Heartbreak Never Came

   As much fun as it is to see my team in the playoffs, those games are STRESSFUL to watch!   The level of emotional investment is as sky-high as the stakes in October.   They literally turn me into a crazy person and I have the tweets to prove it.   There was virtual (and actual) hand-wringing and a few tweets I'd like to take back, like the one during Game 4 where I wished the Red Sox had never made it to the World Series.   Yes, I actually tweeted that and I'm happy to eat a heaping dose of cyber-crow.   Watching the offense struggle against Lance Lynn while Buchholz was walking a tightrope and the Red Sox came into the game facing a 2-1 deficit was making me apoplectic.   Rational thought and that thing called perspective (and where a baseball game, even a World Series baseball game, fits into the grand scheme of things) goes out the window during those moments when you're living and dying with every pitch.  The stress!  The angst!   The futile attempts to prepare myself for October heartbreak that seemed to lurk in the shadows!   I needed that pep talk from Papi as much as the team did. 

   But that heartbreak never came.   Not when Koji proved himself very much human by allowing Jose Lobaton to deposit his pitch into the Ray tank for a walkoff homer.   Not when Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer were mowing the Red Sox offense down strikeout by strikeout.   Not when the Tigers tied up the series by lighting Peavy up like a Christmas tree.   Not when Craig Breslow threw the ball away.  Not when a horizontal Middlebrooks was ruled an obstruction and Allen Craig limped home for the winning Cardinals run.   Not when Buchholz's fastball sat in the mid-80s.   Not when Wacha was looking dominant early on and the Cards were hitting rockets off of Lackey.   Not when Lackey was given one more batter and walked him.   The Red Sox got past all of that and, like Linus's Great Pumpkin, October heartbreak never showed up.   Not in 2013.  Not for the Red Sox.