An Extra Inning Red Sox Loss...A September 11th Rememberance...Tampa Bay 4 Boston 2

Wednesday night's game between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays was filled with good and bad tidings for the home team. The good...realizing that staff ace Josh Beckett is back in form and will be ready to help the club when October play begins. In fact, the entire Boston bullpen, which held the Rays scoreless for 6 1/3 innings until Mike Timlin entered in the 14th inning and gave up a three run bomb which effectively ended the game, was superb. And you all know that the bad is the fact that the Red Sox lost the game. They are now 2 1/2 games out of first place but they have a firm grasp on the Wild Card slot. Only a complete and utter September collapse would prevent Boston from making it to the postseason. And that ain't going to happen. Loser Mike Timlin had this to say on what one loss means to his team...

“It’s not like it puts us out of the race, by any means,” Timlin said. “We just drop back one more game. We’re still in it. We’re not hanging our heads. Yeah, they beat us in the series but we’re going to be fine.”

It's Peter again, and here's the entire Boston pitching summary...

IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA
J. Beckett 6.0 6 1 1 2 7 0 4.10
H. Okajima 1.0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2.88
J. Masterson 2.0 0 0 0 2 2 0 3.12
M. Delcarmen 2.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 3.64
J. Lopez 2.1 1 0 0 1 2 0 2.56
M. Timlin 0.2 3 3 3 1 1 1 6.09
(Loser...2-4)

As you could see, the Sox pitchers, Beckett and the 'pen, were marvelous, but the Rays' hurlers were just a bit better. Hey, that's baseball...stuff happens. Boston has a day off today (and the next two Thursdays, too) before one of the toughest teams in the league comes to Fenway to play four games in three days. That would be the Toronto Blue Jays. Bartolo Colon is scheduled to pitch one of the games on Saturday. I'll have the entire pitching matchups for you tomorrow.

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On a much more somber note, today marks the seventh anniversary of the horrible September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and the American people everywhere. Take a moment to say a prayer for the too many victims and their families and to all the firemen and emergency people who risked (and gave up) their lives in order to save others. You can close your eyes and say that prayer right now...you'll feel better when you do.

My friend John Quinn, who writes a great blog that is on my link list (The Mighty Quinn Media Machine), always has a heartfelt post about 9/11 every year. He lost a close and person friend in the cowardly attack. I'm linking his blog to the title of this post, so just click on it. It's important reading straight from his soul. Thank you, John, and thanks to everyone who stopped in. As always, BE WELL, and don't forget to title click...right now.