Fenway
09-28-2004, 10:23 AM
The Red Sox clinched the wild card last night and the credit has to go to GM Theo Epstein. It is safe to say no GM made better moves at the trade deadline.
Trading Nomar to the Cubs took guts but in retrospect it had to be done.
There is an old saying in Boston, we know how it will end...we just don't know the storyline. All we can do is hope.
BTW I know some are confused on how Boston clinched even though Anaheim won last night the answer is something out of MIT
So how was it that the Red Sox entered Monday night's game against the Devil Rays with a magic number of two and shrunk that number to zero simply by winning their game?
A closer look at the matter revealed that the magic number didn't tell the whole story. In actuality, the magic number for the Red Sox was their 94th victory, which they accomplished by downing the Devil Rays, 7-3.
The Angels, who trailed the Sox by six games, have 88 wins with six games left.
While the Angels could conceivably match Boston's win total by running the table and having the Sox lose their last six games, it would come at the expense of the A's, who they play three more times.
Under that scenario, the Angels would win the West, Oakland (88-67 entering Monday's action) would be out of the postseason and the Red Sox -- even if they don't win another game this season -- still win the Wild Card.
If the A's lost all three games to Anaheim, they would finish with a maximum of 92 wins, which would mean they couldn't top Boston in the Wild Card standings either.
Trading Nomar to the Cubs took guts but in retrospect it had to be done.
There is an old saying in Boston, we know how it will end...we just don't know the storyline. All we can do is hope.
BTW I know some are confused on how Boston clinched even though Anaheim won last night the answer is something out of MIT
So how was it that the Red Sox entered Monday night's game against the Devil Rays with a magic number of two and shrunk that number to zero simply by winning their game?
A closer look at the matter revealed that the magic number didn't tell the whole story. In actuality, the magic number for the Red Sox was their 94th victory, which they accomplished by downing the Devil Rays, 7-3.
The Angels, who trailed the Sox by six games, have 88 wins with six games left.
While the Angels could conceivably match Boston's win total by running the table and having the Sox lose their last six games, it would come at the expense of the A's, who they play three more times.
Under that scenario, the Angels would win the West, Oakland (88-67 entering Monday's action) would be out of the postseason and the Red Sox -- even if they don't win another game this season -- still win the Wild Card.
If the A's lost all three games to Anaheim, they would finish with a maximum of 92 wins, which would mean they couldn't top Boston in the Wild Card standings either.