The Rays won Game 7 of the ALCS 3-1. I like being wrong sometimes.

Almost the entire game I thought the Red Sox were going to win. Dustin Pedroia’s home run in the first inning may have had something to do with that. Even as the Rays held a 3-1 lead, I figured the Sox would find a way back. After the error in the 8th inning — with the middle of the Sox order coming up — I really thought it was over. Yet somehow the Rays managed to stop it from falling apart. Coco Crisp not sliding straight into second base helped.

They deserve the AL pennant. They beat the best. The Red Sox were on their way to becoming the 90′s Yankees of this decade, but this loss signals the end of any dynasty talk. The Rays, at the very least, look like they’ll be competitive for a few years. The AL East is just STACKED.

I’ve said it before, but the Rays better not shit the bed in the World Series. I don’t want this to be another 2006.

And I wonder if Dick Vitale had a heart attack. That’d be awesome.

Edit: Welp, MLB.com has video of it right here. Anddd that doesn’t directly link to the video. Goddamn it, MLB.com. Just find the “Kotsay comes around to score the tying run” video.

I hope you’re not a baseball fan that turned the Rays-Red Sox game off when the score was 7-0 in the 7th inning. You missed the second biggest comeback in playoff history, and I don’t think the 8-run one happened over the course of the last three innings. The Rays bullpen pulled a choke job worthy of the Mets. As for Red Sox fans that left the stadium at the point of desperation: fuck you. You missed your Fat Papi hit one of his patented late-game clutch home runs, and J.D. Drew showing off his MICKEY MANTLE POWER. God, I hate J.D. Drew.

I think Joe Maddon may have had a stroke in the 7th inning while he watched that 7th inning. That’s the only explanation I can come with for how he handled the bullpen. I’ve almost become numb to watching such a trainwreck in motion, after seeing so many the past season and a half, but blowing a seven-run lead in three innings is impressive.

The guys over at fangraphs.com produce a win probability for every game, so you can see just how likely a comeback was at that point:

Who doesn’t love graphs?

Anyhow, the throw that spurred the title of this post occurred in the 8th inning. The Red Sox had the tying run in Mark Kotsay on second base with two outs. Coco Crisp (after an incredible at-bat) hit a line-drive single into right-field. As the Rays’ right-fielder Gross rushed in to field the ball and make the throw home, he had to be no further than 200 feet from plate. Not only that, but Kotsay was JUST rounding third. He was dead. He had to run home in that situation, but he was going to be thrown out by 20 feet. But then the camera cut for the throw, and I watched the ball bounce into the dirt of the infield. It was the most pathetic thing I had ever seen. He better have a torn rotator cuff or something. Making an error on a groundball or making an errant throw up the line is one thing. Throwing the ball straight into the goddamn ground is pretty much inexcuseable. I don’t even know how that’s possible. You don’t forget how to throw. The ball can’t take a bad hop in your hand. You can have a bad grip, but that would cause the ball to sail, not to go into the ground. What the shit.

The Rays better win Game 6, or else we’re going to see a Red Sox-Phillies World Series, and no one wants to see that. Josh Beckett is going for the Red Sox, and everyone seems to be talking about his oblique. Torn, strained, bruised, whatever. I smell Bloody Sock: The Sequel.

Fuck.

Stolen from Y2Kev over at GAF (even though I contributed to the definition myself):

New verb: to cub

Definition: To choke something away that you should have in the bag; to blow ass.

In modern language:
“Man, I studied 12 hours for that exam but I couldn’t answer a single question. I cubbed the fuck out of that shit.”

“Arsenal cubbed it this morning.”

“Obama better not cub this election.”

Teams currently cubbin’ it:
Angels
White Sox

It’s like a never-ending GIF-worthy parade from this Angels team. Combined with the GIFs displayed here and here, you have a trilogy of hilarity. F-Kraud being exposed on national television was icing on the cake. Man, the Red Sox just own the Angels in the postseason.

So far, every Division Series is looking like a sweep, what with the Rays winning yesterday. Pathetic. I think both LCSs will go at least 6 games, though.

And it’s also a shame that C.C. Sabathia finally broke down today. I picked the Brewers with my heart, not my head. Damn Phillies.

Oh, and the Rays beat the White Sox — not surprising news there. I guess I should mention that Evan Longoria is an absolute beast.

The only good series had a day off today.

Meanwhile, in the league that actually matters — the AL — Jason Bay did his best Manny Ramirez impression by hitting a two-run bomb that was enough for the Red Sox to win. Jacoby Ellsbury pitched in with an insurance RBI and run in the 9th. He also made an awesome catch in the 8th. The Angels, on the other hand, played like morons. As shown by a play in the outfield where an angel DEFINITELY wasn’t helping, and Vlad Guerrero running around the bases like a slow 6-year-old.

And I really thought I would get a good amount of studying in tonight…

Red Sox vs. Angels – Red Sox in 4
White Sox vs. Rays – Rays in 3
Dodgers vs. Cubs – Dodgers in 5
Brewers vs. Phillies – Brewers in 5

Red Sox vs. Rays – Red Sox in 6
Brewers vs. Dodgers – Dodgers in 5

Dodgers vs. Red Sox – Red Sox in 5

I picked the Red Sox, but I rather have the Rays or Dodgers win. So I’ll win either way. Unless the Cubs win, in which case it will be known as the beginning of 2 Great 2 Depressing for years to come.

Ok, I need to sleep. Or study.

Now I wait six months for another Mets season to start.

Edit: I’m already thinking of changing my pick to the Rays. I shouldn’t be denying the Year of 200Rayght.

Regular season baseball doesn’t get much more exciting than this. I feel the obligation to post every night until the end of the season at this point. Every Mets game is gut-wrenching insanity. Not only that, there were also the Brewers and Twins games tonight — where both of those teams won in walkoff fashion in addition to the Mets. The wild-card is obviously the only good idea Bud Selig has ever had.

I said all day today at work — after sleeping off the effect of last night — that the Mets have seemingly always bounced back from their multitude of “devastating” losses. But after Pedro came out, and Rincon gave up a three-run HR on the FIRST PITCH HE THREW, I was all but done. Pedro looked ready to throw him to the ground like he was Don Zimmer. A three-run deficit with 3 innings to go? No way the Mets were going to storm back.

Yet they did. Two nights ago the Mets benefitted from a Johan Santana magic trick; tonight, Ryan Church pulled off an illusion of his own. Somehow he convinced the umpire he was still in the basepath as he ran around the catcher. I’ve never truly understood where the baseline ends, but it definitely looked debatable tonight. Maybe the shock of it is still sinking in. The throw beat Church by 20 feet, yet somehow he scored to tie the game. You just don’t get this ridiculous shit anywhere else.

Except tonight. The Brewers won on a walkoff Grand Slam, and the Twins came back from a 6-4 deficit in the last two innings to win in extras, sweeping their series with the White Sox and taking the lead in the AL Central. Ozzie Guillen is going to have to choke a bitch.

On the negative side, David Wright struck out AGAIN in the 9th inning. But this time, the Cubs decided to pitch to Beltran instead of Church (as he had gone 3-3 up to that point). As his hard-hit grounder went off the glove of the Cubs’ first baseman, I couldn’t even get excited. I was numb. I had already been drained of all emotion. Luckily, I’ll most likely have until Saturday to regain my strength. And hopefully, I’ll be able to watch a back-to-back doubleheader in my office’s suite with a bunch of free booze and food. Thanks, boss.

If it weren’t for Tim Lincecum being an extremely talented and dominant man-child, Johan Santana would be getting consideration for the NL Cy Young after tonight’s performance. He delivered in the biggest game of the Mets season so far, throwing the most pitches in his career.

125 pitches, 86 strikes, 8 IP, 10 K, 2 ER. Just what the Mets needed.

As the season has progressed, Santana has risen to the occasion. Earlier in the season, he came out after 7 innings and 100 pitches regularly, allowing the bullpen to blow game after game for him. Tonight, he did all in his power to stop that from happening. He even hustled out a potential double-play, which allowed Jose Reyes to hit a bases-clearing triple to make the score 6-2. Santana made sure the lead stuck this time, as he has been doing as much as possible lately. It seems he throws more and more pitches every outing, all while lowering his ERA at the same time. Even though his fastball has lost a few MPH, he’s as dominant as ever. I can’t think of another ace pitcher whose best pitch is a changeup.

The Yankees sure could have used him this year, what with their young guns totally flaming out and all. I’m sure they’ll pick up C.C. Sabathia or Ben Sheets or another free agent pitcher next year. God knows the market is the best in years. It’s just a shame they had to fuck up the last year of Yankee Stadium after over a dozen years in the playoffs. But I’m sure Jeter has enough ladies lined up to give herpes in October and A-Rod has some more trannies to bang. 

Meanwhile, the Mets are in the midst of another playoff race, and this time they have Johan. If this were last year, they would’ve trotted Tom Glavine out there tonight, and he would’ve shit the bed. Of course, it’s impossible to be confident after watching this team for so long, but it does give me a bit of piece of mind knowing Johan will be the pitcher on the mound for the last game of the season if the playoffs are on the line — and not Glavine.

- A-Rod is hitting for a higher average than Derek Jeter so far this postseason. The over/under for newspaper articles talking about that is 0.

- The Mets can take solace in one fact after their massive collapse at the hands of the Phillies. They won as the same amount of postseason games.

- George Steinbrenner needs to be fired. From life.

- Turns out Lou Pinella did save Carlos Zambrano until next season.

- Bob Sheppard wasn’t at Yankee Stadium tonight. That has to be the first time he missed a Yankee playoff game in 50 games. He won’t be the PA announcer tomorrow either. I think Tony Gwynn ate him.

- Whichever team faces the Red Sox in the ALCS has to deal with Ortiz and Manny both hitting very, very well. I think Manny’s last two home runs have traveled a combined quarter-mile.

- The Colorado Rockies. Are in. The NLCS. God is clearly on their side.

- The Cubs will be able to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their last World Series win next season.

- Three sweeps. And the Rockies and D-Backs in the NLCS. TBS must be PISSED.