Thursday, September 29, 2011

GET UP OR GO HOME

The Detroit Tigers defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-4.
The Tigers will play the New York Yankees in the 1st round of the playoffs.
Miguel Cabrera went 2-for-4 and captured the American League batting title, finishing with a .344 batting average - 6 points ahead of Michael Young of Texas and Adrian Gonzalez of Boston...



The Oakland A's ended their season on a positive note by shutting-out the Seattle Mariners 2-0.
Gio Gonzalez pitched 8 innings, allowed 2 hits, 3 walks and fired 11 Ks.
Gonzalez prays to the imaginary 'baseball gods'...



Some people will blame last night's epic collapse on the 'baseball gods.'
Sorry, there's only one GOD and I'm pretty sure he's a baseball fan, but I highly doubt that he favours one team over another.
No, this epic collapse was more the result of a 'Perfect Storm' of events.
If you're a Red Sox fan the definition fits perfectly...Perfect Storm:
a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.
I was watching both the Red Sox-Orioles and Yankees-Rays games.
In order for both games to end around the same time something drastic had to occur.
The Yankees were crushing the Rays 7-0 going into the 8th inning. The game ended-up lasting 12 innings!
The Red Sox had a 3-2 lead over the Orioles going into the 7th inning when it began to rain. The result was a rain delay of 1 hour, 26 minutes.
When the rain came, Tampa Bay trailed 7-0. By the time play resumed, the Rays and Yankees were tied 7-7 heading into the 10th inning.
Here's how this cataclysmic turn of events ended: Jonathan Papelbon is on the mound with a 3-2 lead. He strikes out the first two Orioles' batters. Papelbon gives-up a double to Chris Davis. Kyle Hudson comes in to pinch-run for Davis. Nolan Reimold hits another double to score Hudson. The score is now tied 3-3. Papelbon has 2 out and 2 strikes on Robert Andino and Andino hits a single that Carl Crawford can't glove - Baltimore beats Boston 4-3.
Now we head on over to Tampa Bay where it's the bottom of the 12th inning, the Yankees and Rays are tied 7-7. The Red Sox have already lost
4-3 and are eliminated from the playoffs should Tampa Bay somehow win. For some unknown reason, the updated score has NOT been posted on the out-of-town scoreboard at Tropicana Field. Evan Longoria is at the plate. The scoreboard, finally, lights-up with the 4-3 Orioles-Red Sox final score. The crowd is whipped into a frenzy. Longoria cranks a liner that lands barely over the wall, inside the left-field foul pole for an 8-7 win and the American League Wildcard!
The 'Perfect Storm' concurrence of factors combined so that Longoria went yard 4 MINUTES after the Red Sox blew their 9th-inning lead!!!
But, after all is said and done - did the Boston Red Sox, after their pathetic play during the month of September, deserve to make the playoffs? The answer is a resounding NO...


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