***A BOSTON RED SOX COMEBACK FOR THE AGES***

There are no words to describe it, but it happened. IT HAPPENED! When I woke up this early Friday morning, I wiped the sleep from my eyes while thinking "was it all a dream, a wonderful, wonderous dream?" I put on ESPN radio, and the now legendary Boston comeback was all they were gabbing about. YES! You see, all those thoughts were in my head - there was no one here to say it to. But I didn't care...the Sox won! Holy you-know-what! THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!

It was 7-0 Tampa Bay after six, and if there was a word that meant bleaker than bleak, more hopeless than hopeless, more maddening that maddening, well, that word could have been applied. But four Boston runs in the seventh with the big blow a three run Big Papi home run, brought it to 7-4. The Fenway Faithful stirred, seemingly energized just a bit. Little did they (or we watching NESN) know what was to come. BUT IT CAME. Three more runs followed in the eighth with a key ten pitch at bat by Coco Crisp, maybe the best at bat of his career, which resulted in a run scoring single (he was thrown out trying to reach second, but so what). That knotted the game at seven...JD Drew, the player of the game, had hit a two run tater just before the Crisp heroics. It all came down to the bottom of the ninth as the Boston 'pen, except for Manny Delcarmen, was tremendous and kept it a tie ballgame. The crowd was deafening, the game was on the line and no one was breathing, just holding their breath in anticipation of something unbelievable happening. They all got their wish. BIGTIME. JD Drew came through once again with a walk off (the best kind) ground rule double in that last frame, and the world champion Boston Red Sox had unbelievably completed the second best postseason comeback ever. EVER!! The comeback was one for the ages. Here are some thoughts from Mark Kotsay and Tito Francona, among others...

“This gives us a lot of confidence, they kept us down for a while,” said Mark Kotsay, who scored the tying run after doubling in front of Crisp in the eighth. “Thankfully, we woke up before it’s too late. In baseball, you believe anything is possible, you have to be optimistic in this game. It wasn’t completely baffling that we came back and tied the game back up. As a club, we all pulled together and got this thing done.”

Coco Crisp called the game..."the most amazing game of my life.”

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon's thoughts were a little different...

“Of course we’re upset, of course, we don’t like losing that game, of course,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “But to dwell on it does no good whatsoever. We’ll lose heart for about a half hour or so, get on that plane, go home and then we’ll come back out for Game 6, and roll it out there again.”

An Red Sox manger Terry "Tito" Francona put it this way...

“I can’t say the game was exciting because the first six innings, we did nothing, they had their way with us every way possible. And then this place came unglued and we’ve seen that before. But because of the situation we’re in . . . that was pretty magical.”

Peter here, and yes, magical fits. I was listening to the latter part of the game on WTIC AM1080 Red Sox radio, until the big seventh inning. Immediately, the television went on and I ran downstairs to fire up the DVR to record TBS in HD. And that's exactly what I'm going to "relive" right now at 5:45 am EDT, pretending not to know what happened but not worried about a damn thing! The Boston Red Sox live on, and they'll play again Saturday night at 8:07pm EDT down at the Trop Dome. Will Lester start game six or will Tito stick with his original plan of Beckett for game six followed by Lester for the final contest? My guess is this...if Josh is "feeling fine," and we all know he doesn't look fine, he will start game six. Time will tell, but Tito Francona DID say that Beckett will be going on Saturday in St. Petersburg during the post game press conference. For now, just remember last night with a sly smile of contentment and a peaceful look of utter happiness. You deserve it, I deserve it, we all deserve it.

Click on this post's title for more about the game, have a great Friday, and I'd love to read and respond to every one of your comments. We should be proud of our team...I know I am. As always, be well. I love every one of you. I love the Boston Red Sox, too.