Deja Vu All Over Again?

October 16th, 2008...

Game #5 of the ALCS

Final Score: Boston 8 - Cleveland 7...er, Tampa Bay 7.

J.D. Drew hits the game-winner off of J.P. Howell in the bottom of the 9th!

With the Rays ahead by 7 runs and 7 outs away from a trip to the 2008 World Series, the Boston "Faithful" were clogging the exits of Fenway Park. J.D. Drew delivered the game winner that broke the 7-7 tie in the bottom of the 9th inning with two out and two on. Kevin Youkilis scored the winning run and all of a sudden, Boston is down 3 games to 2 again.

What a shame as Scott Kazmir pitched a beauty of a game, allowing only 2 hits and 0 runs in 6 innings. When the Rays seemed to relax a bit, all got out of hand. Grant Balfour, doing his best impersonation of "Rain Man" gave up 4 runs on as many hits. What was that he was saying to himself after each pitch? "I'm an excellent pitcher! Oh, yeah, I'm an excellent pitcher!"

In comes Dan Wheeler and temporarily stops the bleeding by getting Youkilis to fly out for the 3rd out of the 7th inning. But come the bottom of the 8th, Wheeler gives up 3 runs on as many hits to allow the game to be tied and get charged with a blown save.

OK, so the Rays lost. What did you expect, for them to come into Boston and take all 3 games? Come on, they are still ahead 3 game to 2 and going home to their own cozy little house of pain.

Once again, they need to show what they are made of Saturday night and get this done. You can't let up on the Red Sox for a second and you can't get caught up on borderline pitches that don't seem to be going your way. All year long this team has been tough under fire, keeping the pressure on the opposition for 9 innings. That's what it is going to take, an all-out, don't budge, never give an inch performance to make these Red Sox join their "Faithful" heading for the exits and putting their butts on their couches for the remainder of the 2008 playoffs.

Come on Rays, show us what you got...

Better yet, show the Red Sox what you got!