That 8th inning really hurt. Cora and Crisp did the unthinkable and BOTH got on base to start the inning, down 2, in front of Pedroia>Ortiz>Youkilis>Drew and NONE of those 4 guys got a hit. Ugh!
At least we made them earn it and made it entertaining. Letting them walk over us in games 3-5 at Fenway would have been unforgivable. Losing sucks but at least they generated some entertainment value in games 5-7. Nothing cheap happened the whole series either. The games played out properly, there were no bad calls or stupid bounces, and thus the better team won. You can\'t play with fire every time the way the Sox have done. Sooner or later you\'re going to lose one of these series trailing 3-1 or 3-0.
The Rays and Sox will be going at it for quite a while here. (Unlss the Rays go with a Marlins-style firesale of the whole team, which I don\'t forsee.) They both have so much young homegrown talent carrying their teams. The only team in baseball with more homegrown talent contribution than the Sox is the Rays. I\'m looking forward to continuing the current run with Youkilis, Pedroia, Lowrie, Ortiz, Varitek, Ellsbury, Lester, Delcarmen, Masterson, Buchholz, and Papelbon for a long time. I can\'t believe that it\'s this part of the season and the Yankees really are so forgotten at this point. They\'re so far behind in terms of bringing up talent and their big-free-agent model is so outdated that I don\'t think we\'re going to hear from them for at least 5 years while the Sox and Rays carry the AL East. Weird.
I am curious to see some TV ratings from Tampa Bay for tonight. I bet that the Buccaneers\' Sunday night football game was a bigger draw than the Rays playing game 7 of the ALCS. I know the concept is crazy to any Boston/NY fan, but the Rays are to Tampa what Major League Soccer is to Boston or New York.
At least I can catch up on some sleep this week. Congratulations to all you Rays fans! (Crickets.) Well, everyone have a great time watching the Phillies-Rays World Series! (Crickets.) Enjoy the rest of this thread! (Crickets.) New England is Cassel Country now! (Muffled groans.) Time to end this post! (Hearty applause.)