On Wednesday night, September 28th, 2011, Major League Baseball experienced enough events in one night to make a story for an entire season. In no other night in baseball history, did we see the multiple meltdowns and dramatic finishes to three games that were all the determinants of the final playoff spots.
There were four games Wednesday night that would determine the winners or whether there would be a tie in the American League Wild Card as well as the National League Wild Card. The Red Sox were playing the last place Orioles. The Rays were playing the first place Yankees. The Cardinals were playing the Astros and the Braves were playing the first place Phillies. The Red Sox and Rays were tied for the wild card lead in the AL. The Braves and Cardinals were tied for the wild card lead in the NL. The events that would take place that night, I have considered making some sort of film for. Never have I, nor any baseball fan seen such events happen in one evening and in such an important time as we did on this magical Wednesday night.
The Yankees led the Rays 7-0. The Red Sox led the Orioles 3-2. The Braves led the Phillies 3-2. The Cardinals had already won easily 8-0. Boston fans were saying, "Ok we can breathe. The Rays are down 7 runs with 6 outs to go and we just got to close out the last place Orioles." Braves fans were saying, "Well, at worse we will play a one game playoff against the Cardinals and have a shot at the NLDS." Let's just say a lot of baseball fans were biting their tongue as it came close to the midnight hour on Wednesday night.
The Cardinals-Astros game would be the first game to end for the night as they won easily thanks to the complete game effort by Chris Carpenter. The Braves saw the final score to this game, and maybe it put a little pressure on the entire team ton win as now it had become a must win game. The Braves had a comfortable 3-2 lead going into the 9th inning with a closer having a career season with 46 saves and an ERA just above 2. A single, 2 walks, and a sacrifice fly later and the Braves hopes of playing a one game playoff the next day would begin to vanish. Closer Craig Kembrel had blown the save and the game was headed to extras versus a Phillies team who already had clinched home field and were just playing for pride and to prepare for the playoffs at this point. The Phillies would go on to win the game in the top of the 13th inning. The Braves had entered September with a 10.5 game lead in the NL Wild Card. This arguably is the worst collapse in baseball history. In 2007 the Mets blew a 7 game lead with 17 to play. It seems like the NL East has trouble swallowing victories come September.
Just minutes later, the AL Wild Card race would define "wild."
The Yankees were cruising through into the 8th inning in a game that had no significance for them as the Rays were just 6 outs away from what looked like to be the end to their season. Then the bottom of the 8th inning came, and the Rays postseason hopes went from dead to alive in an instant. It was like watching a man die, only to come back to life again out of nowhere. The fighting Rays, who trailed the first place Red Sox by 9 games coming into September saw life again. They strung together a couple of hits, a couple of walks, and a couple of hit by pitches along with a sacrifice fly to make the game 7-3. Evan Longoria came up and hit a 3 run home run that would make a 7-0 game just minutes earlier a one run ball game. If that was not dramatic enough, trailing by one in the bottom of the 9th with 2 strikes and 2 outs, Dan Johnson would come up for the Rays and crank a solo home run just over the right field wall to tie the game. Tropicana Field could be heard from Disney World....well at least from the fans who stuck it out. Many fans had left after trailing 7-0 thinking that is was a good run, but it looks like the season would be over.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore it was the bottom of the 9th and Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon struck out the first two batters to start the inning and was one out away from a victory. Then, the inevitable would come not only in this game, but also in Tampa Bay.
The Orioles would hit a two doubles to tie up the game and put the winning run on second base. Just like that, the game was tied and the Red Sox season was on the edge of a cliff about to end. It seemed like it could not happen. It seemed as it could not go down the way it was going. The Rays had made a sparkling comeback and the Red Sox were choking right in front of our eyes. Then, September Red Sox killer, Robert Andino came to the plate and would hit a liner to left. 140 million dollar man Carl Crawford looked to might have a play on it but as he slid to catch it, the ball dropped in, and his throw home was too late. The Red Sox had blew the game they were one out away from winning. Their only hope was to hope the Yankees, who were playing for nothing in Tampa, would get an extra inning win over the Rays to send it to a one game tie breaker.
Minutes later, all of Boston would go silent.
About two minutes following the Red Sox defeat, Rays star Evan Longoria would step to the plate again in the bottom of the 12th. Seconds later, he would be at home celebrating with his teammates. Longoria had done it again. He hit a line drive home run just clearing the left field wall to not only to win the AL Wild Card for the Rays, but also knocking the Red Sox out. The series of events did not seem real. It was a fairy tale ending to an unbelievable month of September for the Rays and an epic collapse for the Boston Red Sox.
From 7pm until midnight on this Wednesday night on the last day of the regular season in major league baseball, we saw events that we most likely will never see again in the history of the game. It was the most exciting, thrilling, heart capturing night in the history of baseball. The way everything had gone down was absolutely bizarre and out of the ordinary. The style we saw the Braves and Red Sox lose and the timing of it was insane and the way we saw the Rays come back was absolutely incredible. It was one night, as a baseball fan, I know I will never forget. It was a very disappointing night for the millions of Braves and Red Sox fans and quite the evening for Rays fans as well as Cardinals fans.
A night like this reminds me just why I love sports and the game of baseball, especially. Teams just never give up and never say die. It is something about sports that is truly inspirational. 25 players working together as one to try and fight for one goal....a world championship. The events that took place Wednesday night were a good showing of what we love to see in sports. We love to see the fight. We love to see the desire. We love to see the hustle. Its the factors of the game that true fans love to see and reminds all of us just why we love the game.
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