Wild Card Wednesday!

Evan Longoria rounds the bases after hitting his
walk-off homer that won the AL Wild Card Wednesday.

Late Wedneday night, the Tampa Bay Rays had 278 million-to-one odds to win the AL Wild Card.  And yet, the Rays are the 2011 AL Wild Card Champions.  The Rays made it to the postseason in a most unlikely fashion; it took a month-long colossal collapse from the Red Sox and a bullpen meltdown from the Yankees to sneak in.  This month-long swoon by the Red Sox and surge by the Rays grew in excitement and controversy nearly every day, culminating in an impossibly hopeless comeback attempt on the season's final day.  It, along with the results of the Red Sox-Orioles, Braves-Phillies, and Cardinals-Astros games, resulted in the most exciting day in the 100+ year history of the Major League Baseball regular season.  Four games completely flipped the postseason landscape within just a handful of hours:

Cardinals at Astros

The first game of the four to finish (although the last one to start), this was also the least exciting.  Coming into the evening, the Braves and Cardinals were tied in the NL Wild Card race, this after the Braves led said race by 8.5 games on September 5.  The Cardinals wrecked Brett Myers early and the Astros didn't stand a chance against a dominating Chris Carpenter, who threw a complete-game shutout, allowing only two hits.  This gave the Cardinals a half-game lead in the Wild Card at the moment, meaning the Braves had to win to force a one-game tiebreaker to be played at Busch Stadium the night after.  The Braves were hosting their division rival Phillies in this must-win.



Phillies at Braves

A two-run homer by Dan Uggla gave the Braves an early lead, but their young closer couldn't hold on in the 9th.  Craig Kimbrel, who struck out 14.8 batters per nine innings on the season, holding a 2.00 ERA and leading the National League with 46 saves, allowed the Phillies to rally in the 9th to score the tying run.  An intense, nerve-wracking extra inning battle pursued.  The Braves were forced to bring in Scott Linebrink in the 13th and Linebrink gave up the go-ahead and winning run on a single to Hunter Pence.  The Braves got a man on base in the bottom half, but rookie sensation Freddie Freeman grounded into a season-ending double play.  I think the slam of his helmet upon grounding out was an emotional reaction that spoke for the entire team.

Red Sox at Orioles

On September 6, the Sox were a full 8.0 games ahead of Tampa for the wild card, a lead which has disappeared as both teams entered the night tied as well.  The Red Sox were also in major panic mode Wednesday, but they came out in the game as cool and composed.  They fell behind early, but Josh Beckett calmed down and Dustin Pedroia and the others rallied to tie the game 3-3, then take the lead.  A rain delay slowed the game time considerably, but the game resumed with the Red Sox jumping on the O's for more runs.  A great throw to the plate, however, would ensure the Orioles stayed within one.  In the bottom of the 9th, it was up to a cast of unsung heroes to take down The Nation.  Nolan Reimold doubled in the tying run and Robert Andino knocked in the winning run, giving Jonathan Papelbon just his third blown save of the entire season!  In fact, it was just two years ago that a dominating Papelbon blew the save in Game 3 of the ALDS to allow the Angels to sweep the Red Sox.  Papelbon does well under pressure, but evidently not under playoff pressure.  The win really didn't mean anything for the well-out-of-contention Orioles, but they celebrated like they had just won the wild card.

Yankees at Rays

The stars seemed to be aligned for the Rays to at least force a tiebreaker with Boston as the Rays started their stud David Price to go against a rookie Yankee who wasn't expected to pitch very long.  Not even an unrealistic, overexaggerated Hollywood script could push through the plot that would unfold after that.  Price couldn't have had a worse start, giving up a grand slam to Mark Teixeira in the 2nd inning as part of a 7-0 Yankees lead.  With that early lead for the Red Sox in Baltimore, all seemed to be well for the Sox.  The Rays scrapped together a few runs before Evan Longoria hit a three-run homer to bring the Rays within one and fans all around the nation were shocked.  With two strikes and two outs in the 9th on Dan Johnson, he hit a most improbable game-tying home run that, at the time, appeared to save the Rays from elimination.  The game would drag on to the 12th, when the game in Baltimore went final.  Fans at the Tropicana Dome erupted into cheer when the scoreboard displayed the score.  Then, of course, they cheered for Evan Longoria's walk-off homer to win the AL Wild Card just three minutes later!  And just like that, the underdog Rays had completed the impossible.

What a great night for baseball.  I thought the ending of the NL Wild Card race was exciting enough; I had no idea what was in store in the AL.  Incredibly, the NL results were totally overshadowed by the epic Rays-Red Sox battle that went late into the night thanks to extra innings and rain delays.  The combination of the two races finishing on the same day, with both underdogs completing the impossible, makes this the best day in MLB regular season history.

I actually came up with a cheesy moniker for this string of unbelievable occurrences, Moneyball 2.0.  It fits perfectly with that movie being the talk of the entertainment world this week.  But it actually does make sense, in that the $161 million Boston Red Sox and their fan 'nation' and their disproportionate ESPN coverage were beaten by the $41 million Tampa Bay Rays and their...domed stadium....  This comeback is great for baseball everywhere.  No matter how ESPN frames the Red Sox on a daily basis, the fact is that most of the country was yearning to watch them fall.  This is further evidence (as if I need any more) that America roots for the underdog.  Don't believe me?  See: Miami Heat.