Never Say Die by Jared Carrabis
Never In A Series, Never In A Game, Never In Boston.

Not in our house. Trailing the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 7-0, say it with me now, seven to nothing, the Boston Red Sox completed one of the most memorable postseason comebacks in the history of the team and the second biggest rally in postseason history. Refusing to let the Tampa Bay Rays celebrate the American League pennant at Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing by a score of 7-0 and the rest was history.

Optimism was riding high at Fenway Park on Thursday night at the start of Game 5 in the 2008 American League Championship Series with Daisuke Matsuzaka set to take the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays. Matsuzaka seemingly the only effective pitcher against the Rays in the series looked to keep the Red Sox season alive. Those hopes were battered and bruised early when for yet another postseason game, the Tampa Bay Rays played home run derby against the Red Sox pitching staff.

They’ve done it in every single game so far this series played at Fenway Park. Before there’s anything for the Fenway Faithful to cheer about, the Rays silenced the crowd via the long ball almost instantly. Akinori Iwamura led off the game with a single off of Daisuke Matsuzaka and BJ Upton followed up the single with a blast over the Green Monster. Fans couldn’t help but get a sense of “here we go again”. That awful feeling only amplified itself in the top of the third inning when the usual suspects in Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria went back-to-back off of Matsuzaka. In the blink of an eye it was 5-0 Rays in the third inning, again.

It was like we were watching the same game over and over and over again. Only this time, if the Red Sox didn’t press pause on this horror flick and put in their own action movie, their season was going to come to a very disappointing end. The Red Sox had plenty of opportunities to get to the lefty starter, Scott Kazmir, early but failed to do so. RISP almost made you want to drop the “S” because the Red Sox looked dead on their feet after being shut out inning after inning with men left on base. Things really began to look grim for the Sox when Daisuke Matsuzaka was lifted in the fifth inning after walking leadoff batter Akinori Iwamura. Hideki Okajima was sent in to hold off the Rays while Boston played catch up.

Okajima did his job pitching two innings of one-hit shutout baseball to fend off the Rays before handing the ball over to Manny Delcarmen in the top of the seventh. Delcarmen has struggled as of late and continued to show signs of inconsistency in Game 5. The first two batters to face Delcarmen in the seventh inning reached base on back-to-back walks. The two batters would be all manager Terry Francona would allow Delcarmen to face as he went to his bullpen once again for the closer, Jonathan Papelbon. With two runners aboard, the two men both advanced into scoring position on a double steal that was executed flawlessly. With the man that the Red Sox seemingly can never get out, BJ Upton continued to contribute to Boston’s hair loss as he cranked a double off the wall in left to drive in both runs while everyone at Fenway Park and those watching at home pulled some more hair out of their heads.

Terry Francona went to Papelbon because he needed a big strikeout and who better to go to than Jonathan Papelbon, right? But instead the Red Sox were smacked in the face with a two-run double and a seven-run deficit with nine outs to live. To the credit of the Fenway Faithful, when adversity walked up and punched us in the nose, we were not “stunned” like the TBS announcers were probably rambling about on TV. Facing adversity with possible elimination just three innings away, Fenway grew louder and louder until the bottom of the seventh inning rolled around.

Grant Balfour entered the game and coughed up a leadoff double to Jed Lowrie to start the inning. Was that the start the Red Sox needed? Two quick outs to Jason Varitek (still 0-for-the series) and Mark Kotsay quieted the crowd down a little bit but the fightin’ Covelli Crisp got the fans right back in it with a single into left field to put runners at the corners. You know what that means, two out RBI time. Dustin Pedroia came to the plate and like he has done for this team all season long, the Red Sox second baseman shot a single back up the middle scoring Jed Lowrie from third to make it 7-1.

Personally, I’m so glad that I was at this game so that I didn’t have to hear the TBS announcers talk about how many games it has been since David Ortiz has last hit a postseason home run. When David Ortiz came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, the common phrase spoken widely around the ballpark had to have been “he’s due…he’s definitely due”. Due he was and Big Papi, David Ortiz, delivered, big time. Grant Balfour hurled a 97 MPH fastball towards the plate and David Ortiz cranked his homerless streak in the postseason about 25 rows deep in the right field corner to bring the Red Sox back within three runs. Maybe the TBS announcers weren’t so biased after all. Maybe David Ortiz just needed to give them something to be excited about. Either way, Craig Sager’s suits are still ridiculous.

Behind a rejuvenated crowd at Fenway Park, the Red Sox weren’t done showcasing their offense that had produced the second most runs in the American League with 845. They didn’t need 845 runs tonight, but even though asking for .009% of that run total, eight runs certainly wasn’t out of the question, not for this offense at least. In the bottom of the eighth inning, they picked up right where they left off. A walk to Jason Bay to lead off the inning was just what the Red Sox needed, a man on base for JD Drew. Drew turned on an 0-1 fastball and drove it out to deep right field. The pitch by Dan Wheeler sailed way back until it was gone to bring the Red Sox back within just one run of the Tampa Bay Rays who previously held a 7-0 lead. Two quick outs followed the JD Drew 2-run shot but the two out offense continued to roll.

Mark Kotsay smoked a liner out to center field (finally a ball that BJ Upton couldn’t track down) and got over the head of the Tampa Bay center fielder for a stand up double. The next at bat was single handedly the most important at bat of the entire series thus far. With Kotsay standing at second base, Coco Crisp battled Dan Wheeler pitch after pitch on a full count until finally on the tenth pitch of the at bat, Coco lined a single into right field scoring Mark Kotsay from second base and we were tied at seven. If there was a such thing as a Tampa Bay Rays fan I’m sure they would have been “stunned” but instead we’ll go with Joe Maddon. A four run seventh and a three run eighth brought the Red Sox back to life and shifted the momentum in the game over to the Red Sox dugout.

Justin Masterson came on in relief of Jonathan Papelbon who pitched two shutout innings with two strikeouts, one hit and a walk. The ninth inning was no easy task for Masterson but sometimes that can be a good thing. Jason Bartlett led off the top of the ninth with a line drive single to left to start the inning off on the right foot. Masterson got Akinori Iwamura to pop out assuring that there would only be one runner of for the dangerous BJ Upton. Being careful not to leave a pitch up in the zone or over the heart of the plate, BJ Upton walked on five pitches. Carlos Pena came to the plate having homered earlier in the night but this time he turned in just what the Red Sox needed, an inning ending 4-6-3 double play that sent the Fenway Faithful into a frenzy to lead into the bottom of the ninth.

JP Howell came on to face the heart of the Red Sox order in the bottom of the ninth after Dan Wheeler was tagged for three earned runs and a blown save. Howell looked sharp at the start of the inning getting Dustin Pedroia to ground out to third and followed that up with a big strikeout of David Ortiz. Once again, the two out rally was on. Yet another tremendous at bat turned in by a Red Sox hitter when Kevin Youkilis came to the plate and battled JP Howell for ten straight pitches. On that tenth pitch, Howell delivered a 77 MPH slider to home plate and Kevin Youkilis hit it on the ground to third baseman, Evan Longoria. Longoria fielded the ball and hurried his throw with Youkilis charging down the first baseline. The throw was low and Carlos Pena was unable to dig it out as the ball hopped over his shoulder and into the stands allowing Kevin Youkilis to advance to second on the throwing error by Longoria.

Manager Joe Maddon elected to intentionally walk Jason Bay who was 0-for-3 on the night to bring JD Drew to the plate who was 1-for-3 with a home run already. The decision was clearly to give JP Howell the advantage of being a left-handed pitcher to face the left-handed hitting JD Drew. Certainly a gamble and you’ll learn that you win some and you lose some. Howell was showing signs of being rattled by the Fenway crowd chanting his name to get under his skin and in the process started JD Drew off with three consecutive balls. With a 3-0 count, Drew was taking all the way and took a strike. With a hitter’s count, Howell threw JD Drew a changeup on the inside half of the plate and Drew roped it over the head of Gabe Gross and into the Red Sox bullpen. Kevin Youkilis ran all the way around from second and he can keep on running to St. Petersburg because there will be a Game 6 on Saturday night.

Josh Beckett will return to the mound with a vengeance. Forget about his postseason stats in 2008; forget about his stats in the postseason at all. Josh Beckett won a World Series in 2003 and then again in 2007. On Saturday, October 18, 2008, Josh Beckett has the chance to give his team the best shot at winning back-to-back World Series titles since 1916. The best part about that is that he knows this. One of the biggest big game pitchers that this franchise has ever seen, no one wants the ball in Game 6 more than Josh Beckett. After being pounded in Game 2 giving up lead after lead, a pitcher that pitches with a heart full of pride every fifth day in Josh Beckett will refuse to let that happen again. Forget about this past, this is Game 6, the Red Sox are going to Tampa Bay. Never say die. Never in a series, never in a game, never in Boston.

ALCS Game 5: Rays 7, Red Sox 8

Published on October 17, 2008

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