Bring on the Rays!

Submitted by Joe @ Baseballisms
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The Boston Red Sox advance to their fourth American League Championship Series since 2003, with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.\’a0 They will face the AL East Champs, the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field starting on Friday night.
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This game once again showcased tremendous pitching performances by Jon Lester and John Lackey in a rematch of Game One, with nearly a repeat of the results.\’a0 Lester pitched 7 masterful innings, allowing no runs on just four hits, while Lackey was just slightly less effective giving up two runs in seven innings.
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But the Red Sox almost let this pitching performance slip away as Red Sox Manager Terry Francona went to the bullpen in the eighth and with two outs lefty Hideki Okijima walked Angels firstbaseman Mark Texiera, and righthander Justin Masterson gave a free pass to DH Vladimir Guerrero.\’a0 An odd occurrence happened with centerfielder Torii Hunter at bat, as a rare cross-up on the pitch call had Jason Varitek thinking slider while Masterson was whizzing a fastball by his ear to the backstop so both runners advanced.\’a0 Hunter promptly singled, and with Guerrero running with two outs was able to score the tying run from second base ahead of JD Drew’s throw.
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This left the Sox with three outs in the eighth and three outs in the ninth to attempt to regroup and close out this series at Fenway, rather than going cross country to play a Game Five in Anaheim.\’a0 In the eighth, Angels reliever Scott Shields continued where he left off in relief the night before, and quickly dispatched the 2, 3, 4 hitters in the Red Sox lineup. Now it was the Sox turn to keep a rejuvenated Angels team off the scoreboard in the top of the ninth.
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With young Masterson still pitching for the Sox, pinch hitter Kendry Morales doubled.\’a0 His pinch runner Reggie Willits was sacrificed to third forcing Francona to bring in hard throwing Manny Delcarmen and to play the infield in trying to cut the run off at the plate on a ground ball.\’a0 I have to give props to the TBS color commentator Buck Martinez who informed us that Angels Manager Mike Scoscia likes to attempt the squeeze play in situations like this.\’a0 With Erick Aybar at the plate, Scoscia touched his ears, cheeks and nose in the proper order to signal the attempted swipe of home. Although Aybar has 9 sacrifice bunts and 9 bunt base hits on the season, the one that matter most was one that he missed.\’a0 Varitek ended up with the pitch in his mitt, and chased Willits back almost entirely to the third base bag before applying the tag and tumbling to the ground.\’a0 The ball popped loose and under protestation from Scoscia, the ruling that “the ground can’t cause a fumble” was applied to this situation.
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The Sox had one more chance to avoid extra innings for the second night in a row.\’a0 It was the Sox newbies who delivered the decisive blows.\’a0 Jason Bay doubled into the right field corner beyond a diving Willits who was fortunate the ball went into the stands or Bay would have circled the bases.\’a0 Next up Mark Kotsay, who delivered two nice defensive plays in the game at first base, smoked a line drive down the first base line that was snared in mid-air by his former Atlanta Braves teammate, and only defensive standout for the Angels in this series, Mark Texiera.\’a0 Finally, Sox rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie stroked a single into short right field and on a close play at the plate, Bay slid in under the tag to score the winning run.
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As the customary “Love that Dirty Water” blared from the Fenway speakers and fans and players celebrated this next plateau towards another championship appearance, Angels players, management and owners had to be wondering why it is so difficult for them to get past the Red Sox in the playoffs.\’a0 In the lineup of teams past; 1986, 2004 and 2007 you can now add the 2008 edition of the Boston Red Sox as advancing in the post season past the California, Los Angeles, Anaheim Angels.
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Watch this space for a preview of the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays.
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