NOW IT’S ON TO OCTOBER!

Final Four With Minnesota:

Such are the times that try the patience of any devotee. After taking two from Oakland, the Sox’ window of opportunity closed to four games remaining against Minnesota with a three game lead. A win in the opener (Game 159, 9/27/07) would pretty much secure Boston’s hopes for the Division title. And who better to have on the mound than their newly minted twenty-game winner Josh Beckett. The problem was Beckett just didn’t have it and the Sox lost a heartbreaker, 5-4. New York won, so the lead fell to two games with three left to be played.

The Twins started in on Beckett right away. Bartlett led off with a single and scored on Kubel’s triple. The Sox went ahead in the bottom of the inning, but blew a golden chance to take a commanding lead. Pedroia singled leading off, but was erased on Manny’s 5-4 force. Ortiz tied the score with a double to center. With two outs, Drew singled, driving in Ortiz with the go-ahead run. Drew then stole second and Varitek walked. Ellsbury struck out but the ball skipped past LeCroy, whose throw to first went awry. So, the bases were loaded with two outs, but Hinske grounded out 3-1 to end the inning, and smashed his helmet on the ground in disgust.

As is generally the case when opportunities are squandered, the opposition immediately takes advantage. Cuddyer led off the second with a homer to tie the score. In the third, the Twins went ahead for good. Bartlett doubled leading off, moved to third on Kubel’s infield grounder and scored on Torii Hunter’s sacrifice fly to center. The Sox left two men on base in the bottom of the inning.

Minnesota made it 4-2 in the fifth inning when Punto led off with a double and scored on Hunter’s two-out base hit up the middle. Big Papí pulled it back to within a run by leading off the botoom of the inning with his 34th homer of the year. But the Twins matched the run in the sixth on Garrett Jones’ one-out solo shot.

Juan Rincon entered in the sixth for Minnesota and retired the Sox in order. In the bottom of the seventh, Manny singled to up the middle with one out. After a pitching change, Ortiz singled to putting runners on first and second. After another pitching change, Lowell hit into a grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Hideki Okajima came on for the eighth and had a pretty clean inning’s work, allowing only a base hit.

In the bottom of the eighth, things got really interesting. Varitek homered with one out to pull the Sox back to within a run. With two outs, Hinske and Lugo both reached on singles. With the tying run standing at third, Gardhenhire called for the Twins’ closer, Joe Nathan. After Lugo stole second, Pedroia went down on an infield pop to end the inning. The anxiety level was amped even higher in the bottom of the ninth. Moss led off with a double and Ortiz walked. Lowell hit an infield grounder that moved both runners into scoring position. Drew was then intentionally walked. The bases were loaded with one out… Varitek struck out swinging and …Youkilis (pinch-hitting) struck out on a check-swing to end the game. The Sox left 12 runners on base…that pretty much tells the story.

The big news heading into Friday night’s game, was the management decision to shelve Clay Buchholz for the rest of the year citing shoulder fatigue. The kid has pitched brilliantly in three separate levels of baseball and it’ll probably in his best interests to shut it down for the season.

Matsuzaka got the call on Friday Night (Game 160, 9/28/07) against Kevin Slowey, who came in at 4-0. Daisuke had one of his better nights in recent memory, and the Sox had a pretty easy time of things. With two outs in the bottom of the first, Ortiz doubled and scored on Lowell’s base hit to right. Drew followed with a double the other way to drive in Lowell and the Sox were up by a pair. They went up 3-0 in the third when Pedroia singled leading off. He was erased on Manny’s 6-4 force. Manny went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Ortiz’ base hit. They added a fourth run in the sixth when Lowell doubled with one out and scored on Youkilis’ two-out single to right.

Daisuke encountered his only serious trouble in the eighth. Morneau led off with a homer then with one out Garrett Jones walked. LeCroy followed with a double, putting runners in scoring position. Brian Buscher hit a 4-3 grounder and Jones came in with Minnesota’s second run.

Ortiz capped the scoring with his 35th homer, a solo shot, with one out in the eighth. Jonathan Papelbon disposed of the Twins on six pitches in the ninth to earn his 37th save. But the story was Matsuzaka (W 15-12), who went eight, allowed six hits 2 ER, walked two and struck out eight. Heading into October, it is very encouraging to see him have a big outing.

After the game ended, the fun at Fenway had just started. With the win, the Sox clinched at least a share of the AL East title. The “magic number” was down to 1. While the Sox were in the process of winning, the Yanks were doing the usual job of pummeling the Orioles at Camden Yards. Through 4 ½, New York was up 7-2 and it looked as if the celebrations would have to wait a day. The O’s game up with four in the bottom of the fifth. New York went up 8-6 in the sixth, and added another run in the ninth. At a certain point, the game was being shown on the big screen at Fenway. With a record of 85-1 holding a lead in the ninth and Rivera on the hill, things looked nigh impossible for Baltimore. Jay Payton (who most assuredly wasn’t looking to help Boston) hit a bases loaded triple off Rivera to send the game into extra innings. The yanks loaded the bases in the ninth before another Boston alumnus, Chad Bradford was able to get out of the jam.

In the bottom of the tenth Tike Redman hit a double with one out. Edwar Ramirez the issued two intentional passes in order to face our old pal Kevin Millar. Naturally, Millar struck out. Mora followed with a bunt single to third and Redman scored the winning run. The Red Sox celebrated their divisional crown in high style, treating the few fans that remained to a “champagne shower”. It was a memorable moment. Hopefully, we won’t be treated to seeing Papelbon dancing around in goggles with a tee shirt and jockstrap any further...as there are certain manifestations of victory to which we need not be privy.

Congratulations To The 2007 AL East Champs!

Now it’s time to prepare for October Baseball. First, there was the matter of the two final games with Minnesota remaining on the schedule. Wakefield got the start in Saturday’s penultimate (Game 161 9/29/07) contest. The Twins chipped away at Wake, scoring single runs in the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th innings. After 5 ½, the Twins were ahead 4-1. Lowell lead off the 6th with his 21st homer of the year to pull Boston to within a pair. In the bottom of the seventh, Crisp and Cora hit back-to-back singles with one out. After Manny struck out, Lowell followed with a base hit up the middle that scored Crisp. JD Drew then smacked a long three-run homer to put the Sox ahead for good. In the last three weeks, Drew has been hitting close to .400, which couldn’t come at a better time.

Javier Lopez pitched a clean eighth, setting the stage for Okajima to close things out. He allowed two hits, but otherwise did well enough to pick up his fifth save of the year. With the win, the Sox went to 96-65, which guaranteed them the best record in the majors and home field advantage in October.

The Sox went into the final game of the year (No. 162, 9/30/07) with nothing to prove. Julian Tavarez got the start, and after a rough first inning, settled down over the next two innings. Jon Lester took his place in the fourth and pitched a couple of clean innings. The Twins’ Matt Garza had a nice game on the mound. For some reason, he’s really tough on the road but struggles mightily under the BaggieDome roof. The Sox picked up a couple of runs in the first eight innings, with Varitek’s 17th homer accounting for one of the runs. In the middle and later innings, Francona emptied the bench. In the bottom of the ninth, it looked like lightning would strike for the Sox. The Twins’ closer Joe Nathan walked Moss. Ellsbury followed with a base hit to right that sent Moss to third but he made a wide turn around the bag and was picked off trying to get back to first. Lugo walked and stole second then Cora received an intentional pass. Even after Kielty whiffed, fans were excited because Ortiz was due at the plate. Instead, the manager sent up Mirabelli who struck out swinging (as he does about 90% of the time) and the regular season was in the books.

Of note, Youkilis finished the season by setting an AL Record for first basemen with 1,079 errorless chances. It was also the eighth straight year in which the Sox broke their all-time season attendance record, with 2,971,025 patrons having crossed the turnstiles.

For the most part, it was a fun year. Beckett is a serious CYA contender and Youk ought to win a Gold Glove. If Pedroia doesn’t win Rookie of the Year, the sportswriters have rocks in their heads (they do anyhow, but that’s another story). Lowell had a magnificent season. And management shouldn’t dally in extending his contract for a few more years. Ortiz had a big year, despite having knee and shoulder woes. Okajima was a revelation while Daisuke was very good. Both guys did very well in their “rookie” seasons. Wakefield was like Old Man River, winning 17 games, his best since ’98. He’s the only remaining member of the last divisional winning team in ’95, and hopefully will continue to roll on. On the whole, it was the bullpen who kept the team in first place from April 18th to September 30th.

On the negative side, Lugo struggled mightily in the first half, but rebounded in the second half. Drew played lousy up until early September. Since then, he’s been fantastic. If he had played like this all year, they’d be naming streets after him in Boston. Crisp has also been a disappointment at the plate. He kept them in several games with spectacular catches, but Ellsbury looks like the second-coming of J.Damon. Manny was Manny. He missed practically all of September, and no longer seemed to be a dominating force at the plate. It’s the first time in 10 years that he hit less than 100 RBI. But he’s 35, and fans should accept that fact. The single unmitigated disaster of the year was the acquisition of Gagné at the trade deadline. His line for Boston was: 20 GP, 2W, 2L, 0SV, 18.7 IP, 26 H, 14 ER, 9 BB, 22 K, WHIP 1.875, ERA 6.75. He has seriously hurt his chances of hitting another big payday in the off season.

All the good, bad and mediocre performances mean nothing in October. A brilliant campaign can be derailed in one afternoon while a team that barely makes it to the dance came come out on top as occurred with the Cardinals last year. Anything can happen and generally does in the world of October Baseball.

GO SOX!