Red Sox Blow Lead, Join Cardinals in Offseason and Wistful Remembrance of 2004

Today, finally, things were going well for the Boston Red Sox. They had a 5-2 lead entering the eighth inning. They had, at long last, gotten production, a three-run homer off the bat of J.D. Drew tripling their runs from Game 1 and 2 combined. They had just gotten two no-hit innings from Daniel Bard, who escaped from a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the sixth by letting just one run cross the plate on a double play. And they had Billy Wagner and Jonathan Papelbon, who had a combined 536 saves, coming in to sew Game 3 up against an Angels team that had been quiet for most of a game that started at 9:07 a.m. Pacific time.

Then Wagner and Papelbon actually came in, and it all came tumbling down.

Wagner put men on third and second in the eighth, and Papelbon gave up a two-run single to Juan Rivera. After picking off Reggie Willits to end the inning, Papelbon got some late support from the Red Sox, who manufactured a run with two outs in the home half of the eighth, then retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth, which only made the Angels' exploits with two outs more painful.

Erick Aybar singled and took second. Chone Figgins walked. Bobby Abreu doubled in Aybar. The Sox intentionally walked Torii Hunter to get to Vladimir Guerrero. And Guerrero made Papelbon pay. With a two-run single, Vlad chased the closer and gave the Angels a 7-6 lead they would not relinquish, Brian Fuentes working a 1-2-3 ninth to send the Halos on to the ALCS.

If you're keeping score at home (and Tony La Russa is), that's Teams From Southern California 2, 2004 World Series Participants 0 in this year's playoffs.

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