The Sox might have known it wasn't meant to be when torrential rainfall forced Friday night's game to start 90 minutes past the original 7:05 p.m. starting time, and Daisuke Matsuzaka was scratched from the start against the New York Yankees.
Matsuzaka will instead pitch on Saturday afternoon, but the damage had already been inflicted on a team whose divisional aspirations clinging to life support. When David Aardsma was called for out of the bullpen in the third inning to escape a jam created by emergency starter David Pauley, Boston's lot in postseason life was pretty much decided. The Friday night loss mathematically eliminated the Sox from AL East Division contention and sets up an AL Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Following the Angels' loss to Texas on Friday night, it was decided by the Angels -- by virtue of the best record in the American League this season -- that the series will begin on Wednesday rather than Thursday. The setup allows for both John Lackey and Ervin Santana as well as Josh Beckett and Jon Lester to pitch twice in the five-game series.
"The important part for us is to get our house in order, be healthy and try to get everybody enough at-bats -- but not too many," said manager Terry Francona. "We're just trying to be as ready as we can be moving forward."
YANKEES 19, RED SOX 8: Dave Pauley was lit up for seven runs and six hits in 2 2/3 innings after making the emergency start in place of Daisuke Matsuzaka, and the final score matched that of the memorable Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS. Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkilis both homered for the Sox in a defeat that eliminated the Sox from AL East title contention, and Mike Lowell had to exit the game after aggravating his hip injury in the first inning.
