So the honeymoon’s over.
Prior to last night, this postseason had a charmed feeling to it. I was one of the many Red Sox leaping to foregone conclusions. I received an email informing me that I was not a winner of the World Series ticket lottery, so my friend and I were planning out our absolute ceiling to purchase tickets on eBay. I have been wrapped up in the curious case of the demise of the Yankees, and all throughout have been simply assuming the Red Sox’ success because, prior to last night, they had not provided a meaningful image of postseason failure.
Josh Beckett has looked like Walter Johnson. Papi and Manny have been literally unstoppable. The bullpen has been shutting lineups down to a halt. We bulldozed through the Angels, then cut through C.C. Sabathia in game one of the series.
Last night, though, it all came crashing down. In retrospect, there was a microcosmic moment: Manny grounding into a double play to end the first inning. It ended the amazing streak by Manny and Papi of not making outs, and showed that we would have a dogfight on our hands. The bullpen had to enter the game sooner than we had hoped, and the Indians kept fighting back until they exposed the weak underbelly of our long relievers and broke the game open in the eleventh inning.
The game was not without its Red Sox heroics, though: Ramirez and Lowell’s back-to-back home runs will go down as one of this postseason’s great moments, and Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon combined for 3.2 innings of scoreless relief. This game was not a bad omen, it was a simple reminder that we have our work cut out for us against these Indians. And we need to rebound tomorrow night with Daisuke Matsuzaka getting his second shot at October glory.
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