Then the earth opened up and swallowed the Sox and their fans. Stoic Jonathan Papelbon came on to close it out in the ninth, struck out two, then surrendered back-to-back doubles and a walkoff single that $142 million Carl Crawford (typically) failed to catch. Sox lose, 4-3.
Mere seconds later, the Sox were in their clubhouse when Evan Longoria hit the walkoff heard ’round the Gulf to give Tampa Bay an 8-7, 12th-inning victory over the laydown Yankees.
Say goodbye to Terry Francona. Tell Theo it’s OK to talk to the Cubs. This might have been the last roundup for Papelbon, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Big Papi, J.D. Drew, Miss Heidi, and several of the others you’ve loved all these years.
In the midnight confessions, Francona spoke of “the mess we got ourselves in,’’ then said, “We needed to take care of business and we didn’t.’’
In historic fashion.
This goes right up there with Denny Galehouse, Bucky Dent, Mookie Wilson, and Aaron Boone (who visited the Sox dugout before the game - how’s that for an omen?). The 2011 Red Sox had a nine-game lead in the wild-card chase on Sept. 3, and now they are out. They are the first team in baseball history to hold a nine-game lead in September, then fail to make the postseason. This makes them worse than the ’64 Phillies or the ’78 Red Sox. They are the poster boys of the Heimlich maneuver.
The humanity!
Reactions varied. Dustin Pedroia said, “You work hard all the offseason and all year to be a good team … this is devastating, man.’’
While Wakefield and Varitek, warriors of the bad of ’03 and the triumphs of ’04 and ’07, huddled in one corner of the clubhouse, Papelbon stood up and took the blame.
“For me to say ‘fatigue’ would be an excuse and I’m not looking for excuses,’’ said Papelbon, who threw 28 pitches to finish Tuesday’s win.
Crawford was also front and center.
“If I should have caught it, I could have caught it,’’ he said of Robert Andino’s sinking liner. “I thought I had a good play on it, unfortunately I didn’t come up with it … This is very disappointing. We had high expectations and we didn’t live up to them.’’
