REDEMPTION!

What a difference a day makes, especially when the season is only three games old, and your team hasn't, you know... won yet.  Just when you think that the whole Sox/Yankes thing is getting, like, SO played out, they come up with another game like last night's.  Picture this: the Red Sox had finally slayed the beast, winning four in a row in a more-than-impossible mission to come from behind and beat the NY Hired Guns in the ALCS.  Then to lead off the next season, the Sox go to NY and get swept.  Ugh!  We all thought that monkey was off our back, right?  Well, think again.  Back to square one. As a friend of mine says, "ya can't win fer lose'n."  Who knows what that means, but talk about falling off the horse that you got back on after it kicked you.  Or something. 

Enter Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, aka A-Hole, aka Lightning-Rod (as in for criticism).  Actuallly, wait.  I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Enter Mariano Rivera, aka Mo, aka... well, Mo.  So, Rivera's the best closer since the Eck plied his trade in Oak-town way back when Jose and Mark were ass-jabbing each other in the clubhouse bathroom before the game.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  The Red Sox have owned Rivera to a greater degree than any other team in baseball, which is to say not much.  Still, for all the games he's beaten the Sox, Rivera has given some memorable games back.  The Varitek/A-Hole slugfest last July, where Billy Mueller homered off Rivera to win the game.  Then there were games 4 and 5 of last year's ALCS.  I won't recount them in detail, but suffice it to say the Sox got to Rivera then too, though the task handed to him in game 5 was an almost impossible one. 

That brings me to yesterday.  With the Sox down 3-2 (again) going into the ninth inning Torre goes to Mo (again).  And the Sox get to him (again).  Well, kinda.  Mo didn't have his best stuff though if you listened to the NY announcers never does against Boston. After loading the bases he K'd My-Man-Trot Nixon (the official Red Sox of FPE).  Then up comes Manny, who hits a not-particularly difficult grounder at A-Hole at third.  He was about to get out of the inning.  All A-Hole has to do is field the ball, throw it to Womack at second who will send it on to Tino at first to complete the game ending double play.  Game over, Yankees sweep, Daaaaaaaaa Yankees sweep. 

Except no! 

Re-enter A-Rod. I didn't see it live, but I did see it replayed about a thousand times in slow motion, and you can see as the ball gets there A-Rod's eyes get bigger and bigger, like a little kid standing in front of an on-coming car. The ball gets there in between bounces, and hits the heal of A-Rod's glove, bounces up and falls harmlessly to the ground. A-Rod grabs at it, gets part of his hand on it, and drops it again! When he its it, Manny's gotta be thinking that the game is over, but when he looks up it's like Christmas in April. Thank you Santa-Rod! Thanks to A-Rod's accidental generosity, one run scored to tie the game. After that Mo imploded (again).  When the dust had cleared the Sox were up 6-3 and Torre had to go get Mo. As he walked off the mound the boos of the short-memoried yankees fans rained down on him. 

The Sox added another, but it didn't matter at that point. You never go into a series hoping to win one out of three, but if you have to win only one this would be the one to win, and if you get to chose how to win it this would be how I would chose. A ninth inning comeback against the other team's best reliever aided by a cruicial error by the other team's best player. Redemption!  The season isn't over after all! 

So, who's in who's head now?