Any man that wears Camo and a Buddha T Shirt can pitch for me in the LCS.
Pre-Game - I'm told that my liveblog yesterday was the weakest liveblog of all time by my loving wife. I have nothing to say to that except, my liveblog is 4-0 in the playoffs. That is all.
- Craig Sager is so ridiculously wonderful that when he wears a royal blue jacket with a crazy tie, you feel like he has toned it down. Talk about giving yourself a lot to live up to.
- Beckett is the key tonight. If we get the real Josh Beckett, we could put this thing all but away after two games.
- I'm intrigued that Papi basically said the Rays were scared last night, although the man who grimaces every time he swings from a click in his wrist should know fear as well as anyone.
- It's Beckett and Kazmir on TBS, Very Funny.
Top 1st - Pinkhatsbury steps to the plate. He was poor last night and can't continue to be. When Ellsbury gets on base for Pedroia, Papi, etc, very good things start to happen.
- Watch for the Sox to be very, very conservative and take a bunch of pitches tonight. They want Kazmir to last five innings. If he can only do that, we get a huge advantage.
- Ellsbury strikes out on Ball 3. I'm not amused.
- We haven't had a good multi-hit game out of Pedroia yet in the playoffs. Maybe tonight will be that night.
- It won't start that way as Dusty flies to Upton.
- Papi goes to 2-2 on a foul off his foot and now he'll have something else to whine about.
- Papi fights off a tough pitch and the Sox have managed to get 17 pitches out of Kazmir without a baserunner.
- Ortiz draws and walk and its USE E LESS time.
- One thing I didn't get to note last night was the job that Ron Darling did. Buck finally gave him a chance to talk and it is infinitely nicer to listen to this three man group than it is to listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.
- If anyone can stretch out a pitcher its the Greek God of Walks, but he's down 1-2 already. Base knock by Youk and they are managing to get to Kazmir. 21 pitches and still not out of the inning.
- Bay comes up in a big spot for the umpteenth time in the playoff and is immediately 0-2.
- I love, love, love the fact that some of the Sox have clearly gone to playoff beards. I had one going too, but the job interview got in the way on Thursday.
- Kazmir, playing the role of Ray's Dice K, is up to 26 pitches and has a full count to Bay.
- BAY HISTS A BOMB!!!! TWO RUN DOUBLE!!!
- TOTALLY GAY FOR JASON BAY!!!
- This inning is a microcosm of why the Sox are a franchise everyone wants to be like at this point. Professional hitters working counts against a pitcher they know they can get to and they give Big Beckett two runs.
- Kazmir quickly gets Lowrie to 1-2 but now he's given up two runs and got to 30 pitches already. Make that 31.
- Kaz can't snap off a slider or curve and he shows some frustration as the count runs full to Lowrie.
- Just a biiiiiiit outside on ball four. Kazmir is up to 34 pitches in the first inning and Tito Francona probably couldn't have scripted a better start than this.
- I guarantee Kotsay swings at a first pitch fastball here, let's see how much I know this team.
- Apparently not very well because its Varitek who is up now. I'm sure that Kazmir is relieved to see this out up at the plate. Although, Tek is a much better hitter from the right side.
- Where are the CowBells Rays fans?
- Tek strikes out with futility, but Bay has em on the board at the end of one.
Bottom 1st - Do we get vintage playoff Becks tonight or 2006 Beckett tonight? One out on a weak pop up by Iwamura either way.
- Beckett looks free and easy so far and is at least around the plate.
- Beckett freezes Upton, two away...filthy fastball with movement.
- You can only let Carlos Pena sit fastball for so long, double opposite way. Not sure I like that development.
- See a breaking pitch from Beckett on the outer half to Longoria who lays off. Nice to see something offspeed from Becks though.
- And he busts off a filthy curve down the middle. 2-1.
- EEEK. Longoria takes a nice easy swing on a Beckett offering and WE ARE TIED...to quote Mr. Caray.
- That was a damn wiffleball swing, easy and smooth and now the cowbells are back.
- At least Beckett has been efficient with his runs given up, he's only thrown 17 pitches.
- I get a little bit of a feeling that I'm going to be typing this blog long into the night this evening.
- Smooth play by Lowrie gets Crawford and we start fresh in Inning 2.
Top 2nd - Buck Martinez is killing it in the booth tonight. He has made Darling and Caray laugh on at least two and maybe three different occasions tonight. Just awesome.
- Kotsay gives one a ride, but its an out to center field and now its up to Coco as the #2 leadoff man to get the Sox started again.
- Beckett is saying to Farrell right now - "dude, I got nothing...smoke and mirrors out here...any advice?"
- Crisp gets him to a full count and grounds out. Pitch count rising, Sox not putting runners on.
- Kazmir gets way too easy an inning, only at 50 pitches in two innings and the Sox have gone from rocking and rolling to reeling in an inning.
Bottom 2nd - Nice to see Beckett mixing the curve in and its seems to be decent. Hopefully he can get on a bit of a roll here.
- Beautiful fastball at 2-2, just misses. Could use that call.
- Floyd has taken some bad swings this at bat, it would be a travesty to walk him.
- Man, Floyd is just finding a way to stay alive. He has such a long swing at this point in his career. I'm looking for the 3-2 curve here...damn you for saying it while I typed it Buck Martinez.
- Filthy two-seamer. One down.
- Up comes the Tampa Rays version of Fat Catcher. Everyone needs a Fat Catcher. Losing Mirabelli definitely hurts the Sox FCI or Fat Catcher Index.
- The Fat Catcher gets a nice base knock to left.
- Amazing to watch the Rays approach to Beckett tonight. They are being patient and taking nice easy swings. I was hoping they'd try to do too much tonight. Clearly that won't be an issue.
- Nice curve gets Gross and now its Bartlett before the top. If only Becks could just settle down and give them 6+ solid innings.
- Becks get to 2-2 on Bartlett. Gotta close this guy out here.
- Nasty pitch, not bad from Beckett. Let's get some runs fellas.
Top 3rd - Favorite Commercial right now. "You guys are 5 yards short of Common Sense. Ostrich?!? That's not a burger, that's a bird" Miller High Life
- Dusty leads it off here for the Sox. We really need him to get going for us to have a shot at winning this thing. He was the sparkplug all year, we need his spark desperately now.
- 3-1, Dusty will be sitting DEAD RED here. Watch out for Lasers.
- He smokes one down the line, but it doesn't stay in play. Full count, Kazmir will still need to throw him a strike. That's a LASER! Dusty finally gets one and its a home run.
- Sox lead 3-2. Dusty is 15 of 27 against Kazmir.
- And we get our best anecdote of the playoffs so far. "The Sox call Dusty Caballito in the clubhouse because he is a little horse they can ride". AMAZING!
- Kazmir quickly continues his control spiral and walks Papi. 62 pitches with no one out in the 3rd. USE E LESS will look to get a hit in a big spot here.
- Dusty has the full on smirk and puffed out chest going. On a ball that got out by about three feet.
- Youkilis got behind 0-2, but he has worked his way back to an even count. Make a mistaker here Kazmir.
- Here's something that will shock you - Kevin Youkilis hit a ball to the warning track. Oh, NO WAY! WOW! I'm being facetious.
- Bay Day for the Rays...but he flies out to left. You get the sense the Sox could have really put the pressure on the Rays here and they are letting their foot off the gas a bit.
- Lowrie hits the third easy out of the inning to right and Kazmir gets off the hook, even though he's 70 pitches deep after only three innings.
Bottom 3rd - On commercials I've had a chance to flip over to the Celtics preseason game from Manchester, NH. I'm super excited to see another full season of Doc Rivers pretending he's the mastermind behind Tom Thibodeau's team.
- On a related note, Tommy Heinsohn is in mid-season form, already complaining about the officiating of a preseason game.
- Iwamura with a quick flyout and hopefully Beckett can settle in here.
- Or not. Upton just hit a fastball eight hundred feet and we're tied again.
- Can anyone figure out what song the Rays play when they hit homeruns.
- In case you were wondering, we are getting 2006 Josh Beckett tonight. I wish I had a million dollars on the over in this game tonight.
- Pena bails Beckett out, but Longoria doesn't...he doubles.
- Aggravation...pure aggravation.
- A huge pickoff by Beckett. Sox trail 4-3. Beckett looks terrible...Sox are still in the game.
Top 4th - Man, Varitek is just an automatic out right now. Sox need to find a way to get to Kazmir. They must keep up with the Rays in this one, because Beckett isn't going to help all that much.
- Darn. Kotsay lines out and here comes Tampa Bay Public Enemy #1, Coco Crisp to the plate.
- Kazmir is getting his quick inning here and he's only up to 80 pitches trying to get out of the 4th. If the Sox don't start something here, they will let this guy get to the 6th.
- Crisp crushes a double and I was hoping he could get to third, but Ellsbury will have a chance to tie the game with a base knock here.
- You can't get much more due than 0 for your last 13 in the postseason. That's Ellsbury right now.
- He gets ahead 2-0 here and you're praying for Kazmir to make a mistake to Jacoby here. He throws ball 3 and the last thing he wants to do is have Crisp and Ellsbury on base for Dusty's Laser Light Show.
- Jacoby taking all the way and now you can bet he'll be sitting on the inside fastball with a 3-1 count. He takes one of those and it'll be 3-2.
- Crisp will be off so he scores on pretty much anything here, Ellsbury just needs to put it in play.
- A pop up is not what we were looking for here. Can Beckett get us any deeper without giving up runs?
Bottom 4th - Cliff Floyd and his amazing long swing comes to the plate for the Rays. Beckett must keep the Rays off the board this inning...
- Um, not exactly...long swing, long homerun for Floyd. I'm betting if we get to Game 6, Beckett won't even be available. This is just awful to watch.
- A 15.00 ERA for Beckett so far in the LCS. I don't think that is going to cut it.
- I'm still not ready to jump off the bridge because I believe the Sox still have some runs in them tonight. It does seem that the bullpen will have to be huge here tonight. I'm not sure they can be.
- Beckett gets fat catcher and Gross back to back, but I'm pretty sure I could get both of those guys out, so I'm not all that proud of that fact.
- I'm refusing to get all worked up here and totally think we will be fine.
- A capsule of Red Sox Nation's panic level.
- Travis Bogan "I miss the old Beckett"
- Jen Crawford "You are a huge liar" (in response to me saying everything would be fine).
Top 5th - Remember when I said we needed a multi-hit game from Pedroia. I didn't mean multi-homer game, BUT we'll take it.
- Lasers all over the place at the Juice Box.
- I guess the whole series won't play out like Game 1 did.
- From pitchers duel to home run derby in less than 24 hours. Now would be a great time for Ortiz to break out of his malaise.
- Kazmir is up to 94 pitches, so you can imagine this will probably be his last inning. He juuuuuust missed to Ortiz there.
- Ortiz got two pitches to hit there and just missed them...one away.
- Youkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...finally USE E LESS gets a hit in a big spot and you can wipe away all the mistakes by Beckett. We have a tie ballgame.
- That will do it for Kazmir after 98 pitches and this one is going to be fun and long.
- Remember this: Balfour is a fastball pitcher, Bay crushes fastballs.
- I believe I called that...and oh yeah, I'M TOTALLY GAY FOR JASON BAY!!!
- Sox lead 6-5 on a bomb from Bay. As all of you watching have heard already, the seven homers in this game ties a Major League Baseball playoff record.
- Lowrie gets Balfour to 3-2, hopefully he can find a pitch to put in play here. The Sox need to keep the pressure on and they do with a walk by Lowrie. Still only one out here this inning.
- Now the automatic out comes up. I would definitely consider putting Lowrie in motion here. Tek could easily ground into a double play here if they don't.
- Varitek swings at what would have been ball 3, and its 2-1.
- Beckett looks focused man...but will his body catch up with his brain?
- Man, I just have absolutely no faith in Varitek in a spot like this. Sad, isn't it?
- He's got the count to 3-2 on Balfour however, so maybe he can work a walk. Pretty please.
- Francona does send the runner, Varitek works the walk and things are getting very interesting in the juice box right now. Maddon to the mound and JP Howell will come in to fast Kotsay with two on and one out.
- Kotsay hits a ball I thought was out off the bat, but its a long fly ball to right. Lowrie moves up and there is two away. If I had time to type it, I would have called the first pitch swing by Kotsay there.
- Coco comes up again. See if he can get a seeing eye single to extend the lead here.
- The Sox are really grinding out at bats right now and making Maddon use up as many relievers as possible.
- Crisp fouls one off and we're 2-2. If Crisp can get a hit here, it would be so huge for the Sox.
- The Cowbells rise as one for the 2-2 pitch...and Crisp fouls it off.
- Crisp has fouled off three straight pitches and we're battling here.
- Howell gets Crisp swinging. Sox are back in it, lead 6-5.
Bottom 5th - What can Beckett do for the Sox now?
- We all know the guy is hurt, but we could sure use a gutsy, useful performance here in the 5th.
- He throws a great pitch to Iwamura and we've got one away.
- Of course he would be forced to face the 1-2-3 in the order. Upton hit a bomb off him earlier and the #4 hitter Longoria has hit him all over the field tonight.
- Beckett gets sloppy and he's 3-0 to Upton. Maddon lets guys hit 3-0, but Upton is taking all the way and its 3-1.
- Yikes, walks are the devil's brew. Go ahead run will come to the plate in the form of Haverhill's own Carlos Pena.
- Beckett gets ahead of Pena 1-2, now he must go for the jugular here.
- Pena comes through again. Upton stole second, then Pena hits a laser through the right side. Aggravation reigns.
- The Juice Box is back alive.
- Let me be the first person to ask this question and I'll try to be nice. What the hell is Beckett doing still in this game? I mean seriously. It's the playoffs, let's get someone in there who can get somebody out.
- Very cool stat about Longoria - when he drives in a run they are 38 and 12. That's called impact.
- Seriously, why is Beckett still in this game? Rays lead 7-6 on a ridiculous triple by Longoria. The ball hit the wall and just died. It couldn't have set up better for Pena to score. Beckett was awful tonight. Sox just can't hold on to the horse.
- Oh goodie, Manny Meltdown to the rescue. Willy Aybar who owns the Sox this year will come to the plate in a pinch hitting role. Meltdown goes to 2-0.
- Aybar gives one a ride, but Ellsbury gets under it and there is two away. So somehow the Sox have relinquished a bunch of leads here and we're 51 minutes into an inning. Sox trail by two and desperately need to get out of this inning so they can give their bats a shot.
- Delcarmen does his job, maybe he should have been in from the beginning. Inning, finally over.
Top 6th - A million or more women in New England just had mini heart attacks as Ellsbury bunted a ball off his helmet and missed his face by inches. Pheeeeeeeeeeew.
- Is it really only the top of the 6th two hours and forty minutes into this game?
- Ellsbury continues to be awful with a fister to first.
- Pedroia comes to the plate again. A hit would be useful here. Faces a lefty because they want Howell to face Ortiz so we need him to make them pay here.
- Dusty works him to 3-1. Come on Caballito.
- Gets the walk, now Ortiz must come up with something. Interesting to hear Buck say that the wrist injury is in Ortiz's head, because it clearly is.
- He strikes out looking. Disgusting.
- Come on USE E LESS.
- Howell will come out, but he clearly did his job.
- 9=8...no, no it doesn't.
- Old friend Chad Bradford will come into the game to face USE E LESS and Bay with 2 away. Yes, I realize I am a poet.
- USE E LESS keeps grinding and there is a BAY DAY call emanating from the Juice Box right now.
- I'm assuming Bay has never faced Bradford, but the announcers tell me otherwise.
- 1-1 the count and you can cut the tension with a knife in this place right now.
- GAY FOR BAY. He does it again with a two out single, Dusty scores on a hustle play. Awesome. Sox trail 8-7 and the Sox have had a great approach against Bradford so far. Youkilis takes the extra base. Gold Stars all around as Lowrie steps in.
- Lowrie and the bottom of the order just can't keep it going, but the Sox chip away as we head to the bottom of the sixth.
Bottom 6th - More Manny Meltdown here in the 6th and he immediately lives up to his name by going to 3-0 on Bartlett.
- Lowrie makes a very nice play but Bartlett is called safe...on a late call. He was right, I wish he was wrong.
- Now we have Manny Meltdown with runners on base...phenomenal.
- Hit and run worked to perfection as Iwamura grounds to Kotsay. Two away and now the rough part of the lineup comes up.
- So important to get Upton here and not let Pena or Longoria get to the plate.
- Great pitch for Manny and he strikes out Upton. I take back the Manny Meltdown moniker for the next five minutes at least.
Top 7th - Tek is up, so I might as well type up the fact that he grounded out softly or struck out. Bottom of the order is a struggle for us tonight.
- Varitek takes the strike out option and then Kotsay just misses on a pop out to center. This feels like one of those games where both bullpens settle down and neither team scores again.
- Crisp gets a cheap single off Bradford, so maybe there is some two out manufacturing to be done here.
- Ellsbury of course hasn't gotten a hit this series.
- It looks like Ellsbury is going to try to steal second. Makes sense, because worse case scenario is Ellsbury leading off the 8th. Best case is a Coco in scoring position.
- I think they've broken the record for most throws over to first in a single at bat in this one. At some point, this 2-1 count they'll have to throw a pitch. Coco didn't go and it's 2-2.
- Amazing chess match and Bradford has been phenomenal keeping Crisp on first.
- Ellsbury taps out to the pitcher pathetically. Sox go down in the 7th.
Bottom 7th - 3 1/2 hours into this ballgame and we start the bottom of the 7th. Hideki Okajima will come in to face the rugged 3,4,5 portion of the lineup.
- Pena tries to bunt his way on against the shift and fails thankfully.
- Pena lines out, Longoria flies out. So far, so good for Okaji.
- Bay seems to struggle with every single low line drive hit to the outfield. He drives me a little nuts.
- Did you know that Carl Crawford could have gone to UCLA to play point guard or Nebraska to play football? What an amazing athlete he is. Too bad he can't catch a ball in the outfield. Heh Heh. He grounds out and we rely on Dusty and the boys as usual to get us going in the 8th.
Top 8th - Pedroia does what he does and gets his big cheap, Derek Jeter style hit through the right side. Tying run is on base, Bradford is out. We'll see what the Rays do to face Ortiz here.
- Very Clever Trever Miller comes to the mound to face Papi. He will definitely see only one hitter. Ortiz takes two balls, maybe just maybe he can get a pitch to handle here.
- Ortiz just can't handle decent pitches right now. He took that inner half fastball and was bailing out on it so it went foul. This is very frustrating to watch. Then he misses a fastball. I'm half praying he won't make contact so he can't hit into a double play here. I wonder if Francona would consider moving Ortiz down in the order at some point. Now I'm just babbling through my frustration.
- Ortiz got a pitch he used to turn on there and fouled it off again.
- Papi has worked the count full. Maybe this is his goal at this point, just work walks. Two runners for USE E LESS would be huge.
- PHEWWWWWW! We get the walk and now things get very interesting.
- USE E LESS up with ducks on the pond.
- He hits into a double play ball...ouch.
- Still the tying run to third, Bay must produce even more offense.
- I'm not sure Bay sees anything here. I think they may walk him to get to the next guy in the lineup, Lowrie.
- WILD PITCH WILD PITCH WILD PITCH!!! Dusty scores - tie game. And as my good friend Buck Martinez says, it's now official, we have seen everything!
- Bay draws the walk and now Lowrie has a chance to do something special here in the eighth.
- Pedroia has scored four runs tonight...Tito has chewed 854 pieces of gum.
- Almost a full four hours into this thing.
- Lowrie is being quite patient, 2-1 the count.
- 3-1. Wheeler doesn't want to make a mistake here, he'd probably rather take his chances on Varitek.
- Lowrie gave it a ride, Upton got a great jump. The beat goes on.
Bottom 8th - Midnight EST. Here's hoping Cinderella loses her glass slipper here. There is no doubt that the Rays are Cinderella. Here's to a beautiful Coach turning into a pumpkin.
- Phew. that ball was smoked down the line foul. As close as you can get. Aybar drives us nuts. Come on, give him the Okie Doke.
- Okaji just misses on 2-2 fastball on the outside. Seriously, no walks here fellas. NO WALKS!
- Youk takes a grounder, gets it to first. One away.
- Okaji gets fat catcher to foul one off. 2-2 the count again. Keep throwing strikes here Okaji.
- Misses with a change and now the count is full. You can't, I mean can't walk a Fat Catcher here. He hits a homerun, fine. No walks.
- Struck him out with the Okie Doke. Will Francona stay with Okaji? He's faced five batters and retired them all.
- Remember around inning 4 when I said that this game would be up to the Sox bullpen. Well, it has been so far and so far they've performed admirably.
- You have to feel a little bit better if the Sox get out of this inning just because they have both Masterson and Papelbon left, I'm thinking the Tampa Bay bullpen is quite a bit thinner right now.
- Tampa has used 5 relievers so far. This is the sox third. Okaji with a 1-2 count to the pinch hitter Zobrist.
- The chess game is beginning. Okaji is awesome for two full innings. We go to the 9th tied at 8.
Top 9th - Francona wisely uses Drew to pinch hit for Varitek here.
- Drew is 1 for 11 against Wheeler, so maybe its not as wise as we thought. Desperately need base runners here, but you won't get one by hitting the ball to Upton. One away.
- Kotsay will be up now and I'm betting a dollar if the first pitch is in the zone, he's swinging at it.
- He doesn't, but its a ball. Kotsay has been just off by a bit in his swing tonight. Maybe he'll put it all together here.
- Wheeler gets to 1-1. Again, Wheeler has been thrust into a closer role on this team. He probably can only give them this inning. If we don't get to him no, the possibility of facing someone much worse is there, but only in extras.
- Wheeler Ks Kotsay and now it will be up to Crisp to keep the inning going.
- Crisp swings and fouls it back. Ellsbury and his 0-5 night to follow.
- Crisp can't stop himself on a bad pitch and now its beginning to look like we'll go to the bottom of the 9th in a tie game on the road. That's never fun.
- BJ Upton is supremely lucky. He misplayed a shot by Crisp to dead center and it bounced into the stands. Crisp forced to stay at 2nd. Shouldn't matter. On a hit to the outfield with Crisp's speed, he scores. Jacoby is 0 for the Series. In other words, he's due.
- Ellsbury swings through a flat fastball. I bet he wishes he had that one back.
- Ellsbury looks at strike 2. He, Varitek, and Ortiz are just lost at the plate right now. Just lost.
- Just missed and it's 2-2.
- Ellsbury swings through another flat inside fastball. Just hideous. Advantage Rays going to the bottom of the 9th.
Bottom 9th - Master Lock comes in for the 9th and he gets a beautiful play by Youkilis to get Bartlett. One away. Of course now we are learning about all the walk off wins for the Rays at home this year. We don't need to hear that Caray.
- Pedroia almost makes a brilliant play on a ground ball up the middle, but then he drops it and the Rays have a baserunner. Scary time now.
- Master Lock gets Upton. Francona is done playing. Papelbon comes in to face Pena.
- Haverhill's Favorite Son has a chance to beat his boyhood team in the 9th. Papelbon runs the count to 2-1. Runner goes and it's fouled away. 2-2 the count.
- We've been doing this for 4 1/2 hours. Will it continue?
- PAPELBON STRIKES HIM OUT. We're going extras.
Top 10th - Ernie Johnson just let us know this is free baseball in extra innings. It feels like its costing me sleep. Hope the rest of you are battling like I am.
- Wow, the Rays are sticking with Wheeler here which just highlights the fact that they have no bullpen left.
- Dusty got the 3 for 4 I asked for out of him tonight with a walk and four runs. Can he keep it going?
- Dusty gets behind 1-2 and just stays alive on a high fastball. Wheeler is 32 pitches deep.
- He gets Petterass looking and now you can pretty much bring Youk up with 2 outs because Ortiz doesn't stand a chance.
- Ortiz drops the back shoulder, pops out. One and done.
- USE E LESS hopes to lose one over the wall somewhere here. He does have a HR against Wheeler in his career.
- Wheeler left one up there, but Youkilis couldn't pull the trigger and it's 1-1.
- USE E LESS gave one a ride...but Upton gets to it. We go to the Bottom of the 10th.
Bottom 10th - The odds that I get a good workout in tomorrow morning before the football games start are getting worse and worse by the minute. Looks like I might have to take a break from watching five games on the computer as well as whatever is on the TV tomorrow.
- Wheeler was absolutely phenomenal tonight for the Rays. The question becomes, if Papelbon gets through this inning, who do the Rays go to in the next inning.
- Longoria hits a ball hard to third and Youkilis makes a really nice play. Just gets Longoria and Kotsay does a great job holding the bag at first. The Sox keep doing what they does...
- Paps makes Crawford check a swing and miss...2-2
- If you think you haven't seen it all, see a ball hit Papelbon and ricochet to Pedroia. Two away and the Sox get lucky on a couple of different counts.
- Drew camps under the Aybar pop fly and the Sox take it to the 11th. Papelbon has only thrown 18 pitches, so they may see him again in the bottom of the 11th.
Top 11th - This is the game that will not end. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Sox and Rays started playing it not knowing what it was and they'll continue playing it forever just because, this is the game that doesn't end....
- Oh my Lord. Dan Wheeler stays in the game for the Rays. He's thrown a pitch count in the 30s and has pitched three innings. This is insane. Bay leads us off.
- Relievers don't often face guys twice in one game. That probably is not a good thing for Wheeler here.
- Bay takes 4 pitches and we're 2-2.
- That's a perfect spot where the umpire angers me. He called a strike on the high fastball on the 4th pitch that shouldn't have been a strike and so when the next pitch comes in high, Bay can't hold up his swing, because he is afraid it will be strike 3.
- Lowrie being very patient here and he's got the count to 3-1.
- He gets the walk, a great piece of hitting there and now Maddon will come out to get Wheeler.
- David Price, the rookie, will come in to face JD Drew.
- Rays are down to 1 pitcher in the bullpen. That is Edwin Jackson. Price is a stud, here's hoping he makes a mistake to one of our guys though.
- Mr. Caray just let us know that we have seen 401 pitches tonight. That number is beyond ridiculous.
- Drew works the rookie to 3-1. You can bet he won't be swinging unless it's a perfect pitch here.
- BALL 4! Now Kotsay will come to the plate, lefty on lefty against Price.
- Kotsay is a first pitch swinger but that one is down and away. Give him a fat fastball here Mr. Price, please.
- Fastball up but in the zone gets it to 1-1. One thing I'd note is that this stadium has been completely silent throughout the last three or four innings. You know there are both Sox and Rays fans there and they almost don't exist right now, although the cowbells get going here with 2 strikes.
- Kotsay battles off a tough pitch and hangs in.
- Wow. He got the outside corner call like a veteran pitcher. That should have been a ball and there is 2 away.
- Coco I'm sure would love to be a hero against his nemesis, the Rays.
- Coco grounds out to third. The beat marches on. Sox have stranded 13 men.
Bottom 11th - Timlin is in for the Sox. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHAHAHHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
- Oh man, I stayed up for this?
- The umpire decides to squeeze Timlin. Like he needs the help. Runners on 1st and 2nd on two walks. Timlin is a walking, talking white flag of surrender.
- Sac fly to Drew will do it with the bases loaded. I'm not even sure how to feel about this game. I'm pretty sure Francona was forced to not go back to Papelbon because he needs him fresh for the rest of the playoffs and they probably didn't want to use Byrd because they will play three in a row in Boston. Bottom line is it's a 5 game series now and we get Lester for 2 of those 5. Let's go Sox.
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