From a Morgue to an Insane Asylum

It's 3:17 AM and I can't sleep. I'm still in a state of shock over what I witnessed at Fenway Park while I was with my friends at Professor Thom's.

For six innings it looked like the Red Sox season was going to end with a crashing thud. They couldn't do anything against Scott Kazmir, who the Sox just about owned in 2008. They looked moribund, and ready for a long, cold winter.

The Rays were once again putting the hurt on the Sox, as they hit three homers off Daisuke Matsuzaka in the first three innings and appeared to be coasting to a date with the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. They were making it look way too easy, and the Sox seemed to be going down with almost no fight left in them.

By the time the score went to 7-0 in the seventh, it was simply embarrassing, and I almost didn't want to watch any more. But I decided to stay at Thom's with my friends, and go down with the ship at the very end.

Jed Lowrie led off the seventh with a double and the bar, which was quiet just about all night and was waiting to erupt, did just that. He came into score on Dustin Pedroia's double, and that brought David Ortiz up with two out and two on. Papi had once again looked feeble all night, but this time he turned on a Grant Balfour pitch and hit a bomb into the right field seats to make it 7-4. The bar went simply crazy, but I think it was more just a release. I still thought the Sox had a lot to overcome, down by 3 with six outs left in the season.

Jason Bay walked starting the eighth, and J.D. Drew hit a rocket into the right field seats to make it 7-6. Now you really had the sens the Sox could pull off the impossible. Mark Kotsay doubled with two outs and Coco Crisp had one of the at-bats of the season, fouling off pitch after pitch. On pitch 10, he lined a single to right to tie it up. The bar patrons were simply going nuts (including myself), and it brought back incredible memories of 2004.

The Sox got out of jam in the ninth as Carlos Pena banged into a double play, and with two outs in the ninth, Kevin Youkilis hit a ball that Evan Longoria threw in the dirt and sent Youk to second as it bounced into the stands. After an intentional pass to Bay, Drew completed one of the most incredible single-game comebacks in postseason history as he lined a ball one hop into the bullpen to score Youk. I later heard that Drew's single occurred exactly five years to the minute--12:16 AM to be exact--when that guy on the Yankees (whose name escapes me at the moment) hit a home run off Tim Wakefield to win the 2003 AL pennant.

The bar went simply bananas as the Red Sox pulled off one incredible Houdini act. It was the best comeback in LCS history, and the second greatest in postseason history. (The A's came from eight runs back in the 1929 World Series to beat the Cubs.) The Rays were seven outs away from the World Series and seven runs up, and let it get away.

They have to be shellshocked over the turn of events. Just as much as we at Thom's were.

It was complete bedlam for minutes in Thom's. I was hugging and high-fiving my friends and strangers. It was amazing how fast the bar went from as quiet as a funeral parlor to a rerun of last year's World Series ending. My pal Eric and I were just speechless. (Eric wore his "Syracuse 2003 National Basketball Champions" shirt tonight, and he has worn it during the last eight postseason wins in 2004, and all seven of the last wins in 2007. He's only worn it on these special occasions, and the Red Sox are 16-0 when he has. And he plans on wearing it for the rest of the ALCS.)

Most of my friends were like me, and it reminded them so much of what the Red Sox pulled off in 2004. The Red Sox not only own the record for the greatest comeback in ALCS (as well as all-time postseason) history in 2004, but now the single-game ALCS record, of winning from seven runs down.

Amazing. Astounding. Incredible. Unbelievable.

Just when you count the Red Sox down and out, they go and pull off something like this.

It's why I love this team so much.

Now on to Tampa and the AL pennant. Bring it home, boys.