Sox get Wild, again by Jared Carrabis
Sox back into the postseason as WC champs for 7th time


At almost one o'clock in the morning, a portion of the Red Sox celebrated Boston's return to the postseason.

Out in Anaheim on Tuesday night, as Hank Blalock watched a 91mph fastball cross home plate for strike three, the Red Sox were crowned as the American League's Wild Card representative.

Now, the only question that I have for Red Sox fans is this: how confident are you in your team after last night's loss to the Blue Jays heading into postseason play? The Red Sox are now losers of their last five straight games, after yet another walk-off win in the Bronx, they're now 10.5 games behind the Yankees (not that it matters), and then there's the big one. Jon Lester has yet to prove he can pitch effectively, Josh Beckett has yet to pitch since experiencing back spasms, Clay Buchholz allowed five home runs on Tuesday night and the health of Tim Wakefield is up in the air.

In response to all of those issues; the Red Sox haven't exactly been sending out a "playoff caliber" lineup over the course of the five-game losing streak. The Yankees are having arguably their best season of the decade, but the '04 Yankees were a 100-win team; how did that work out?

Jon Lester is perfectly fine. Aside from having a baseball-sized bruise, there is nothing stopping Lester from taking the mound and pitching to his full capabilities. As far as Beckett and Wakefield go, they are both getting cortisone shots and will be able to pitch come October.

Finally, in the case of Buchholz, the last thing you should be worried about is the fact that he gave up five home runs to the Blue Jays. Three of the five were against one of the top hitters in the league, and if he was due for a bad start, it's better to get it out of the way now. If you look at his numbers in the month of September, prior to Tuesday night, you'll be confident knowing that a game like Tuesday night's is a fluke, not his recent stretch of excellent pitching.

With the Red Sox claiming the Wild Card for 2009, this marks the 11th time that a team from the American League East has emerged as the Wild Card winner in the 15 seasons of its existence.

Boston's seventh Wild Card championship is more than any other team in the American League, and as far as the National League goes, no team has won the Wild Card more than twice.

Since 1996, seven of the 13 Wild Card winners coming from the American League have made it to the ALCS, three have made it to the World Series and two have won it all as the Wild Card representatives (2002 Angels, 2004 Red Sox).

Boston has won six series as Wild Card winners, which ties them with the Florida Marlins for most series wins by any team in baseball via the Wild Card.

The point that I'm trying to make here is that it doesn't matter if the Yankees have 102+ wins; we all start with a clean slate come October.

The Red Sox will once again draw the Angels in the American League Division Series, as Boston looks to move past the Halos for the fourth time since 2004 en route to their third World Series title in six years.

-Jared Carrabis

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





Published on September 30, 2009

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