WOW! So the Red Sox nearly performed the biggest choke job of the year and lived to tell about it. In the clinching game of a three game sweep the Red Sox were up 6-1, the annoucers had basically declared the game over and were speculating about Red Sox-Yankee pitching matchups. Then, in about 10 minutes the lead disapeared on a 7th inning grand slam home run by Vladamir Guerrero. GASP. Fenway Park was in shocked silence. What looked like an easy sweep of the series turned into doubt. If the Red Sox lost the game they would still be up 2-1 in the series but the momentum would be going against them, and if they didn't close them out tomorrow they'd have to go back to Anaheim and actually be underdogs...SCARY.

I think we all expected the Red Sox to loose after giving up the home run. It's very hard to bounce back from such a thing, and it was like and old script pulled out of Red Sox history. "Red Sox victory seems certain, Red Sox loose lead, Red Sox hold on for a while and tease you, Red Sox collapse in heartbreaking fashion." But amazingly that did not happen tonight. With the bases loaded and one out Keith Foulke actually struck a few guys out to get out of the ninth. In the tenth, Cabrera actually made an excellent play (i.e. the ball didn't go through his legs or flying into the dugout) to get Lowe out of the inning. In the bottom of the tenth, David Ortiz actually hit a home run to win the game. WHO ARE YOU GUYS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE RED SOX?

Again, I'm not amazed that they won the series. I thought they would win the series. The part that amazes me is that they seemed headed for their usual dissapointing defeats many times, but somehow things didn't follow the usual storyline. When the Red Sox blow scoring opportunities early in the game yet still have the lead, they blow to lead and loose only to be reminded of those early blown scoring opportunities. If the announcers say the Red Sox are sure to win and then the Red Sox blow the lead, they lose that game... the next two...and the series. 1+1=2. The sky is blue.

But this didn't happen. Left was right. Up was Down. It was the Angels who were making stupid managerial decisions, like taking out your best reliever to put in a guy who had been knocked around only a few days earlier. It was the Angels who made errors, like bobbling a sure double play ball and allowing a run to score. And it was the Red Sox who pulled it out. WOW!