Heading into the final weeks of September in baseball's regular season, the taste of champagne appeared to be on the tongue of the Boston Red Sox as they held a nine game lead over the division-rival Tampa Bay Rays in the AL wild card. However, their nine game cushion which appeared to be insurmountable would prove to be anything but, thanks in large part to a putrid 9-17 month of September for the Red Sox and a mere opposite 17-8 for the Rays as both teams entered the final day of the season in a deadlock for wild card supremacy. Projected by many to not only make it to and win the World Series this year, but perhaps win up to 100+ games, the Boston Red Sox saw the curtain to their 2011 campaign come to an early close on Wednesday night.
With the odds stacked against them trailing the Yankees 6-0 entering the 8th inning in Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field, the Rays pulled within a run by rallying for 5 runs in the inning, capped off by a 3-run home run off the bat of Rays All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria. While fans waited anxiously in Tampa, fearing it might be the final time they saw their beloved Rays in action this season down to their last strike in the 9th, one of the most unlikeliest of hero's saved the day. With two strikes and two outs, Dan Johnson who entered Wednesday's game a proud owner of 9 hits in 83 at-bats this season including one homer, did the unthinkable by connecting for a solo home run to tie the game at 7-runs apiece. Meanwhile, the scene at Baltimore's Camden Yards didn't seem to be any more promising for the Rays as the Sox were one out away from winning in a 3-2 ballgame.
With one of the most dominant closers in all of baseball on the mound, the Orioles faced a tall order as Boston's Jonathan Papelbon struck out the first two batters he faced entering the 9th before allowing three consecutive hits including a game-winning single by Baltimore's Robert Andino to seal the win for the O's and put Boston's playoff hopes in jeopardy. With the Rays up to bat in the 12th inning, the outfield scoreboard lit up with the final score of the Boston-Baltimore game, sending the Rays faithful into a frenzy. A mere four minutes later, Evan Longoria put an exclamation point on Tampa Bay's storybook finish, hitting a line-drive solo home run down the left field line to put a damper over the city of Boston and send his team into the postseason. The only thing that would've made Tampa Bay's miraculous comeback any more dazzling than it was, is if they won it off of New York's Mariano Rivera who recently became MLB's all-time saves leader on September 13, surpassing the previous mark of 601 career saves set by Trevor Hoffman.
To sum up just how catastrophic Boston's monumental collapse is, the Red Sox became the only team in MLB history to miss the postseason after leading a division or wild card spot by as many as nine games entering the month of September, edging the Atlanta Braves' 8 1/2 game slide also set this season. So who's to blame for this record-setting debacle you ask? While many would point the blame to one individual in most cases, the truth is there's a collection of names and areas to point the finger at and they all lie within the team. To say the Red Sox starting pitching staff had a disastrous month of September would be an understatement considering the starting rotation had its worst month statistically in franchise history, posting an ERA of 7.08. The woes didn't stop there as the team combined for a league-high 26 errors, responsible for 14 unearned runs. Finally there's the lack of hitting as eight of Boston's 20 losses this month came when scoring two runs or fewer. This of coarse being the same offense that many predicted to shatter records in the run department.
Notice how I failed to mention anywhere in there the name of Red Sox skipper Terry Francona. That's because I, nor the Red Sox organization are using Tito as a scapegoat despite taking the blame for his team's historic collapse. Like any great manager would, Francona didn't shy away from admitting the team's failures were his fault, regardless if they were or not. Less than 48 hours after Wednesday's game, the 8-year relationship between Francona and the Red Sox organization came to a halt after Tito took to a press-conference where he told reporters, "It's time for a new voice here." Francona's impressive resume as head honcho of the Red Sox includes two World Series titles including the Championship in 2004 which ended an 86-year dry spell, better known as the Curse of the Bambino. Though he might not have been able to solve the ongoing issues in Boston, one thing that's certain is that he'll have no trouble finding a new job.
While at the helm in Boston, Francona led his teams to an overall record of 744-552 and is currently the only manager in MLB history to win his first 8 games in the World Series. Although it's still early to say where he'll land just yet, rumors of Francona taking the managerial job for either Chicago team (White Sox or Cubs) have surfaced. But with Francona no longer in the mix in Bean Town, it'll be interesting to see if the organization decides to give Red Sox GM Theo Epstein the axe. In some ways you could compare this Boston Red Sox squad to last year's Miami Heat granted the blockbuster acquisitions of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford came with mile high expectations. The only difference being Miami made it to the Finals and Boston didn't proclaim themselves to be 7-time champions before they could even bring home one.
Not to be forgotten are the Atlanta Braves who like Boston are in a similar black hole right now after blowing an 8 1/2 game lead to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL wild card. Luckily for them, the Red Sox are around to take the heat and absorb most of the criticism. Any other time the franchise would be getting tomahawk chopped by not only their fan base, but by the media as well.
In what will go down as one of if not the most exciting nights of regular season baseball in the game's 100+ years of existence, the question of whether or not Major League Baseball should consider implementing another wild card position for each league as talked about at the start of the season by Commissioner Bud Selig comes into play. Having been one of the game's hot topics for the past several years now, there's been mixed emotions among the fans, players and owners about changing the current landscape of the playoff format. But had there been two wild card spots on Wednesday night, those amazing games wouldn't have been as significant. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of: if it's not broken, don't fix it.
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