The Magic Of October: ALCS Game 5

Let me first say that I don’t think I’ve been shocked like I was last night when I logged onto ESPN.com and saw that the Red Sox had made it 7-6 since the first time I saw the topless scene in “The Whole Nine Yards”. (I mean, it just came out of nowhere didn’t it? The robbers are inside the house, it’s tense and all of a sudden Amanda Peet is topless!? It still ranks as one of the greatest surprise nude scenes of all time but back to the game last night.) There’s a scene in the movie Fever Pitch when Jimmy Fallon’s character is woken up at around 12:30am and is told that the Red Sox just came back from a huge deficit and forced another game in the ALCS. Well, last night wasn’t 8 runs in the bottom of the 9^th, but it was pretty damn close. The Red Sox have made comebacks of 3-0 and 3-1 in the last four years, and until around 10:50pm Thursday night nobody figured they would be around to make it another. It’s only one game but the scene shifts to Tampa, the Sox have found their bats again and the Rays have every right to be scared. Be afraid, be very afraid.

The Sox appetites have been awoken. They’ve remembered how to hit the ball and the Rays who haven’t been in this position before cannot let this get to game 7. They need to finish the Sox off at home Saturday night. (Actually, this IS pretty much how Joe Maddon drew this up isn’t it? Starting Kazmir in game 5 and keeping Shields for game 6, just in case? I’m sure he never figured a seven run comeback however. Just a side note, this was the second biggest baseball comeback in ALCS history) Just to reiterate how shocking this was, consider that the previous 25 innings of baseball were scored the following: Tampa Bay 29, Boston 5. 29-5. During the middle of the 7^th inning, the Rays were up 7-0 and cruising along in autopilot. They came out and continued what they’d been doing for the past two games: Annihilating the Boston pitching staff and stifling their hitters. The best Boston pitcher this season (Jon Lester) got shelled on Monday and then they destroyed Tim Wakefield’s knuckler in game 4 en route to a 13-4 win on Tuesday.

Last night it was Dice-K’s turn to get mauled. The Rays chased him after just four innings hitting three more home runs in the process. Boston was done. The Rays were loose. The Sox were unmotivated hitting grounder after grounder like Willie Mays Hays without the speed. Ortiz was batting something like .144 for the series. There was no jump anywhere from anyone. For some reason Varitek and his .178 power average since May was still in the lineup! You could just tell the Rays were looking towards spraying each other with even cheaper champagne this time around as their ticket to the World Series was seven outs away from being stamped. Then suddenly and without warning, the biggest threat the Bo Sox have walked up to the plate, shook his finger like Dikembe Mutombo and said “Nooo you don’t.” And with one swing, Ortiz who had seemingly turned into Andruw Jones during the last few weeks, remembered how to hit and launched one into the right field stands. 7-4 Rays. Still a big lead, but you could just feel something happening in Boston.

Fenway Park erupted and all of a sudden the energy level got raised exponentially. People were yelling, screaming, and trying to will the Sox to three more runs to tie it up. It followed with JD Drew (I know, Drew again??) hitting a two-run shot in the 8^th and Coco Crisp tying the game with a single. The stage was set and the wind all but taken out of the Rays sails. In less than an hour the Rays had gone from the team that nobody thought wasn’t going to be the American League representative in the World Series to the team nobody thought was going to win this game anymore. At least I didn’t. With Fenway buzzing again and the Sox having tied the game there was just no way Tampa was going to stop this train tonight.

In each of the Red Sox playoff comebacks there has been a spark; something to give them a chance for the big comeback. In 2004 it was Dave Roberts’ stolen base that put him in scoring position for Bill Mueller in the 9^th inning of game 4. It didn’t win them the series, but it put the Sox in a position to win the game. They did and the rest of course is history. Last season it was a different story. Down 3-1 to the Indians, the Sox came out hitting and took advantage of some shoddy pitching late in the game by Victor Martinez. It didn’t win them the series, but put them in a position to go home for game six and try and win it there. They won seven straight games en route to another World Series championship. Last night it wasn’t a bad pitching performance or a stolen base that set up the win for the Sox; it was an error that proved more than a little costly.

The 9^th inning started well for Maddon’s club. He put Howell in in relief and he did just what a good reliever does. Dustin Pedroia grounded out to third and Ortiz struck out swinging. When Ortiz miffed the park actually started going silent for the first time in about an hour. Then came the moment. Kevin Youkilis hit a grounder down the 3^rd base line, Evan Longoria made a great backhanded stab but his throw was far too short and bounced over first base into the stands. Call it an omen. With Youk at 2^nd now the Rays intentionally walked Jason Bay setting up Drew again which baffles the mind because 1) He hits Howell very well to the tune of 4 for 7 coming into that at bat and 2) He JUST hit a HR last inning and in the playoffs this year and last has been clutch clutch clutch. Sure enough, a ground rule double into the Rays bullpen and with that the comeback complete. My brother texted me around 11 or so and he couldn’t have put it better: The Bo Sox WTF??? The Reverse Curse of A-Rod strikes again.

(The Reverse Curse of A-Rod basically stipulates that because the Red Sox were supposed to get him prior to the 2004 season and then when MLB voided the trade and the Yankees picked him up instead, the baseball gods have been allowing good things to happen to the Sox ever since. So far it’s an 0-3 comeback to the Yankees, a 1-3 comeback against the Indians and two World Series titles in four years. Oh and last nights game just to name a few)

That’s what made this particular comeback something special on its own. In 2004 against the Yankees the pitchers for the Sox after game 5 were: Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling and Derek Lowe. In other words, a fair bet to get it to a seventh game. (Like everyone else, I’m still shocked at Lowe’s pitching in the 04 playoffs. Very underrated indeed.) Last year they blew out Cleveland in three straight to win that series in seven. This year they haven’t won the series yet but came back in a game nobody expected or even dreamed they would. That’s what sets this comeback apart from those. They were never down that much to the Yanks; never down period to the Tribe. Last night signified the attitude they had been lacking to this point, the never say die attitude that brought them back one and four years ago, except this time not only were they down in games, they were on life support in what could have been and should have been the final game of their season. They didn’t have the luxury of having a superior pitching staff to guide them in games 5 and 6 like in ’04. They didn’t have the opportunity to crush balls at the beginning games 5 ad 6 like last year. They had wasted that chance and found themselves down 7-0 and down to their final 2+ innings. One by one the planets aligned and slowly but surely everyone in that

stadium knew that magic was about to happen again.

Something else happened during the 8^th and 9^th innings. I inexplicably began cheering for the other guys.

Like every casual fan whose team is out of it (Blue Jays) I’ve been on the Tampa bandwagon since about early September (save for that 10 game winning streak the Jays went on in the middle of the month) and although part of me was looking forward to a Sox-Dodgers World Series, I really wanted to see the Rays foil everything and get it in and then win it. Now I’m not sure anymore. The Red Sox have a $133 million payroll and all the financial opportunities that any team could ever want, yet they have this way of making themselves into the team you just can’t cheer against. In ’04 it was revenge of the Boone HR and being down 0-3 to the Yankees and of course the appeal of Johnny Damon and the “Idiots”. Last year when they fell behind to the Indians they were accused of not having the heart to go all the way, and then when they started destroying the Tribe’s pitching after game 5 I begun rooting for them again. This year was supposed to be different. The Sox were done and out and the Rays were the new team to root for, except last night once Ortiz hit that HR to send the crowd bananas I did a 180 and started cheering for the Red Sox one more time.

It’s also the WAY these comebacks seem to happen. It’s not like the Sox went out and lost three straight extra inning heartbreakers this week. It was a 9-8 loss and two huge blowouts at home. Not exactly games that bring about the tired clichés of “If only a few more bounces went our way” or “If we had sneakers like that we would’ve won too”. No these were old fashioned ass whippings. You can’t help but get into it. This team was seven outs from not just elimination but from losing three consecutive blowouts at home. Not even the Cubs do that.

Maybe I just like seeing quality baseball, which games 3 and 4 definitely were not. Perhaps deep down I’m a closet Red Sox fan although I doubt that. Maybe I’m just easily persuaded by the feel good story that happens every postseason with this team. Whatever the reason being I’m looking forward to game 6 and hoping there’s a game 7. Game 6 goes Saturday night at 8pm. Do yourselves a favour. Everybody around here will be watching the Leafs game at 7 which is fine but keep an eye out on the ballgame. It’s the playoffs and there still could be some magic left in this series. The Rays’ fans will be loud and this series has finally given some life into the baseball playoffs. (Up until now it’s been a colossal bore hasn’t it?) I know I’ll make sure a TV is showing it. Now I just need to figure out who to root for.