Yuck Exponential--Peter

Well, as I said in the early part of the game (our first intragame post, by the way), if things continued the way they began in the 1st, it was not going to be a good night for the Hose. I got encouraged after the initial three spot that Wake gave up, when he put together a streak of six consecutive outs, taking him two outs into the 3d. If he could continue the way he was now going, we might come out of things OK. Unfortunately, the 3d out never came for Wake. He allowed another deuce in the 3d and was gone, Masterson doing a creditable job ending the inning quickly and carrying on through the 5th. Though he did surrender a run, he also K'd four Rays batters in the process. The score at that point was 6-1, Rays, the Sox run having come on a drive into the Monster seats by the Sox catcher, Cash.

Interestingly, Cash is a native of Tampa, while the Rays' first sacker is from Haverhill, Mass, a mid-sized city about thirty or thirtyfive miles northwest of Boston. Also where yours truly grew up and went to high school, but that's another story.

Anyway, as the game wore on, the carnage continued. After a brief respite in the 4th, the Rays added a run in the 5th off Masterson, although he closed out the inning with a simple grounder. Then came the 6th. The Only Manny-Delcarmen took the ball. Unfortunately, TOM also served up a one out triple, three walks and a single, leaving with the bases still jammed.

His successor, Lopez, came in and promptly surrendered successive singles and a run-scoring ground out before finally closing out the inning. That left the Fenmen on the short end of an 11-1 score and still a few innings to play. Oh, joy!

After another brief respite, neither team scoring through the Rays half of the 7th (a 1,2,3 inning by Lopez, in fact--perhaps some hope?--I don't think so), the Sox bats hinted at a smidgeon of life in their half of the 7th.

Papi, his wrist still not yet 100%, led off the inning with a long drive to right that appeared at first blush to be headed for the cheaps. As it turned out, it ricocheted off the low wall in right and caromed toward center away from the Rays' right fielder, Perez. It kept rolling farther and farther toward center while Perez gave chase. All the while Papi is running, and running, and running--first base, turn the corner and....second base; don't even slow down now....suddenly standing on third--a triple. No outs and Yoouk coming to bat. Unfortunately, he grounded out,but with Papi going on contact, the Sox got the run home, 11-2.

As son as the Rays came to bat in the 8th, they set to matching and whatever else they could do. With Jenn's favorite Sox pitcher, Timlin, now throwing, the pride of Haverhill, Pena, walked to lead things off. Then, in short order, Crawford tripled and Aybar singled, 13-2, Rays. Timlin did finally coax a double play grounder to end the inning.

It's now the bottom of the 8th and I'm thinking it doesn't look good. How's that for understatement? Well, I'm also briefly musing, the Hose could conceivably pull out the same type of inning they did this summer against the Rangers and put a nice ten spot on the board. Then they'd be within one. Likely, Not really. Not at all.

But they did show a few more signs of life. Lowrie singled to lead off, and moved to second on JD's grounder. Dusty came up and drilled a run scoring single to center, 13-3. Next up was Big Papi, who promptly K'd for the new pitcher. But it wasn't over quite yet. Yooouk drove one deep to center, plating Dusty with the Sox' fourth run. Regardless of the final result, the Sox were showing some character--they were letting the Rays know they weren't dead--they could and would still fight. Although they would score no more this evening, they continued their feisty spirit into the 9th, working a pair of free passes before finally shutting down. It's just like a rattlesnake. As long as there's still life in the snake, the degree of injuries it may have absorbed matters little--it can still bite, and you know what that means.

Tomorrow is a day off with action resuming on Thursday night, the Diceman on the mound. Assuming he carries the day, you can just picture Lester and JB chafing at the bit to each get some payback. Remember too--the last two times the Sox were in the ALCS, they were way behind, 3-1 last year to the Tribe and 3-0 to the Yankees. Both times they picked themselves off the floor and swept their way into the Series. Here's to a threepeat of that feat.