Get out the champagne goggles everyone. The Boston Red Sox will advance to their first ALCS since 2008 when they lost in seven games to the Tampa Bay Rays, who would go onto lose to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
After a dramatic walk-off loss to the Rays on Monday evening, the Red Sox would look to put away the Rays for a second and final time on Tuesday evening in Tampa.
This time, Boston would be able to close it out easily.
Boston’s Jake Peavy cruised through the first five innings, making quick and effective work of the Tampa Bay offense.
However, Peavy would surrender a lead-off double to Yunel Escobar, who would later score on a David DeJesus single to right, giving the Rays the 1-0 lead.
The Rays used an intriguing strategy in terms of pitching on Tuesday evening, utilizing nine total pitchers. Jeremy Hellickson was given the starting nod, but was pulled after an inning of work.
Although he produced a scoreless inning, he surrendered a hit and two walks, running his pitch count to 22, only 10 of which were strikes.
The strategy was rather sound until the seventh when the unraveling commenced. Jake McGee started the frame in relief of Alex Torres, but would encounter some issues along the way.
After getting Jonny Gomes to fly out to center, McGee would surrender a walk to Xander Bogaerts. Will Middlebrooks would follow with a strikeout, but a Jacoby Ellsbury single to right center would give Boston runners at the corners with two outs.
McGee would be pulled from the game and replaced by Joel Peralta, who would quickly escalate the damage. While attempting to steal second, an errant pitch by Peralta would allow Bogaerts to score and Ellsbury to advance to third.
Shane Victorino would follow with an infield single, scoring Ellsbury and giving the Red Sox the outright 2-0 lead.
Boston would tack on a third run in the top of ninth on a Dustin Pedroia sac fly to right, scoring Bogaerts. Koji Uehara would enter the bottom of the frame and retire the side in order, ending the game and series with a strikeout of Rays’ slugger Evan Longoria.
The Red Sox will face the winner of Thursday’s contest between the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics in the ALCS. From there, Boston will attempt to advance to their first World Series since 2007 when they captured their second title in four seasons and seventh in team history.
