Did you see that Game 1 of the ALCS? Well someone above certainly did, and he was donning the famous “B” cap. The 2-0 Red Sox victory was sprinkled (maybe “tainted” is a better word) with the kind of breaks that have no business being the determining factor in a championship series. Mark Kotsay, the team’s obligatory in-season pickup-for-nothing, was inevitable right at the heart of that. The left-hander hit a check swing double off James Shields in the 5th inning to set up the game’s first run. He almost duplicated the feat in his next at-bat but was thwarted by a great effort from Rays’ shortstop Jason Bartlett.
Then, of course, was Dice-K getting lucky, just as he has all year. The Rays hit themselves out of a game-tying inning in the 7th before Evan Longoria aided reliever Justin Masterson with a double play ball in the 8th. Of course, sandwiched in between was a ball glancing off the glove of left fielder Carl Crawford to plate the much-needed insurance run.
The Red Sox, as usual, got more breaks last night than a Kit Kat bar, while the Rays could only scratch their collective heads. Considering that there is no team with that kind of karma, this bad movie will have a predictable ending yet again in 2008. Unfortunately, the final victim will be the Philadelphia Phillies and their die-hard fans, starving for a championship for the first time since 1980. The Phillies are no match for the Red Sox, and bitter memories of Super Bowl XXXIX will arise and once again haunt city of Brotherly Love.
The final word is this. Since that matchup is obvious, it will be Brad Lidge choking again in the postseason at the hands of a David Ortiz walk-off home run. The rerun will air sometime next week during the Red Sox’s final frontier.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
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