I’m still finding it hard to believe that the Red Sox are out of the playoffs.  The way it ended on Sunday afternoon was just shocking.  The Angels rallied for 5 runs in the final innings, including 3 runs off of closer Jonathan Papelbon in the 9th to pull off the improbably 7-6 win at Fenway Park.  The Angels swept the Red Sox out of the playoffs in the ALDS after beating the Red Sox only once in the 10 previous post-season meetings since 2004. What the hell happened?

After jumping out to early 3-0 and 5-1 leads, Clay Buchholz did a solid job of keeping the Red Sox in the lead.  Making his 1st ever career post-season appearance, Buchholz pitched into the 6th inning, giving up just 2 ER on 6 hits and 1 walk.  Daniel Bard relieved Buchholz with the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the 6th inning, and managed to get the Red Sox out of the game with just 1 more run scoring on a Juan Rivera double play ball.  Bard ended up pitching 2 scoreless innings withoout giving up a hit or a walk in his 1st ever career post-season appearance.  At least the future still looks bright for these Red Sox.

The veteran relievers struggled however.  Billy Wagner only recorded 2 outs in the 8th inning, giving up 2 ER on 1 hit and 1 walk.  Manager Terry Francona called on Jonathan Papelbon to get the Red Sox out of a 2nd and 3rd 2 out jam, but he promptly served up a single to Juan Rivera that cut the Red Sox lead to 5-4.  And despite adding an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th inning to increase the lead back to 2 runs, Papelbon couldn’t finish off the Angels after getting the 1st 2 outs of the 9th inning.  Papelbon gave up a single and a walk and then Bobby Abreu’s double scored Erick Aybar to cut the lead to 6-5.  Papelbon had Vladmir Guerrero down to his final strike, but Guerrero came through a clutch single that scored both Chone Figgins and Abreu to give the Red Sox the 7-6 lead.

The Red Sox went quietly against Brian Fuentes in the 9th inning, and just like that the season was over.  I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the team and the players over the next few weeks once it all sinks in, but I am still pretty shocked by what happened at Fenway on Sunday.  Going into the game, Papelbon had never given up a single run in the post-season – a streak spanning 27 innings over 17 appearances.  He went from being “perfect” to being downright awful – accounting for all 5 Angels runs at the end of the game even though only 3 runs were charged to him.  He’s gotta be feeling awful right now, but this could be a blessing in disguise, making the Red Sox want it even more in 2010.

At least the offense showed up in Game 3.  After being held to just 7 total hits and 1 run in the 1st 2 games, the Red Sox got a 2-run double from Dustin Pedroia and an RBI single from Victor Martinez in the 3rd inning.  After the Angels cut the lead to 3-1 in the top of the 4th inning on a Kendry Morales HR, J.D. Drew increased the Red Sox lead to 5-1 with his 2-run shot to deep center field in the bottom of the inning.  And even though the Red Sox only had 7 total hits, they worked out 4 walks and came through with the clutch hits when they needed it.

It’s a sad day for Red Sox nation – I was so looking forward to seeing Jon Lester force a Game 5 with a dominating performance at Fenway tonight, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be…

The end product was great – 4 straight wins over the Indians to close out the season – but there are still a few areas of concern.  The Red Sox clubbed 5 home runs in Sunday’s 12-7 win – 2 from J.D. Drew and 1 each from Dustin Pedroia, Jed Lowrie and Alex Gonzalez.  But Clay Buchholz struggled in his final tuneup before the ALDS against the Angels later this week.  Buchholz lasted just 3 innings, giving up 6 ER on 5 hits and 2 walks.  It was his 2nd bad outing in his last 3 starts.

Manager Terry Francona will definitely have a starting pitching decision to make after Jon Lester and Josh Beckett pitch in Games 1 and 2 of the series.  Will he go with Buchholz who has pitched more consistently during 2009 in Game 3, or Daisuke Matsuzaka who has had a humbling 2009, but has proven himself before in October.  It won’t be easy for Francona, but if anyone has a good beat on his players and their ability to pitch effectively in October, it is Francona.

In Saturday’s 11-6 win, Josh Beckett had a rough start giving up 4 ER in the game’s 1st 2 innings.  But he battled through it to pitch 5 innings and notch his 17th win of the season.  Beckett’s back is fine and he will be ready to go in Game 2 against the Angels in Anaheim.

All in all it was a good season for the Red Sox.  Anytime you’re still playing in October, it’s a good thing…

Should we start to panic in Beantown?  The Red Sox just dropped their 6th straight game – 12-0 to the Blue Jays.  Wakefield looked bad (5 ER on 7 hits and 2 walks in just 3 innings).  The bullpen did not fare much better – Fernando Cabrera, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and back-up catcher Dusty Brown each gave up runs in their inning of work.

The lone bright spot – Dusty Brown – back-up catcher, pitching the 9th inning in relief.  Brown threw 13 pitches – 9 for strikes – and gave up 1 earned run on a single, double and RBI groundout.  Not bad for a back-up catcher.

Now I know that all but 2 of the regulars (David Ortiz and Alex Gonzalez) were on the bench against Roy Halladay, but I’d really like to see the Red Sox win a game or 2 against the Indians this weekend. It looks like Manager Terry Francona is going with his starters in tonight’s game to support Jon Lester in his final tune up before the playoffs.  Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Mike Lowell (in addition to Ortiz and Gonzalez) are back in the lineup tonight.  Let’s hope the team comes to play and puts an end to this frustrating 6 game skid.  Go Sox!

Things looked to be going so well for the Red Sox, and then another awful trip to the Bronx turned things south.  The Red Sox dropped a tough one to the Blue Jays 8-7 and have now lost 5 games in a row.  Not the way you want to be playing as you approach October post-season baseball.

Clay Buchholz had been the epitome of consistency – giving up just a total of 6 ER in his last 6 starts spanning 41 innings.  In the start just before that string, Buchholz did not bring his “A” game against the White Sox and they lit him up for 7 ER on 6 hits.  And that’s just what happened last night.  Buchholz gave up 5 home runs to the Blue Jays, lasting just 5 innings after giving up 7 ER.  Not good.

And although the Red Sox bats were hot – 14 hits, the team failed to come through with clutch hits early in the game.  Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew each had 3 hits in the loss.  Drew hit his 22nd home run of the 2009 MLB schedule, a 3-run shot in the 8th inning.  Drew now has 66 RBI’s.

Let’s hope Tim Wakefield and his teammates can get back  on track in the series finale against the Blue Jays at Fenway Park tonight.  It’s not looking so hot right now – Wakefield is done after 3 innings giving up 5 ER on 7 hits (2 home runs) and 2 walks.  Meanwhile, Roy Halladay has a no-no working and has retired 9 of the 1st 10 batters he has faced…

Clay Buchholz made sure that the Red Sox wouldn’t lose the series to the Royals in Kansas City.  Buchholz pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just 5 hits along the way.  Buchholz had 8 K’s and no walks and has really impressed of late.  Buchholz is now 7-3 on the season with a 3.21 ERA.  He has won 6 straight decisions over an 8-start span.  Not bad for someone that has had his ups and downs in 2009.

David Ortiz continued his hot hitting for the Red Sox – 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s, 1 run scored and a walk.  He clubbed his 26th HR of 2009, a solo shot that started a 3-run 4th inning which gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.  Jacoby Ellsbury also had 3 hits for the Red Sox with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored.  Ellsbury continues to lead the American League with 66 steals.  Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Casey Kotchman and Alex Gonzalez each had 2 hits in the Red Sox 15 hit attack.

The Red Sox now have their sights set on the Yankees in the Bronx this weekend.  Trailing the Yankees by 5.5 games in the AL East race, this will be their last shot to make a run at the division crown. The match-ups look like this:

Friday Night – Jon Lester v. Joba Chamberlain

Saturday Afternoon – Daisuke Matsuzaka v. CC Sabathia

Sunday Afternoon – Paul Byrd v. Andy Pettitte

The Red Sox are all but assured of making the playoffs even if they don’t overtake the Yankees.  The Red Sox have an 8 game lead over the Rangers for the AL Wild Card and their magic number is 3 games to qualify for post-season play.

It’s about time – the bats finally came back to life and Josh Beckett worked hard to shut down the Royals and pick up his 16th win of the 2009 MLB schedule.  After falling behind 2-0 in the 4th inning, the Red Sox rallied for 6 runs in the 5th inning to take control of the game.  Jacoby Ellsbury started the rally with a 2-run triple to center field that tied the game at 2.  Dustin Pedroia drove Ellsbury home with a single to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.  A Jason Bay 2-run single and a David Ortiz RBI single rounded out the scoring in the 5th inning.  David Ortiz’s 3-run home run in the 9th inning (his 25th of the season) gave the Red Sox a comfortable 9-2 lead.

Beckett gave up 12 hits in 6 innings of work, but managed to work around jams.  He struck out 7 and walked only 1 and kept the Red Sox in the game until the offense exploded in the 5th inning.  Beckett bettered his record to 16-6, lowering his ERA to 3.78.  Hideki Okajima, Billy Wagner and Jonathan Papelbon each pitched scoreless/hitless innings to preserve the Red Sox win.

The Red Sox still trail the Yankees by 6 games and lead the Rangers by 7 games.  Their magic number sits at 5 for clinching a playoff spot.  The Yankees were the 1st team to clinch a playoff spot with their win over the Angels on Wednesday.

This one is going to hurt – the Red Sox blew an 8-2 lead and ended up losing to the Royals 12-9 in Kansas City.  With the Yankees losing to the Angels on the west coast, the Red Sox blew a golden opportunity to cut the AL East lead to just 4 games with a big weekend series coming up in the Bronx.  If the Red Sox end up sweeping the Yankees this weekend, they’ll look back to this loss to the Royals if they don’t end up winning the division.

Jason Bay got the Red Sox off to a great start with a 3-run HR in the 3rd inning as part of a 6-run outburst.  Bay has been on fire of late, hitting home runs in 4 consecutive games and increasing his team-leading totals to 36 HR’s and 113 RBI’s.  Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez and Rocco Baldelli each had 2 hits, as the Red Sox pounded out 12 hits, 9 runs and 7 walks against Lenny DiNardo and 3 Royals relievers.

But the bigger story was the Red Sox poor pitching.  Tim Wakefield made his 1st start since he lost to the White Sox on September 5th and struggled with his control.  Wakefield gave up 5 hits and 7 walks in just 5 innings of work.  He gave up 5 runs, 4 of which were earned.

Manny Delcarmen recorded only 2 outs in a 6-run 6th inning for the Royals.  He gave up 4 ER on 3 hits and 1 walk.  And Daniel Bard wasn’t much better – giving up 2 ER on 2 hits and 1 walk while recording the final out of the 6th.  Bard suffered his 2nd loss of the season and has really been exposed as of late as his ERA (3.72) and WHIP (1.30) are both on the rise.  The Royals regained the lead – 11-9 – with that 6-run inning, and the Royals bullpen held the Red Sox offense scoreless through the final 3 frames to record the win.

Even though the Royals have been playing the spoiler of late (they took 2 of 3 games from each of the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox last week), the Red Sox are really going to kick themselves with this loss.  Having such a big lead only to see it slip away while the Yankees were losing will be a tough pill to swallow.  Let’s hope the Red Sox can rally behind Paul Byrd tonight, because they are going to have their hands full with Zach Greinke and his 2.14 ERA…

The Red Sox defeated the Orioles 9-3 on Sunday completing a 3-game weekend series sweep.  The Red Sox won 16 of 18 games against Batimore during the 2009 MLB schedule.  The Red Sox scored in each of the 1st 4 innings of the game to open up a 7-0 lead.  And Daisuke Matsuzaka did the rest – picking up his 2nd straight win since coming off the DL.  Dice-K pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up 3 ER on 8 hits and 1 walk.  He struck out 5, but didn’t have the same crispness that he had in a win last week.  This week, he needed 110 pitches before running into trouble in the 6th, but at least 73 of them were strikes.

Jacoby Ellsbury had 3 hits, 3 RBI’s and 2 runs scored to pace the way for the Red Sox.  Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Jason Bay and Alex Gonzalez each had 2 hits.  Ellsbury and Bay each hit home runs.

With the sweep, the Red Sox increased their AL Wild Card lead over the Rangers to 8 games.  And even more interesting, the Red Sox have chipped into the Yankees hold on the AL East lead.  The Red Sox now trail the Yankees by only 5 games, and with the Red Sox playing 4 games against the Royals this week before next weekend’s tilt in the Bronx, could that lead be even smaller by Friday night?  We’ll have to keep a close eye on the race as the Yankees play 3 games against the Angels in Anaheim before heading back east…

I didn’t see this one coming – 6 scoreless innings from Dasiuke Matsuzaka as he pitched into the 7th inning – - unbelievable!!!  If Matsuzaka is truly healthy and really has his stuff figured out, the Red Sox could be ready to roll right into the Fall Classic in October.  I am giddy!

Loved the strikes, loved the low pitch count, loved seeing Daisuke pitching into the 7th inning. And although it didn’t start pretty – leadoff walk to Chone Figgins who then immediately stole 2nd base – Dice-K buckled down to retire the next 3 batters to end the threat.

Manager Terry Francona pulled Daisuke after a lead-off walk in the 7th inning, but I’ll take 6 scoreless innings from Matsuzaka any day, especially with only 93 pitches (52 for strikes).  He still has an ERA over 7 and a WHIP over 2, but let’s throw the 1st 2 months out the door at this point.  Start #2 will come Sunday afternoon against the Orioles in Baltimore, so let’s hope we see another solid outing from Daisuke to give us a little more confidence.

The bullpen did the rest – Ramon Ramirez, Billy Wagner and Daniel Bard held the Angels scoreless in the 7th and 8th innings, while Jonathan Papelbon pitched the 9th inning in a non-save situation, giving up a run on a 2-out double by Erick Aybar.

The Red Sox pounded out 9 hits and 3 walks against John Lackey and Jose Arredondo, and Lackey actually worked out of trouble until the 6th inning.  With 1st and 2nd and nobody out, Dustin Pedroia reached base on a throwing error by Lackey which allowed Alex Gonzalez to score.  Lackey then retired J.D. Drew and Jason Bay, but Big Papi David Ortiz came through with a clutch 2-out single that drove in Jacoby Ellsbury to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.  The Red Sox then tacked on 2 insurance runs in the 8th inning on a Bay RBI single and an Ortiz solo home run – his 24th of the season.

With the Rangers continued collapse, the Red Sox have now opened up an AL Wild Card race of 5.5 games.  The Yankees have even lost 3 of 5 games, so the Red Sox trail the Yankees by 6.5 games.  With 3 games against the Yankees still to be played in New York, a shot at the division title is still not out of the question…

Ouch… Looks like the Rays have officially given up.  The Red Sox swept the Rays on Sunday (3-1; 4-0), sending the Rays to their 11th straight defeat.  The Rays now trail the Yankees by 19.5 games in the AL East race and the Red Sox by 12.5 games in the AL Wild Card race.  This is your Rays team that won the AL pennant just last year.

Clay Buchholz got the Red Sox off on the right track with 7 innings of 1-run ball in the opener.  Buchholz limited the Rays to just 5 hits and 3 walks and a lone run on Jason Bartlett’s single that tied the game at 1 in the 7th inning.  The Rays Matt Garza was equally as good through 7 innings, but he got into trouble in the 8th inning.  After a David Ortiz pinch-hit double and a Jacoby Ellsbury sacrifice, Dustin Pedroia won the game with a clutch 2-run home run to deep right field.

Hideki Okajima won his 6th game without suffering a loss with a perfect 8th inning, and Jonathan Papelbon picked up his 36th save of the season by striking out the side in the 9th inning.

In the night cap, Jon Lester continued the Red Sox pitching dominance over the Rays in the weekend series. Lester allowed just 2 hits and 3 walks over 8 scoreless innings, while racking up 7 K’s.  Lester is 13-7 on the season, with a sparkling 3.29 ERA. The Red Sox managed just 7 hits, but they seemed to make them count.  After Mike Lowell’s RBI groundout gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning, Jason Varitek’s 2-run single in the 6th inning increased the lead to 3-0.  Jason Bay tacked on the game’s final run with his 32nd home run of the season, a solo shot in the 8th inning.

The Rangers split their Sunday double-header with the Mariners in Texas, so the Red Sox opened up a 4-game lead in the AL Wild Card race.  The Red Sox are also in the driver’s seat with an easy schedule down the stretch.  After 3 games against the Angels this week at Fenway Park and 3 games against the Yankees in New York next weekend, the Red Sox play their other 14 games against 4 teams with losing records – the Kansas City Royals, the Cleveland Indians, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays.  Pretty sweet…