringing Pap into the 7th.
Next game!
Curt never met a buttered roll he didn't like.
by CoachOfEarl on Oct 17, 2008 1:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Nice touch bringing Pap into the 7th.
Yes, Francona managed to BP well. Maddon is freakin idiot. Stuck with Wheeler entirely too long. Left Bradford in the pen when he should have faced Bay in the 9th. Howell had Calvin Schiraldi like fear plus Drew has apparentedly done against Howell. .
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 1:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The Rays will be fine… psychologically. James Shields will take the ball Saturday night and I doubt he’ll be thinking about this game. An injured Beckett will pitch for the Sox. I still like the Rays.
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 1:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
But they have to win game 6
If the series goes to 7, I just can’t see them winning it, even if its at home. These Red Sox comebacks are no flukes.
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words—"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-Jack Handey
by jobe on Oct 17, 2008 1:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
dah, i don't buy this, they have to win 6 stuff
If they lose the series, it’s because Lester pitches lights out.
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 2:54 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
not because of some psychological blow back.
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 3:00 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
That was an amazing game
Hopefully the Rays have short memories because that kind of loss is pretty brutal. I’m sort of surprised by the way it happened just because the Rays had been so dominating over the past few games, but I’m also not. I’ve been wondering where the Red Sox have been and last night they showed up again. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they went on to win. The most annoying thing about that would be all of the press hoopla about them coming back again.
Big picture is that the Rays went into Fenway and took 2 of 3 which is pretty freaking great. They only have to win 1 out of 2 but they better do it against the Ghost of Josh Beckett because no way do they beat up on Lester again the way they did in game 3.
[Guthrie's] president of my heart. ~PhilR8
by Stacey on Oct 17, 2008 7:57 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
God damn Red Sox!!!
I hate terms like momentum and all that gamer shit too… but Jesus Christ. What the hell happened!?!
Kevbo: [to George Sherrill] George, you look a lot like Vin Diesel...
Flatbill: Let's get somethin' straight... Vin Diesel looks like me.
-From "The Making of Orioles Magic"
by dayzd toe on Oct 17, 2008 8:57 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I blame dipshit Chip Caray
He started talking about the champagne being on ice in like the 6th or 7th inning. This is the same guy who was talking up Dice-K’s Game One no-hitter in the 4th of that game. Guy’s like Papa Shango or something.
That game last night? Made the MDM look like Child’s Play.
by Brotz13 on Oct 17, 2008 10:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I thought it was real cool
To know that all of the bitch-fans left after the 7th inning stretch.
The upper decks looked like they were only at 60 to 70% capacity in some areas. Fuck it I was almost rooting for the Red Sox last night, because I don’t want to deal with 6 days of no baseball.
The stock market will never recover, our armies will never again be #1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of their lives - HST
by the fix is in on Oct 17, 2008 10:21 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
OMG
by Awesome Mike Awesome on Oct 17, 2008 11:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Speak of the devil
SC and I were talking about that slimeball Hulk Hogan last night, and I’m pretty sure that guy is his friend from Florida.
My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get ahold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.' -Earl Weaver
by Baltimo on Oct 17, 2008 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
wow really
Brian Knobs? I hope he took a Sox fan to Pitty City.
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 17, 2008 1:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I have yet to see what it was that got him the boot
it must have been something truly NASTY, BABY.
by Awesome Mike Awesome on Oct 17, 2008 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Were gonna get nasty all over '93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ETZBVC1Y1o
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words—"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-Jack Handey
by jobe on Oct 18, 2008 4:03 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Just back from a week in Zvenigorod, the "Switzerland of Russia"-- so Swiss it has no forking internet.
No joke, the whole city was having “technical difficulties.” Or the whole city is a technical difficulty, I dunno.
So I get back today, shoot over to Yahoo Sports first thing, page back to check the recaps of the Series games I’ve missed one by one. Rayz drub Sawx, check. Rayz uber-drub Sawx, check. Rayz….what, fall asleep? Start drinking in the 6th? Cheez Whiz, pretty freakazoid result there— even for Fenway, world champeen host of freakazoid results because, cue the cliche machine, No Lead Is Safe At Fenway.
Hey, you gotta give ‘em credit. I mean the clods who designed the park, of course, baseball’s all time homer haven. Never a dull moment when you have a wall behind shortstop and a minimum of LH pitching to complicate life.
OK, back to La Trop, probably La Cruddiest venue in the league. But we’ve been through that. I just wish the game didn’t start at 4 frickin’ a.m.
C’mon Rayz, so much for farting around. Commit a natural act and put the Sawx out of everyone’s misery. Um, yee-hah or something.
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.
by Titov on Oct 17, 2008 11:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Uh
exactly which of the hits involved in the comeback went anywhere near the left field wall? (As, say, Upton’s home run…Upton’s 2-run double…)
by Awesome Mike Awesome on Oct 17, 2008 11:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Earth to AMA, earth to AMA, come in please! Who said anything ABOUT how this comeback happened?
I didn’t see the game. Or make any claims about it. Or…oh what’s the use.
Here, read Boswell instead. Yep, nasty comeback, all right. But hey, enjoy, my friend. A win’s a win.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR2008101700074.html?hpid=topnews
RAYS MANAGE TO LOSE
“Dealt a royal flush of a seven-run lead, Maddon seemingly said, "I’ll take four.” Presented with a situation in which normal deployment of his bullpen should have sufficed, he tore up the book, the appendix and all the footnotes to it as well.
With two on and two outs in the seventh and David Ortiz at bat facing righty Grant Balfour, the situation called for a left-hander with power stuff, especially a tough curveball to overpower Ortiz, in an 0-for-17 slump. In other words, it called for Howell, who in fact did face Ortiz later in the game and struck him out easily.
If Howell had come in to face Ortiz in the seventh, the rest of the night would have laid out in normal Rays fashion. Let Howell start the eighth. If he gets in trouble, turn to Chad Bradford. Then, in the ninth, ask closer Dan Wheeler for just one inning — starting fresh with nobody on base — since he had his longest outing in years in Game 2, throwing 48 pitches in 3 1/3 gritty innings. If you somehow lose a 7-0 lead using that conventional but sensible progression, then you’re just fated to lose."
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.
by Titov on Oct 17, 2008 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
So that third paragraph
was just useless, space-wasting nonsense? Got it. Fits right in!
by Awesome Mike Awesome on Oct 17, 2008 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I...I...I... RESEMBLE that remark! And my entire 3rd paragraph is DEEPLY offended!
I give up, AMA, I just can’t go one-on-one with you. You’re just too smart.
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.
by Titov on Oct 17, 2008 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Bullshit.
Bullshit to “damaged psyches” and bullshit to “mystique” and bullshit to “knowing how to win games”/
The Rays knew the Sox were capable of this. They played them 18 times this year and virtually split the series (the Rays won 10-8). While commentators didn’t even know who the Rays were for the beginning of this series, by yesterday, they had annointed them.
The Rays are smarter than that. They just saw Boston returning to form after, frankly, stinking it up for a couple of games.
They didn’t win 97 games in a fluke. They only gave up two games to Boston in Tropicana all year (one of them was last week).
I don’t think they’ll be pissing in their uniforms on Saturday because of 3 innings where the intensity of Fenway got to them.
by zknower on Oct 17, 2008 11:44 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Bullshit to "damaged psyches" and bullshit to "mystique" and bullshit to "knowing how to win games"/
Seriously, I beleive in damanged pysches as much I believe in clutch hitters. On XM radio, Jim Duquette was rambling about my other favorite non-sense, “momentum.”
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
so it was the intensity of Fenway
What does that qualify as exactly? Something you can measure?
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 17, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
c'mon SC
If you fail, and you have 50,000+ fans screaming for joy at your failure, it’s easier for it to become an epic fail. It’s easier for the wheels to come off the bus. Which they did.
Don’t even begin to tell me you don’t feel there’s a difference between playing in front of the opposition’s fans vs. your own.
by zknower on Oct 17, 2008 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
sure
Of course there is. So it’s some sort of mystique or aura. Dun dun dunnnn the Red Sooooxxxx.
I hope they lose. I’m just saying it changed a lot between 7-0 and 7-8. A LOT.
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 17, 2008 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
no, you miss my point.
it’s not a situation singular to Fenway. It’s a situation that happens whenever you blow it on the road in a packed stadium. I.e., any road game in the playoffs.
When I said, “The intensity of Fenway got to them”, I didn’t mean “Oh, the ghosts of Red Sox past! OOoooooooooO!”; I meant, “The intensity of where they were playing in that moment (happened to be Fenway) when there were 50,000 fans screaming at every booted play and every hanging curve”. I could ahve as easily said, “The intensity of the sellout crowd got to them.”
There’s nothing about this that’s specific to Boston. In a similar situation, I’d have said, “The intensity of Veterans Stadium got to them”. Or Tropicana Field. Or anywhere else where a home team is behind and the visiting team starts choking in front of raucous fans.
by zknower on Oct 18, 2008 1:54 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
one last thing on role damaged psyches
Allow me to set a scene for you. Three years ago, the Astros, perennial runners-up to the Cardinals, took a 3-1 NLCS lead against St. Louis. In Game 5, they carried a lead into the ninth inning before Albert Pujols crushed a moonshot off of Brad Lidge to turn what looked like an easy 4-2 win into a 5-4 loss. At that point, with the series headed back to St. Louis, everyone said the series was over. The defending NL Champion Cardinals were going to ride the momentum wave back to the World Sereis. In Game 6, Roy Oswalt steam-rolled the Cardinals and the Astros went to the World Series.
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 12:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
absolutely
I’m just saying this changes the series a whole lot from what we were looking at at 3-1 Rays, and with a 7-0 lead. Instead of two straight blowout losses, the Red Sox have something to feel good about. If you think this sort of comeback doesn’t hype a team up then I don’t know what to tell you. They have a better chance to win this series now.
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 17, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
If you think this sort of comeback doesn’t hype a team up then I don’t know what to tell you.
Of course, it hypes up the team. Does that actually help winning? Hell no. The O’s had a ton of dratmiatc come back wins this season. Did it hype them up? Yes. Did it help their final record? No.
They have a better chance to win this series now.
Well, of course, they’re down 3-2 instead of 3-1. That would have happened with a dramatic 7 run comback or ho hum 4-0 win.
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 17, 2008 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Of course they have a better chance to win it.
Since, if they had lost the game, they would have NO chance to win it.
But if you had your choice tomorrow, would you rather be playing for the Red Sox or the Rays this weekend?
by zknower on Oct 17, 2008 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
ok
Here’s what I’m saying:
A ridiculous, never-before-seen playoff comeback means a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot. Sure they might just lose game six like the Cardinals did, and then it’s over, and it’s a classic game and nothing more. But if the Red Sox had won 5-2 without much in the way of anything exciting, just a regular old 5-2 win, do you think everyone’s talking today about the Red Sox coming back to win this series the way they did last year or in 2004? I do not.
I’m not saying that I think the Red Sox will win the series. Their backs remain entirely against the wall. But they’re also “playing with house money” — sure, they want to win, but the pressure’s on Tampa Bay even more than Boston right now. Of course it’s relative since the pressure is exceptionally high in both clubhouses.
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 17, 2008 11:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
do you think everyone’s talking today about the Red Sox coming back to win this series the way they did last year or in 2004?
Even if the RS won tonight, I still don’t think “everybody’s talking” meant much.
Zartan says, "Sign Dan Johnson."
by birdman on Oct 20, 2008 12:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Why do we have o see happy Sox pictures on our page?
Nick Markakis: The Actual Greek God of Walks
by wickedwitch on Oct 18, 2008 3:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
because they won
Read the title, chief. Unbiased.
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 18, 2008 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I understand that
Bu why does it have to include images. Is the summary not enough?
Nick Markakis: The Actual Greek God of Walks
by wickedwitch on Oct 18, 2008 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I go the extra mile, brother
"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum
by SC on Oct 19, 2008 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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