That was weird.

It seems like only the Red Sox could suffer a crushing loss via a walk-off grand slam, and then go have a champagne celebration in the locker room over winning the division.

I’m not condemning the celebration, they won the A.L. East (Thanks, Buck Showalter!) and deserve to celebrate that accomplishment, but it doesn’t make the whole night any less weird.

This Red Sox team is going to be interesting in the postseason. I honestly have no idea what to expect. There are questions about the ace, closer and manager – three pretty important areas. The lineup seems to score either 10 runs or 1.

Yet, they’ve won the division anyway. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

NESN was supposed to air their second David Ortiz special last night, but because of the coverage of the clinching celebration, the special will air tonight, following the Red Sox/Yankees game. (Around 10pm)

The David Ortiz Era presented by Foxwoods Resort Casino is a one-hour documentary-style feature that tells the story of how Big Papi went from signing with Boston as an unheralded free agent to winning three World Series titles with the Red Sox.

Ortiz is everywhere in the final days of his career, there was his piece on the Players Tribune this week – Thanks for the Memories, New York and Sports Illustrated is devoting a large chunk of its magazine to the Red Sox slugger, as well. Here is the regional cover:

40covv19ortiz

(Arnold Palmer is on the national cover)

The issue contains the longform piece The Big Interview featuring Ortiz.

Elsewhere:

Sports Hub is tops in latest radio ratings – The beat goes on.

Tanguay storms off WEEI morning show over needling – WEEI on the other hand, is resorting to wacky staged stunts in order to try and get attention.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

11 thoughts on “The Most Red Sox Thing Ever”

  1. The celebration didn’t bug me as much as that idiot Gary Striewski from NESN wearing those stupid goggles with a GoPro strapped to his forehead while doing interviews—-not to mention he was holding a bottle of champagne at the same time. Journalism 101: You’re not part of the story, ever. And yes, I understand I shouldn’t confuse what he does with journalism, but still, it was really awful and cringe-worthy.

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    1. All season long, whenever NESN would do the first in-game “hit” down on the field during the first game of a series, a buddy of mine would text me 1 of 2 messages:

      1–“Yes! This is a Guerin series!”
      2–“Oh (bleep)! This is a Gary series. Get ready for three nights of hairstyle talk”

      I kid you not.

      Someone needs to get the word out to NESN: Guerin, yes. Gary, no.

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    1. Unfortunately the story line has some legs considering the last two games. The $217MM “ace” couldn’t seal the deal (and here comes October), the manager should have yanked him after the second dinger and Kimbrel could not have looked worse if he was tossing BP.

      F&M are going to beat this one to a pulp and they probably have a right to.

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      1. You’re joking, right? They are 18-7 in September and won 11 in a row in a tight pennant race to blow away a three-team field to all-but lock up the AL east title. But they lose two games and they “couldn’t seal the deal!” We get the sports coverage we deserve, I guess.

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        1. No I’m not joking and don’t get me wrong I’m as big a fan of the team as the next guy but watching these two games was painful. Call it hyperbole but it felt like a step back in time when they were the “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” team we all grew accustomed to in the 80’s and 90’s. Especially last night with Kimbrel imploding in the way he did and I’m not buying into lack of work or the weather as factors either. For Christ sake if Buchholz is showing more life than Price and Kimbrel it’s going to be an early exit.

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      2. I’m going to give Kimbrel a pass on last night because he had only pitched once in about 5 or 6 days, I think. When a pitcher sits for that much time, his command can leave him in a hurry (and Kimbrel has had command issues off and on all season anyway). Add last night’s atrocious weather to the mix and it’s understandable why he would struggle, especially since the Yankees have a lineup that is typically not going to chase bad pitches outside of the strike zone. That said, I’m shocked that Texeira was able to catch up to Kelly’s 97/98 MPH heater. Also stunned that the ball actually left the park, since that wind was knocking down everything else hit deep to the outfield all night long.

        Price is more of a concern to me, but the Yankees, for whatever reason, gave him fits this season. Just a bad matchup for him, I guess. It happens.

        However, I don’t think they backed into anything last night. While that loss was horrid, and it would have been better to see them win the thing on the field, they had 13 games against Toronto and Baltimore in September/October, and with 10 of those games out of the way, their record stands at 7-3. They’ve also gone 4-2 against the Yankees this month.

        Granted, the last two nights could have been better, but they still got the job done when they had to get it done.

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        1. They should fire the manager because he’s just so terrible. Never would have happened with a real game managing leader of men at the helm. Failing to win the division on the field is just another example of managerial ineptitude.

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          1. I’ve been mystified by some of Farrell’s decisions but, seriously, what is this obsession with winning this one f’in game? They’ve won 92 games this year (so far), which is enough to win this very tough division. That’s what matters. They have a few games to get the rotation and bullpen set and could still potentially be the # seed in the AL.
            If anything losing these two games may have cost them a shot at catching the rangers, but again, they won 11 in a row before this.
            This site is generally a tonic for the scalding hot takes but that’s not true today.

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  3. A tough September road schedule. All against divisional opponents. And a very strong winning record. Those are, in my opinion, the three points we should heed. A two-game losing streak? What about the 11-game winning streak? Jeez, that was it, man. That settled the race. You wanna get all worked up about dropping two in the Bronx, knock yourselves out.

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  4. From, http://www.torontosun.com/2016/09/29/whats-going-on-inside-the-blue-jays-clubhouse

    But you have to wonder. You have to wonder if this team, once clearly in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot but now fighting tooth and nail just to make the wild card, is coming apart at the seams and if there’s a leadership void inside the clubhouse.

    Why, for example, would the leaders on the team allow someone to put up on a wall photos of two Toronto sports writers with an ‘X’ scratched on their face and the a message written on top reading, ‘Do not grant them interviews’ (or words to that effect)?

    You have to wonder if there’s something similar down in Foxboro, just with pictures of Tomase, Borges, etc.

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