The Red Sox wanted to drink beer and champagne last night, not make a quiet and somber flight to Southern California. Jon Lester and Jed Lowrie became the latest Red Sox heroes to make wishes come true. Lowrie, the rookie shortstop who had struggled through September, shoved all that aside with a ninth-inning walkoff RBI single off Scot Shields that propelled the Red Sox past the Angels, 3-2, and into the AL Championship Series. The next plane the Red Sox will board will be bound for St. Petersburg, Fla., tomorrow afternoon, and it will be a flight they will make willingly for what should be a bruising and highly entertaining best-of-seven series against their fiercest regular-season foes, the Tampa Bay Rays. The victory against the Angels gave the Sox a 3-1 Division Series win and prevented them from having to fly to LA for a deciding Game 5 on enemy territory. Dustin Pedroia, who snapped his 0-for-15 slump with an RBI double off Angels starter John Lackey that scored Ellsbury in the two-run fifth, wanted no part of a cross-country flight. Lowrie’s hit salvaged what would have been a bone-crushing loss to the Angels, who had created a shocking 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth inning. It also would have wasted the second superb postseason start in a row for Jon Lester (seven scoreless innings). Lester was outstanding, stifling any slim or substantial scoring opportunity the Angels gained. Tied at 2 entering the ninth, either team could have claimed momentum, and at first, it appeared the Angels had a stranglehold on it. Juan Rivera led off with a double and then pinch-runner Reggie Willits reached third with one out. Manager Mike Scioscia decided to call for the squeeze play, but Erick Aybar could not get the bunt down on a Manny Delcarmen pitch. Willits was caught halfway home and Varitek chased him all the way back to third, tag-tackling him with the ball bouncing out of his glove after the out was called.
As momentum shifts go, that one was seismic. Delcarmen got the final out, leaving the distinct impression that it was a matter of guessing who would come to the rescue in the bottom of the ninth. It was Lowrie, but Jason Bay set him up perfectly with his one-out ground-rule double past a diving Willits in right. He slid safely home for the winning run and the celebration was on, the flight delayed.
And Tampa Bay likely will prove tougher to overcome than the Angels, who fell to the Red Sox for the third time in a row in a Division Series.
Nation Notes: The pain was too much for Mike Lowell. Having him attempt to play was too painful and too damaging for the Red Sox. So after a consultation with doctors on the torn labrum in Lowell’s right hip yesterday, the third baseman was removed from the American League Division Series roster. That move likely (though not certainly) signals the end of the season for the third baseman, who will head into the offseason bound for surgery. Because he was taken off the roster in the middle of the series, Lowell will also not be available for the AL Championship Series, but he could be added to the World Series roster if he were to recover in time. That seems unlikely at this point, though. Lowell was replaced with infielder Gil Velazquez, 28, who had spent 11 years in the minor leagues before finally making his major league debut in September.
