If you think I was greedy for wanting the Red Sox to complete the sweep of the Rays tonight, you should probably stop reading right here. The Rays are a team you don't want to give momentum to. They have tremendous confidence in elimination games and they just won their third one in a week, in walkoff fashion, to boot. The Red Sox gift-wrapped momentum to the Rays, right down to the pretty bow.
How did this debacle go down tonight? The Red Sox were still riding momentum from Games 1 and 2 up until the bottom of the fifth inning. They Rays were making defensive miscues left and right and they were on the ropes. Then, a clearly shaky Buchholz grooved a 1-0 changeup to Sox-killer Evan Longoria and in one swing of the bat, the momentum was drained from the Red Sox and heaped onto the Rays. The Red Sox were now the ones looking like the Keystone Kops in the field and whiffing at the plate like blindfolded five-year-olds at a pinata party. Suddenly, the clock was turned back 10 years and Grady Little was leaving Pedro in too long. Playing the role of Aaron Boone was Jose Lobaton, of all people, whacking a Koji Uehara pitch into the Ray tank for the walkoff home run that sent those annoying, trash-talking Rays onto the field in celebration.
John Farrell was clearly out-managed in this game, leaving Salty and Drew in to bat against a lefty when there were plenty of capable bats on the bench. David Ross? Xander Bogaerts? The biggest mistake he made, however, was not intentionally walking Longoria with first base open. Buchholz was nowhere near as sharp as he needed to be tonight, relying on his defense to get him out of trouble all evening up until that Longoria at-bat. The defense can't help you when you throw a cookie to a power hitter. That marked the turning point in the game. Even when the Sox managed to tie it in the ninth, they whiffed on pushing across the go-ahead run and Koji showed he is actually a human being and served up a gopher ball to Lobaton. Game Over. The wrong team is celebrating.
The Rays are a dangerous team when you let them back into a game or a series. They are the kind of team who can rally from 0-2 to win the damn thing. Should that happen, the Red Sox can look no further than the fifth inning of Game 3, when they blew the 3-run lead by choosing to pitch to Longoria with first base open. This loss hurts more than any other loss this season because they gave the game away. They had it, then they gave it away. If I ever see Franklin Morales in another postseason game for the Red Sox, it will be too soon and if I ever see Dana DeMuth behind the plate in a Red Sox game, the same applies. Buchholz was shaky, but he wasn't helped by DeMuth's sawing off of the bottom and the left and right edges of the strike zone.
I could be more positive and say that they'll win tomorrow. I wish that I could trust Jake Peavy to keep the ball in the yard. His September starts did nothing to inspire confidence. Meanwhile, as much trouble as Hellickson has had this season, he's actually pitched decently against the Red Sox. With momentum on the Rays' side, Maddon just may get his wish of coming back to Boston and the Red Sox have to try and beat David Price twice in the same series. I don't know which AL East rival I hate more now. The Rays, the O's, or the Yankees.
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