The Braves were the first to fall, when likely NL Rookie of the Year Craig Kimbrel blew a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth to a Chase Utley sacrifice fly. Four innings later, Hunter Pence stroked an RBI single in the top of the thirteenth to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead. Atlanta's other Rookie of the Year candidate, first baseman Freddie Freeman, followed a Dan Uggla walk by bouncing into a season ending double play. The loss gave the Cardinals, who blanked Houston with Chris Carpenter's gem, the NL Wild Card.
Down in Florida, the Yankees coughed up a 7-0 lead by allowing Tampa to score six runs in the eighth and Dan Johnson to tie it with a homer in the ninth (and no, it was not off Mariano Rivera, who wouldn't have come in if this game went 100 innings). With New York's starters long gone and Scott Proctor pitching in relief, it was only a matter of time before the Rays walked-off. The Yanks had men on the corners with no outs in the top of the twelfth, but some fool got bagged off third, their Triple A lineup couldn't score and Evan Longoria rose to the occassion in the bottom of the frame by blasting a walk-off home run three minutes after Jonathan Papelbon blew his own 3-2 lead in spectacular fashion.
After blowing away Adam Jones and Mark Reynolds, he allowed back to back doubles before Red Sox-killer Robert Andino struck his final blow with a walk-off single. A sliding Carl Crawford just missed it and probably should have had it, but he is not the scapegoat.
Nobody is. Not when your starting rotation vaporizes, the offense can't come up with key hits and Daniel Bard kills every other eighth inning lead.
Besides, the game was lost before Mr. Andino ever stepped to the plate. It was lost when Boston wiped out baseruuners, when Marco Scutaro got gunned down at the plate and David Ortiz was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. It was lost when they loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the ninth for Big Papi, only for him to hit the ball ten feet for a force out before Ryan Lavarnaway bounced into a double play. Boston should have had five or six runs, and maybe they would still have a game to play tomorrow.
But they don't. They turned a nine game lead into a one game deficit in four weeks and went from leading the AL East to finishing third for the second year in a row despite having a payroll four times greater than Tampa Bay's. Despite having the easier schedule, they managed to drop five of seven games against the last place Orioles. They won seven games this month, and only one required fewer than seven runs to do the job. After Josh Beckett beat the Rays on September 16th, the starting rotation failed to earn a win. Six times in September they lost by one measly run. You can't say enough about this epic collapse, and yet there really is nothing new to say.
They didn't deserve it, and even if they had won, they almost surely would have lost tomorrow. They literally had no one to throw at the Rays, unless Beckett was willing to pitch on two days' rest. And if they had managed to win and play the Rangers in the ALDS, they would have been helpless without their aces during the first two games.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Boston fans will have to wait 'til next year. There will be no Soxtober.
At least we know Adrian Gonzalez, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia will not win AL MVP, so that should help make the voters' decisions a little easier.
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