A fitting end

[rsc]

Wednesday night we were at Fenway Park for the last time this season. The game was in some ways emblematic of the whole season, especially the second half.

Josh Beckett pitched extremely well for 6 innings, apart from one mistake in the first -- a home run given up to a batter that he wouldn't have faced in that inning if rookie shortstop Dustin Pedroia hadn't slightly mishandled a grounder three batters earlier. Starting with a line-drive double play in the second, he retired 13 batters in a row.

Then there was that 7th inning.

Of course, even the final score had been 2-0, it's still a loss. But losing 11-0 to the Devil Rays is beyond embarrassing.

And it's annoying that the game to which we happened to have tickets was the one where Gonzalez, Lowell, and Youkilis were all out of the lineup, whereas Tuesday's game, which a schedule conflict had forced us to trade for this one, was a gem pitched by Schilling and a Sox win.

Now we're in the unpleasant situation of needing the Yankees to win some games in order to have a chance to stayget out of third place.

Well, there's always next year. (Theo, you've got some work to do!)

Meanwhile (and with apologies to lcohen), Go Tigers!

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Tampa Bay, FL. That is, they play in St. Petersburg, but the name of the team is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which gives them the prize for Most Superfluous Syllables in a Major League Team Name. While it's true that "Arizona Diamondbacks" is actually more syllables, at least it's clever.

The all-levels prize goes to the triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, farm team for many years of the Philadelphia Phillies, but switching their affiliation to the Yankees after this season.

Further note: There had been reports that the Devil Rays were going to change their name to Rays, perhaps for fear that some people might think they were Satanists or something, but it doesn't seem to have happened.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

Perhaps after what happened to Steve Irwin they might want to change to some other fish altogether. The Tampa Blowfishes, for example.

[vasilatos]

Whoa, good point! We may or may not want to throw a crocodile into the mix, with the weeping widow in attendance. Yikes. This is one rough road to run.