Despite all the fanfare and the celebration last night of the All Fenway Park Team, the Boston Red Sox weren’t able to make the fans, themselves and the alumni happy. It’s probably not a surprise to anyone because they’ve basically sucked the proverbial D all season long at home.
Fenway Park used to be a place where the Red Sox would thrive. Now we sit back and watch as the ownership group says the games are sellouts despite the fact there are empty seats everywhere.
The Tampa Bay Rays are still on the outside of a playoff spot and their odds aren’t great. But they took another step in the right direction by beating the local nine 4-2 last night.
The Rays have won seven straight games but remain five games back in the AL East. They are three back in the AL Wild Card standings of the Oakland A’s who are the second wild card team. The Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox’s next opponent, are a 1/2 game ahead of the A’s for the top spot and they are 1.5 games behind the Yankees.
It’ll be an interesting weekend in the AL East.
You expect the Yankees to have an easy time of things with the Toronto Blue Jays over the next four days. The Red Sox are playing the Orioles and the Rays go out of the division to play the Chicago White Sox for the next four days. Once atop the AL Central, the White Sox now trail the Detroit Tigers by a game. So if there was a series to watch in the AL this weekend, it’s this one.
I’d talk more about the Red Sox but frankly they aren’t worth it right now. Sure maybe this is an overreaction to things but you can’t tell me they are. If you can, prove it to me.
The Red Sox are off today but we’ll be back in a bit with the pitching matchups for the weekend. So for now, let’s take at look at the overnight links from the media by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.
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A Fenway finale, but same Bobby Valentine [boston herald]
Sox lineup includes Carl Yastrzemski, Roger Clemens [boston herald]
Jason Varitek close to rejoining club [boston herald]
Carl Yastrzemski on next Triple Crown: Somebody’s got to do it [boston herald]
Yastrzemski: ‘The Red Sox will be back’ [rob bradford – weei.com]
Red Sox drop home finale to Rays, 4-2 [csn new england]
Ortiz: Red Sox need to re-embrace the ’04 approach [csn new england]
Red Sox pitchers tie season high with 14 strikeouts [csn new england]
Saltalamacchia on Lester: ‘Did a great job, just battled his butt off’ [csn new england]
Valentine on final game of the season at Fenway [csn new england]
Clemens: ‘I had 13 wonderful years’ in Boston [csn new england]
Yaz: Triple Crown ‘going to happen’ [espn boston]
Rapid Reaction: Rays 4, Red Sox 2 [espn boston]
Clemens: ‘Never lost my love’ for Boston [espn boston]
Boston Red Sox can see glimmers of hope amid gloom [espn boston]
David Ortiz wants to be with Boston Red Sox for better days [espn boston]
Cherington discusses searching for a new manager [extra bases]
Bobby Valentine Offers Little Regret, Believes He’ll Improve ‘When I Come Back Next Year’ [nesn.com]
Roger Clemens Expresses Love for Boston, Says He Never Lost ‘Love For This Town’ [nesn.com]
Red Sox Cap Forgettable Season at Fenway Park With Prolonged Power Outage [nesn.com]
No Speaker? And Remy over Runnels? All-Fenway team’s a joke [projo sox blog]
MINOR LEAGUE LINKS
Top 10 prospects at season’s end [espn boston]
Boston Red Sox minor leaguers hurry up and wait [goupstate.com]
For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CSN New England, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal, RedSox.com and WEEI websites.
And if you must check out the enemy news, head over to the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Tribune websites.
Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.
photo credit: ap photo
