Berth Day Party by Jared Carrabis
Sox Clinch Playoff Berth, October Bound In Title Defense

For the fifth time in the past six seasons, the Boston Red Sox are bound for October. For the second time in those five postseason appearances the boys from Boston have a World Series title to defend. The 2008 Red Sox have kept their core from the 2007 championship team but have the perfect blend of new names and faces. Some young, some experienced, but regardless of any of the player's pasts, they all share the same collective goal: a World Series Championship.

With the Red Sox magic number dwindled down to one entering Tuesday night's contest between Boston and Cleveland, Red Sox fans were scoreboard watching as the New York Yankees were ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 late in the game. A Red Sox win or a Yankee loss would do it and after the Yankee game went final, Boston knew they needed a victory if any bottles were to be popped at Fenway Park.

Starting from the beginning, the Red Sox were facing one of their toughest obstacles all season long in needing to defeat the guaranteed lock for American League Cy Young, the 22-2 Cliff Lee. Tim Wakefield took the mound to oppose Cliff Lee and with a win he would record his tenth season of ten or more wins in a Red Sox uniform tying Roger Clemens for the most 10 win seasons in team history.

Kevin Youkilis loosened up the corks on the bottles a smidgen in the bottom of the fourth inning when he uncorked a 2-run home run off of Cliff Lee, his 27th of the season. Some shaky Boston defense led to a four run inning in the top of the fifth but the Boston bats rebounded quite nicely in the bottom half of the inning against the Cy Young-to-be. With one down and Coco Crisp at first base, Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 14 games with his 20th double of the season to right field moving Crisp up to third.

Ellsbury better not have any intentions of catching Dustin Pedroia in the doubles column because the very next batter was Dustin Pedroia himself. The season-long offensive spark rocked his league leading 53d double of the season off the wall in left to bring Crisp and Ellsbury around tying the game up at four, but the Sox weren't done. Cliff Lee retired David Ortiz on strikes and learned his lesson dealing With Kevin Youkilis as manager Eric Wedge called for four balls from the dugout.

Bay got a 1-1 fastball and shot it back up the middle to bring Pedroia around from second base with the lead in his back pocket. The Red Sox bullpen was as tough as nails from that point on giving up just three hits following Wakefield's departure after six innings of work. Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson, Javier Lopez and Jonathan Papelbon all combined for a full bullpen effort to secure this one-run game. The play of the game arguably could be handed to Hideki Okajima who pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam getting Victor Martinez to pop up with two outs and the bases loaded to end the Cleveland threat.

Jonathan Papelbon was vintage Pap in the ninth inning on Tuesday night blowing fastballs by the first two batters he faced for strike three. With two outs Papelbon unloaded a 97 MPH fastball towards home plate getting Victor Martinez to pop out to Alex Cora at short to secure the Red Sox place as one of eight teams to enter postseason play this October and officially exclude the New York Yankees from the festivities.

The team celebrated as one on the mound following the final out being recorded. As always, the man to keep your eye on was the Boston closer himself who had just racked up his 41st save of the season. Papelbon popped champagne bottles and cracked beers with his teammates and proceeded to host the "Jonathan Papelbon Giveaway" night at Fenway Park by ripping up the bases and handing them to fans.

The images seen by the fans at home were ones that surely will be remembered for a long time as Red Sox Nation watched their heroes walk around Fenway Park and shake hands with every outstretched hand. Each and every player thanking fans individually for their support all season long as the Red Sox shared their celebration with the Fenway Faithful.

Although Boston is not mathematically eliminated from winning the AL East, with the number of games remaining on the schedule the chances are dimming down with each passing game. If the Red Sox claim the Wild Card as their entry into postseason play, they will be headed out to the west coast to play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League Division Series. The series will begin next week on either Wednesday or Thursday. The day that the series begins all depends on the Angels securing the best record in the league. If they accomplish that then they get to choose which series they are to partake in.

Regardless of the Red Sox entry into the playoffs, I like our chances. Whether or not the Angels have played really well against Boston all season long no longer matters. When that calender turns to October, it's a whole new season. As far as I'm concerned, I will take a three-man rotation of Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka over any other three-man rotation heading into October. What's that quote against? Oh yeah, "Pitching and defense wins championships". Well, the Red Sox lead the American League with a .986 fielding percentage and have a 3.94 ERA as a team, an earned run average identical to that of the LA Angels. You do the math.

Final Score: Indians 4, Red Sox 5

Published on September 24, 2008

---