The last day of the regular
season, usually a sad day, but for the first time since 2009, the Red Sox
season will not end.
Instead, the Sox wrapped up the
regular season with anticipation of what awaits them on Friday, when the
American League Division Series will start at Fenway Park. The game ended in a loss but the Sox are
looking ahead to the future and who they’ll be playing on Friday.
The Sox will have to wait until
Wednesday to learn who they’ll be facing in the ALDS as the Rangers and Rays
will have a one game playoff in Texas on Monday to determine who will play the
Cleveland Indians on Wednesday in the Wild Card game.
Either way, the Sox will benefit
from one of these 3 teams playing an extra game before the ALDS while they wait
and rest up for the playoffs.
Offensively, the Sox were again
pretty good, banging out 6 runs on 13 hits.
They again struggled with runners in scoring position going 2 for 12 and
leaving 9 men on base but again they didn’t have their full starting lineup.
Jacoby Ellsbury, starting his 3rd
game since his broken foot, went 2 for 5 with a run, RBI and his 9th
homer of the season. It’s good to see
some production out of Ellsbury as he’ll be the most important piece of the
puzzle in the playoffs. They need him on
base and causing havoc on the base paths.
David Ortiz went 2 for 5 with 2
runs and Mike Napoli went 2 for 4 with an RBI, a walk and his 38th
double of the season. Mike finished with
92 RBI this year. Mike Carp went 2 for 4
with an RBI and his 18th double of the season.
John McDonald went 2 for 2 with a
run scored and a walk and Quintin Berry went 2 for 4 with a run scored, 2 RBI
and his 1st homer of the year. Both players were back-ups during the
season so it’s nice to see them do well in their brief starts.
Salty went 1 for 2 with a run
scored and Xander Bogearts walked.
Allen Webster started in place of
John Lackey to give Lackey some extra rest, but went only 3 innings. He didn’t give up any hits or runs but walked
3 and struck out 2. Felix Doubront went
1 and 1/3 innings and didn’t look good.
He have up 5 runs on 5 hits while walking 3 and striking out 2. If this is what Doubront will do out of the bullpen,
hopefully they won’t give him too many high-risk situations to perform in.
Rubby De La Rosa went 2/3 of an
inning giving up 1 run on 1 hit and Matt Thornton gave up a hit and run in his
1/3 of an inning of work. I doubt we’ll
see either in the postseason.
Ryan Dempster went 2/3 of an
inning and gave up no runs but did surrender a hit. Craig Breslow went 1 inning and gave up 1 hit
and struck out 1. Koji Uehara finished
the game giving up a hit and striking out 1.
The Red Sox posted their best
record since 2004 and tied the Cardinals for the best record in the Majors. Here’s hoping for a quick 4 days as Friday
can’t come soon enough.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Quintin Berry. Berry hit his 1st homer of the
season and stole his 3rd base of the year. Berry seems very likely to make the
postseason roster with his speed and defense a big weapon in the playoffs.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Xander Bogaerts. Xander went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. He walked once but looked overmatched at the
plate.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Ryan Flaherty’s RBI double in the
bottom of the 6th to put the O’s up 7-5. It was the insurance run they would need as
the Sox would add only one more the entire game.
NEXT
FRIDAY night. Fenway Park.
PLAYOFFS BABY!!! We’ll have to
watch and see who it’ll be against. I’m
hoping for Cleveland but all 3 teams have different strengths and weaknesses.
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