I’ve just watched an improbable comeback.  It’s the eighth inning and the game is still going on, but I’m beginning to believe the Red Sox will play again this season.  With the scored tied a 7-7 this game has turned from a yawner into one which has you riveted to the big screen.  Certainly the Red Sox are beginning to make me believe that they can mount an improbable comeback from three games to one in the ALCS for the second year in a row.

But as exciting as that is, I have to admit that I’m pulling for the Rays.   After all those years of futility the Rays have grown into a team you want to root for.  There is so much young talent on this team that they seem almost too good to be true and make me think about the 2007 Rockies all over again.  You can’t help but find yourself liking them and wanting to see this improbable fairy tale season continue through the World Series

The Red Sox aren’t going to make that easy.  They just stole this game and for the moment at least they look like the former World Series champions. The single by J.D. Drew just drove home the winning run and the Sox took not just the game but the momentum from the red-hot Rays.

While Rays manager Joe Maddon wanted Scott Kazmir, the Rays semi-official “ace,” to start this game, a lot of people questioned the move since the Rays most effective overall pitcher James Shields took the pine and had to sit there and hope he wouldn’t be needed for a game six.  So much for that hope.  Shields will face the pressure, and Josh Beckett, on Saturday.

And at the moment, you’d certainly choose Shields, the Rays best pitcher to come out on top of any match up with the injured Josh Beckett.  But the starting pitcher hasn’t had a lot to do with many of the outcomes in this series.   What it has boiled down to has been all the action coming from the lumber of these teams.

Up until tonight the Boston bats have been relatively quiet.  That all changed tonight.  Not only were there hits, but they were timely hits.  That could change everything.

The Red Sox task of taking two games in a row now hardly seems as daunting, especially as they’ve proven the could beat the Rays bullpen which before this series had seemed to be just about invincible. 

So now it’s about a buzz saw named James Shields. He’s been the Red Sox nemesis this season and he’s likely to be tough on Saturday.  For the Rays he’s the stopper and what he does will be a reflection of just how tough the Rays really are.  They’ll want to close the door tomorrow, because if game seven comes, the Rays will be the team on the ropes.

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