Fin

So, this is how the season ends.

After battling back by fending off elimination in games 5 and 6, the Boston Red Sox 2008 season came to an end Sunday night in St. Petersburg. Entering the decisive game 7, the Sox seemingly had taken over the momentum of the series from the Rays. One of my favorite baseball sayings is "momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher".

The story of the game was the fact that Matt Garza out pitched Jon Lester. Lester pitched pretty well but not well enough. Garza had electric stuff. Aside from Dustin Pedroia's first inning homer, Garza was in complete control. A fastball topping out at 95 MPH was complimented by a knee buckling 12 to 6 curve ball. The Sox (Jason Bay in particular) took some of the ugliest swings you will ever see at the major league level.

The defending champions best chance at victory came in the top half of the eighth inning. Jason Bartlett booted Alex Cora's routine grounder and Coco Crisp followed with a clutch single to right. The Nation was feeling it. The heart of the order up and the Rays were into their bull pen. Pedroia popped out to left (huge out) and David Ortiz bounced into a fielder's choice (Crisp's decision to do a take out slide proved costly). Kevin Youkilis walked to the load the bases. In a moment that unfortunately may live in the minds of Red Sox fans for sometime, young stud lefty David Price came on and blew away JD Drew.

With the lower part of the line up due up Joe Maddon made the best decision of the series by not doing anything. Price was left in the game instead of bringing in the hittable Grant Balfour. Bay walked but Kotsay (pitch was outside), Jason Varitek and pinch hitter Jed Lowrie were each overpowered. Forget Joba Chamberlin, David Price is the future of the AL East.

That is how it ended.

Let us not be quick to assign blame to individuals. Nor should fans seek out excuses (injury to Lowell) for the team's inability to return to the World Series. Experience tells us to let the dust settle and then make some rational judgments. We can rest assured that there will be plenty of analysis of what has transpired over the past week. Let us be clear on one important fact --- the 2008 Boston Red Sox did not fail in the ALCS because of a lack of effort, poor preparation or being out hustled. As hard as it is to admit, the team was outplayed by a talented team that performed extremely well on the big stage.

Congratulations to the Rays and their increasing fan base. What they were able to accomplish this season is extremely impressive. The last to first talk aside, they did what the Yankees in 2004 and the Indians in 2007 could not do -- stop the surging Boston Red Sox after losing big leads in the ALCS.

After digesting the happenings of the ALCS, I will continue the blog throughout the off season. Hot stove baseball keeps things always interesting. I would like to thank all those that participated in this blog by reading, commenting and voting in the polls throughout the year. Please check in over the course of the off season.