Final Score: Boston Red Sox 2, Detroit Tigers 3A battle for the ages: the American League's best offense versus the American League's best pitching, each team ranked among the top teams in their opposite area. This game was a tiger and shark battle, a microcosm of the wars between ancient Athens and Sparta. This was a damn epic game.
And yet it ended not only so suddenly, but in such ridiculous fashion. I've watched and re-watched and re-frickin-watched that first pitch that Papelbon threw, the one that hit Sheffield and - as much as I love the Papal-Bon - led directly to the end of this game in the thirteenth. I've watched and watched, looking for Sheffield to lean into that pitch, to make the win a cheap shot and justify my disgust for the ending...but I can't see it. Tek set up in the middle, Paps let his control slip and three batters later, the game ended. End of story, no matter how much I'd wish it otherwise.
On the plus side: congratulations to Big Papi for smashing home run number fourteen in the first. Ortiz's struggles with power generation over the past month have been the stuff of aching hamstrings, but it seems that the night off did the big man some good: watching the replay showed the weight drop to the knees and the killer swing working in glorious synchronization for the first time in a long time.
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