The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Red Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS last night, to move on to the World Series against the Phillies. So sorry, long-suffering Boston fans, you're going to have to content with just one championship this year.
The game also hurt me as a Twins fan, seeing Matt Garza and Jon Lester start the ALCS Game 7 against each other. Because if the Twins had made the Santana-for-Lester/Lowrie/Crisp trade and not made the Garza-for-Young trade, I'd imagine THEY would've been in Game 7 of the ALCS.
While a Red Sox/Phillies series would have had a lot of intriguing subplots- J.D. Drew in Philly, city of champions vs. city of losers, Terry Francona back in Philly, etc.- there's really not much there when it comes to Rays-Phils, except for the recent history of the two cities battling in other sports. It's great ballpark vs. atrocious ballpark. It's history vs. no history. It's Why Can't Us vs. this "9 = 8" nonsense.
Much happier about the lack of a Sox-Phils matchup? Brett Myers. Since they're not playing Boston, he'll avoid a return to the scene of his spousal-abuse-arrest-that-everyone-forgot, and the dozens of national news stories that would have gone with it.
At any rate, this year just feels different, and it's time for the drought to end. Phillies in 5.