ALDS Game Three: High N Dry

Which is where the Red Sox are, as a shocking late inning collapse brings baseball to a close in Boston.

Leading 6-4 in the top of the ninth this afternoon, Boston's Lord of the Dance, Jonathan Papelbon, was pecked at, poked, prodded, and finally put away. The Angels scored three runs, Bobby Abreu doubling in one and Vlad Guerrero singling in two to seal our fate, and when the Halos' underwhelming closer, Brian Fuentes, locked it down in the bottom half, for the first time since 2005, Boston is going home after a loss at Fenway to end the season.

The 2009 Red Sox season, at long last, hundreds of posts and thousands of words since I started babbling about it in March, is over.

I can't say I feel as disappointed as one might expect. There's even a secret, mild feeling of relief-caring takes a lot out of you. You can't really be too mad at them-15 hits over three games is not going to win you much of anything in 2009. They got beat by a better nine, and you just have to tip your cap to them.

In the finest Boston tradition, now go beat them durn Yankees!

(In 1983, when the Philadelphia 76ers were well ahead of the Celtics in the Boston Garden in an elimination game in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston fans began chanting "Beat LA! Beat LA!", wishing the Sixers well in the NBA Finals.)