A Very Discouraging Night

The Sox had the opportunity to leave Tampa tied for the AL East lead. It seems that they left their carpe diem at the hotel. I have trouble faulting Wake. Knuckleball pitchers can be great, mediocre, or horrible on any given night, and Wake has been great far more than he's been anything else this year. The team, apart from Papi, just didn't seem ready to play tonight, and that's really disappointing.
While they depart Tampa/St. Pete only two games behind, and three in the loss column, I have a real sense that they should now look to the Wild Card and prepare for the postseason. They will face A.J. Burnett and Roy Halladay in the series at Toronto. Happily, the Twins don't seem to have any energy for getting back into the WC race.
Congratulations to Joe Maddon and the Tampa front office. It seems that the right people are now in place to make that franchise legitimate after 10 years of awful ownership, poor drafting, signing of broken down free agents, and general stupidity. The more good organizations in the game, the better the game.
I'm not particularly concerned about the route taken into the postseason, and the rest of Red Sox Nation shouldn't be, either. We won in 2007 as the Division Champion, and in 2004 as the Wild Card winner, so Tito and the boys have done it following both paths. The obvious difference is that little matter of the Fenway home field, but the Angels still have to show that they can find a way to beat the Sox after October 1.
Get the pitchers in order. Rest Lowell's hip as much as possible. Figure out if Drew will be available, and if available, helpful. Play Kotsay until he finds his stroke. Get Tek a little rest.
Then bring on October! Something, by the way, they won't be saying in the Bronx.