After weeks of tempering playoff talk and shrugging off postseason decisions that loomed closer by the day, the Red Sox can finally start peeking ahead to their fifth postseason berth in the last six seasons.
Tuesday night's victory marked Boston's 92nd of the season and signified the magical 'W' that punched their playoff ticket -- a win that likely locks up the AL wild card and sets up a first-round divisional series matchup against the mighty Angels. The win also afforded the Sox a fleeting, champagne- and beer-soaked moment to toast success after a seasonal grind that included dealing off a petulant Manny Ramirez and enduring myriad injuries.
"You know there was a lot of stuff going on with a lot of crazy injuries and all of that crazy stuff at the deadline, but this team -- in the end -- really overcame," first baseman Sean Casey said. "It's one of those things where you can really come together as a team, and I think that we definitely did. That's a special part of it for me."
Many celebrants in the postgame locker room pointed to the trade-deadline acquisition of Jason Bay as the turning point in Boston's season that hardened the team into a playoff-caliber squad. The Ramirez fiasco -- a situation where a superstar player seemingly held the team hostage over a contractual dispute -- could have torn the season asunder, but instead the Sox adopted a team-first brand of ball after the dreadlocked individualist's departure to Los Angeles.
The Sox, who were three games out in the AL East when the three-team Ramirez deal set off a seismic blast in Boston on July 31, went 10-3 in the first 13 games of the post-Manny era and kept themselves squarely in the postseason hunt. It didn't guarantee the Sox any playoff glory, but it allowed them to integrate Bay into the mix without missing a beat.
"It's great that we were together as a team down the stretch, and I think we've been together the whole year as an organization," GM Theo Epstein said. "After all the deals at the end of July, getting off to a good start in August was pretty big. I thought we gained a lot of momentum in the month of August. The playoffs obviously weren't assured at that time, but our guys played really good baseball."
The Ramirez/Bay debate will ultimately be judged by how the Sox fare in the upcoming playoffs, but simple playoff chatter is proof that there's optimism flowing from the first precinct reporting.
RED SOX 5, INDIANS 4: Tim Wakefield improved to 10-11 on the season with six innings of four-run ball, and he helped the Sox clinch their fifth playoff berth in the last six seasons. Kevin Youkilis yanked his 27th home run of the season in the fourth inning, and Jason Bay knocked in the eventual game-winner with an RBI single in the fifth frame.
