The Red Sox end the season
with a yawn
September 30, 2007
...
Here's what you get on the last day when it's all wrapped up, neat
and pretty. You get Fort Myers North. The guys with the big names and
the big salaries are all out of there by the sixth. You get the
skipper trying to give players the basketball Standing O. You get
some eye-popping relief pitching.
What you
don't get, if you're a Red Sox fan, is a win, but at least the boys made things
interesting, leaving the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a 3-2 Minnesota
triumph in a truly meaningless Game No. 162. Now everyone has to wait until
Wednesday, when the real fun starts. Josh Beckett vs. John Lackey. Around these
here parts, we kinda regard that as appointment TV
Jason
Varitek gave his many fans a regular-season farewell present by slamming his
17th homer of the season in the sixth inning. The Twins scored all their runs in
the first off Julian Tavarez, making his 23d start of the year and his first
since Aug. 31. But that was the end of Minnesota's offense for the day. For,
starting with the final out of the first inning (a Matt LeCroy ground out)
Tavarez and five relievers retired 23 Twins in succession before pinch hitter
Jason Kubel hit a one-out ground-rule double off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth.
So while the outcome was irrelevant, the skipper certainly felt that kind of
dazzling performance from his many relievers meant something.
The parade
of untouchables included Lester (two innings), Mike Timlin, Manny Delcarmen,
Eric Gagne, and Papelbon, none of whom needed more than 20 pitches (Lester) to
get the job done. Yes, this even included a rare 1-2-3 eighth for Gagne,
although second baseman Alex Cora did have to roam a bit to his right to flag
down a hot shot off the bat of Brian Buscher.
OK, the
162-game preliminary is over. The Red Sox went into first place to stay April
18. They led everyone by as many as 12 and the people from the Bronx by as many
as 14 1/2. It got down to 1 1/2, but they never lost the lead. They bottomed out
with that three-game debacle in Toronto, but there was a welcome offday, and
then there was the welcome sight of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. When they
absolutely, positively had to win they took six out of eight to nail everything
down, and by everything we mean the AL East and the top seed in the playoffs.
