At the beginning of September the Boston Red Sox held a 9-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the race for the American League wild card (i.e., the final playoff spot available). On September 6, the Atlanta Braves led the St. Louis Cardinals by 8 1/2 games in the race for the National League wild card.
After Tuesday night's games, both wild card races were tied. Last night was the last night of the regular season for Major League Baseball. In the AL, the Red Sox were playing the Orioles, and the Rays were playing the Yankees. If both teams won OR both teams lost, they would have to play each other tonight to see who would make the playoffs. If one team won and the other lost, the winning team gets the last spot.
In the NL, the Cardinals were playing the Astros, and the Braves were playing the Phillies. It was the same situation as the AL.
I turned on the Braves game at about 5:30 pm. ESPN 2 was showing the Braves game, and would switch to the Cardinals game when the Braves game was over. But, the Cardinals game lasted only 2.5 hours as the redbirds smoked the Astros 8-0, so it never appeared on TV. After the win, the Cardinals were guaranteed at least a play-in game, depending on what happened with the Braves. Atlanta led 3-1 for most of the game. In the 7th inning the Phillies scored a run, cutting the lead to 3-2. In the 9th, the Phillies got a single, a few walks, and a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3. The game stayed tied until the 13th inning (the Braves, at this point, knew that the Cardinals had won and that they needed a win to stay alive), when the Phillies were able to manufacture a run off an unimpressive RBI single by Hunter Pence. The Braves couldn't score in the bottom of the 13th and lost the game. A close, exciting game. It was 9:40 pm and the Braves had completed the worst September collapse in MLB history, missing out on the playoffs.
Meanwhile, in the American League games, the Red Sox led 3-2 over the Orioles and had been in a rain delay for quite some time, no doubt following the action in New York where the Rays were getting walloped 7-0 by the Yankees. Not long after the Red Sox game resumed, something weird happened in New York. It was the bottom of the 8th, and somehow the Rays managed to score 6 runs. It's quite rare for a team to score 6 in a single inning. But then the inning ended, and the Rays were still behind 7-6 with only one inning left. But in the bottom of the 9th, with two outs, the Rays had just one more chance to hang on. Manager Joe Maddon called on a pinch hitter named Dan Johnson to bat. Johnson's batting average was .108 (translation: awful) and he did not have a hit in the month of September. Johnson hit a home run. The Rays were tied with the Yankees and heading to extra innings.
As the game stayed tied in New York, another anomaly was happening in Baltimore. It was the bottom of the 9th and the Orioles were still behind 3-2 in a game which was quickly looking like an absolute must-win for the Red Sox. The Sox put in one of the best closers in the world: Jonathan Papelbon. This season, the Red Sox were 76-0 when leading after 8 innings, and Papelbon was a big reason why. Papelbon struck out the first two Orioles. Now the Red Sox needed just one more out and they would be assured at least one more day of hope for the postseason. But the next Oriole hit a double. The one after that hit a ground-rule double to tie the game at 3. Then Robert Andino came to the plate and hit a soft line-drive to left field. The Sox left fielder couldn't make the catch (even though he appeared to be in position to). The Red Sox had blown a 9th inning lead for the first time all year and lost. What? It was 10:02 here in Denver. But the Red Sox would still be fine, as long as those pesky Rays didn't pull out a win.
But down in Tampa, the Rays were still tied with the Yankees in the bottom of the 12th. It was 10:05 Mountain Time, and the scoreboard at Tropicana Field had just been updated for the fans to see that Boston had lost. A Rays win would put them in the playoffs. And Evan Longoria pulled a line drive shot down the left field line. It cleared the fence by about a foot. The Rays won. Twenty-five minutes earlier, the Braves had set a new record low for awful collapses in the Major Leagues, but when Longoria hit his home run, the Red Sox collapse trumped it.
Most of the night it looked like a sure thing that the Cardinals would win, but so would the Braves, and they'd have a play-in game tonight. It also looked like the Red Sox would win and the Rays would lose and Boston would clinch the AL wild card. Instead, the Braves lost in 13 innings and the Cardinals got the wild card outright. Then the Sox stumbled and the Rays pulled off a miraculous comeback, and the Rays got the wild card outright.
One of the most exciting sports nights I can remember. I couldn't even sleep well because I was so blown away by what I had just witnessed. Incredible.
Update:
Here are some related notes I found interesting:
- I mentioned above that the Red Sox were 76-0 this season when taking a lead into the 9th inning prior to last night. Also, though, the Yankees hadn't blown a lead that big (7 runs) that late (8th inning) since 1953. Those were the two stats that had to be overcome for Tampa to end up in the playoffs.
- The Red Sox were 7-20 in the month of September.
- In 3 of the 4 games with playoff implications last night, a team was 1 out from winning and ended up losing.
- Great Sports Illustrated story on the drama of September 28, 2011 can be found here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/09/29/game.162.drama/index.html?eref=sircrc
In an unrelated baseball story, Jose Reyes of the New York Mets caused some controversy yesterday. Reyes was seeking to win the National League batting title (i.e., best batting average in the league). In his first at bat, he bunted for a hit. Then he took himself out of the game to preserve his average and get the title. I thought that was cowardly. Ironically, this occurred on the 70th anniversary of one of baseball's great stories. In 1941 Ted Williams entered the final day of the season with a batting average just over .400 -- a monumentally great average. His manager told him he could sit out the day's double-header to preserve that average. Williams refused. He played in both games, risking his average with every at bat. Williams went 6 for 8 that day and raised his average to a whopping .406. Ted Williams had guts. Jose Reyes did not.
