All Cowbell'd Out by Jared Carrabis
Boston sweeps Tampa Bay out of contention


Exactly one year ago, the Tampa Bay Rays held a two game lead over the Boston Red Sox for the American League East crown.

Fast forward to Sunday, after the Rays in a day/night doubleheader, the Red Sox completed their three-game sweep of Tampa Bay, sending the defending American League Champions even further out of playoff contention.

In a rain-shortened game, Boston sent a message to Tampa Bay by pounding out a convincing 9-1 victory after just six innings.

In the first game of Sunday's doubleheader, the Rays sent the man who dominated the Red Sox in last October's ALCS to square off against a pitcher who wasn't even on the postseason roster. A year ago, this pitching match up was a no-brainer on paper. In 2009, Matt Garza had his work cut out for himself if he had plans of out-dueling the likes of the new and improved Clay Buchholz.

The two young and talented right-handers exchanged scoreless innings until the bottom of the sixth, when Victor Martinez drove in Dustin Pedroia for the game's first run.

An RBI single by Jason Bartlett in the top of the seventh locked the two teams back up into a tie ballgame. However, the tie was short-lived, as Pedroia came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth with David Ortiz standing at second base after lacing a leadoff double. With a 2-0 count, Pedroia rocked a 94 MPH fastball to the opposite field and into the Rays' bullpen for a two-run shot.

Buchholz tossed seven innings of one-run ball, allowing just five hits, while striking out five batters after 97 pitches.

Jonathan Papelbon was called upon to increase Tampa Bay's losing streak to ten straight games. The Boston closer did so in impressive fashion, by striking out the side in the top of the ninth to lock down save number 36 on the season for the right-hander.

Game 1: Rays 1, Red Sox 3

After throwing just over twenty pitches on Friday night before the game was called after one inning of play, Jon Lester grabbed his glove and headed for the mound once again in this series.

The one inning of work proved to have zero effect on Lester's performance just two days later. Going up against "Big Game" James Shields, Lester had the bigger and better game between the lines. While Shields got the hook after six frames, Lester pitched eight beautiful innings of shutout baseball.

Shields allowed more earned runs than Lester allowed hits, as the left-hander logged an eight-inning, two-hit shutout with seven strikeouts for his thirteenth win of the season. Though Lester's win total may not scream "Cy Young" to anyone, any of his other stats certainly will, which justifies my theory that the "wins" stat is completely erroneous. I would be shocked if Lester doesn't finish in the top three for the Cy Young Award in 2009 if he continues to pitch the way that he has been.

The offensive support behind Lester was highlighted by Jason Bay's 32nd home run of the season, which came on an opposite field poke that barely bended fair around Pesky's pole.

Billy Wagner got the call in the top of the ninth to slam the door on the Rays and send them packing from Fenway. The veteran lefty racked up two K's en route to completing Boston's shutout and series sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, which helped continue their losing streak to eleven straight games, dropping them to fourth place in the Wild Card race.

In choice of words, better luck next year.

Game 2: Rays 0, Red Sox 4

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

After pitching seven solid innings of one-run ball on Sunday, Clay Buchholz notched his fourth straight quality start and his seventh out of his last eight outings. In his last six starts, Buchholz is 4-0 with a 3.00 ERA. If you exclude his 4.2 innings against the Chicago White Sox in which he gave up seven earned runs, his ERA would be 1.58.

After homering off of Matt Garza in the first game on Sunday, Dustin Pedroia had homered in three of his last four games. (Three in his last give after being kept in the yard in game two).

Jon Lester struck out the side in the top of the fourth to help add seven more strikeouts to his K total on the season, which ranks fifth best in all of baseball (211). Lester improved to 3-0 in his last three starts to go along with an 0.86 ERA.

On a side note, Lester's 212 strikeouts make Pedro Martinez's 1999 season with 313 K's all the more impressive now that we're nearing season's end. Speaking of Pedro, he just so happens to be 5-0 with the Philadelphia Phillies. Pedro matched Jon Lester, also hurling an eight-inning shutout with seven strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.87. Martinez has 34 strikeouts in 37.2 innings pitched this season.

The Red Sox completed their three-game sweep of the Rays all in less than 24 hours.

Monday's pitching match-up:

The Sox are off on Monday. Why? Because Tom Brady is coming back; that's why. Over the years, writing for SoxSpace, I sadly came to find that there is a percentage of SoxSpace readers who not only root for a team other than New England, but they simply despise the Patriots. Well, regardless of what jersey you wear on Sunday's, the Pats are my team. So, in honor of the return of the New England Patriots, I give you one of the greatest videos to ever hit YouTube:



Eye on the scoreboard:

Orioles 3, Yankees 13
G1: Mariners 2, Rangers 7
G2: Mariners 5, Rangers 0

Result: So, now that the Rays have been knocked completely out of the playoff picture, I will no longer be posting their final score updates, because who cares? They are no longer relevant. Now, with the Yankees' win, the Sox remain seven games out in the AL East, with the Bomber's magic number to clinch dropping down to 13.

Now, as a result of the Sox sweeping their doubleheader and the Rangers splitting, Boston advances to four games over Texas. Though four games seems like a lot this late in the season, we've all seen crazier things happen, so let's not pop any bottles yet. By the looks of this pitching staff, the Red Sox are arguably playing their best baseball in quite some time and will remain the team to beat outside of the Yankees.

To order my debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click HERE!





Published on September 14, 2009

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