Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 16, 2008
Low Scoring Wins

Dioner Navarro blasts a single over a drawn in outfield with the bases loaded as the Rays walk off with a 2-1 win over the Red Sox. It's the 10th time this season the Rays won a game in which they scored two runs or less.

Beckett pitched masterfully, allowing three his and one walk over eight innings, but one of those hits came off the bat of Carlos Pena and landed over the fence for a 1-1 tie. The Rays staff out pitched the Sox staff as a whole, as the only run they allowed was unearned.

The Rays can win the season series by defeating the Red Sox tomorrow night. If the Red Sox win on Wednesday, then the record in the AL East would determine which team wins the wild card and which the division. Right now, Tampa leads Boston by 1 1/2 games intradivision.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:02 PM | Games | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Francona once again shows what a poor pitching mgr he is. With seasoned bullpen men available, he brings in rookie Masterson to lose it in the 9th. What are Lopez & DelCarman for?

Posted by: Bob S at September 16, 2008 10:26 PM

As you note, tomorrow's game is absolutely huge. If TB wins, they're two up, three in the loss column, plus they have the tiebreaker. If BOS wins, they're tied (although TB will still be one ahead in the L column), and TB is just 1/2 game ahead in intradivison. That's about the biggest swing you can have.

Wakefield v. Garza. Should be a good one.

Posted by: Vegas Watch at September 16, 2008 11:11 PM

Everytime Tito gets totally scewed by a call he walks out and acts like a doormat - Pena goes from 1-2, where he would have K'd to taking the walk which turned out to be the deciding play. However Boston only got 5 singles and 3 of them didn't leave the infield.

Posted by: Bandit at September 17, 2008 08:12 AM

Meanwhile, in the real world Minnesota lost, moving both teams closer to the postseason. Both clubs now have a magic number of five for the playoffs.

Don't get me wrong, the spat over the division title is fun. But these teams are playing with a very nice safety net.

Posted by: Casey Abell at September 17, 2008 10:43 AM

Boston really wants to win the division and not go to LAALALAAALA - so does TB

Posted by: Bandit at September 17, 2008 11:57 AM

The postseason is a crapshoot. If Lester, Matsuzaka and Beckett get hot in the postseason, Boston should beat anybody. If they get hammered, Boston could lose to anybody.

I'd say Boston is the best team in the league. Nobody else in the AL has an even faintly comparable run diff. So the Sox hardly look terrible for the postseason, regardless of their opponents.

But again, anything can happen in the crapshoot against any team. Ask all those teams that were better than St. Louis in 2006.

Bottom-line: just get into the postseason and take your chances. And that's what both Boston and Tampa Bay will do, no matter what happens tonight.

Posted by: Casey Abell at September 17, 2008 12:29 PM
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