ALCS Game 5 Live Blog

I've never tried this before, but I'm very interested in this game, so here goes. Kazmir vs. Matsuzaka.

8:12 - HR UPTON! 2-0 Rays. This dude is on fire. After revealing in Sept. he was playing with a shoulder injury. If this was Pedroia, Youkilis, or David Eckstein, all we'd be hearing about was what a tough gamer he was for playing so well in the post-season while hurt. Subtle racism? I don't know. But you have to give Upton some credit for his amazing play this series.

8:18 - The next 3 Rays go in order to end the top of the first. We'll see what Kazmir is bringing tonight, which is a big question mark. Maddon played with the rotation to have him pitch this game, so we'll see if he looks like a genius or an over-tinkerer.

8:22 - Crisp walks on 5 pitches. Typical Kazmir thus far.

8:30 - He gets Trail, B.C's Jason Bay to fly out to center field to end the inning. 2 walks, 21 pitches. About what could be expected. Hopefully he can get through the 5th with the lead and then all hands on deck to finish the game.

8:38 - Dice-K makes a nice play on a screamer back up the middle by Navarro. Two down.

8:44 - After Gross walks and then steals second, Bartlett flies out to left to end the inning. Matsuzaka has looked pretty good since the first two batters of the game, but the Rays are being patient and getting his pitch count up as well. As expected, both starters are on pace to throw about 254 pitches between them by the 5th inning.

8:54 - Kazmir hits Varitek with 2 outs. He is having some control problems (50% strikes) but has been able to survive thus far.

8:54 - Kotsay lines one up the middle and the top of the order comes up with runners on 1st and 2nd. The pitch count mounts.

8:58 - He gets Crisp swinging. Still no runs, but he's leaving runners all over the place. Too nerve-wracking.

9:04 - Upton gets on with a nice single up the middle. He is locked in. We'll see if he runs here.

9:05 - Well, Upton was going...but it only helped him jog around the bases more quickly as Pena drove the first pitch past the Pesky Pole into the seats. 4-0 Rays.

9:07 - Longoria!!! A no-doubter. 5-0 Rays. The bullpen is up for the Red Sox.

9:11 - Floyd strikes out to end the inning. Now as the announcers keep saying in an effort to curse Tampa, the Rays are 38-0 with a 5 run lead this year. But it's still early; still 21 outs to get. Hopefully Kazmir can dial in now and get through the next few innings.

9:17 - Kazmir gets 2 quick outs and then Youkilis has a nice at bat and fouls off a bunch of pitches before singling to right. That guy is a good hitter.

9:20 - Gets Trail, B.C.'s Jason Bay to strike out swinging. That was a better inning for Kazmir.

9:26 - The Rays go quickly in the top of the 4th, with a fly to left, a soft liner to 2nd, and a pop foul outside of first. Matsuzaka settles down after his rough 3rd inning. It's really all on the Rays' pitching staff now, although it would be great to see the offense keep applying the pressure.

9:30 - Drew walks on 4 pitches.

9:32 - Longoria makes a nice play to get the lead runner at second. One away.

9:36 - What the hell are these guys talking about? Are there actually a bunch of real baseball fans who coming into this series had not heard of Kazmir, Shields, and Garza?! They've been in first place for most of the year! Maybe there really are a bunch of people who only pay attention to the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, and Cubs, (thank you, ESPN!) but seriously - most knowledgeable fans have seen this Rays rotation (and lineup) coming for a couple of years. Varitek strikes out, but a passed ball allows Drew to advance to 2nd.

9:38 - And he strikes out Kotsay. 5 K's for Kazmir.

9:43 - Iwamura walks to start the 5th and that ends Dice-K's night. Okajima comes on in relief. (Look at that Japan-centric post!)

9:49 - Upton strikes out swinging, going down for the first time tonight. Pena comes up and with the shift on he bunts to the left side and gets on. I like the way he does that what he sees the opportunity with a man on 1st. 2 on for Longoria.

9:57 - Longoria strikes out and Crawford grounds out to Pedroia to end the inning. Iwamura stole 3rd during Longoria's at-bat but they can't bring him home. We move to the bottom of the 5th with the top of Boston's order coming up.

10:02 - 3 up, 3 down for Kazmir, with his best inning. 12 outs to go.

10:10 - 3 up, 3 down for Okajima, with the Rays going quietly in the top of the 6th. Aybar pinch-hit for Floyd that inning in the DH spot with the lefty on the mound.

10:14 - Kazmir has thrown 90 pitches through 5 innings. Pretty decent for him. 2 hits, 3 walks, and the aforementioned 5 K's.

10:16 - Het get Youkilis swinging after another tough at-bat. That's a big out. 6 K's for the lefty.

10:18 - Bay (from Trail, B.C.) goes down swinging. 7 K's. Kazmir appears to settle in around the 100 pitch mark.

10:27 - Delcarmen comes on to pitch for the Red Sox in the 7th, and walks Bartlett. The Rays have had the leadoff man on quite frequently this game.

10:28 - Well, ok, it has only been 3 times. But it seemed like more.

10:28 - Don't hand them the trophy just yet, guys. This still isn't as solid as the Yankees felt with Mariano coming on in Game 4 in 2004.

10:32 - Back-to-back walks. Let's open the floodgates here. Francona is pulling out all the stops, with Papelbon coming in to pitch in the 7th with 2 on and no outs. It would be nice to see managers make these kind of decisions in games besides elimination games of the playoffs.

10:39 - Nice double steal to put the runners on 2nd and 3rd. The small-ball purists love this Rays team, with 4 steals tonight. Oh, and 3 big dingers.

10:42 - Upton hits a high, high double off the top of the scoreboard on the Green Monster. Both runners score, and it's 7-0 Rays. They are walking Pena to pitch to Longoria with runners on 1st and 2nd.

10:51 - Longoria grounds into a double play. I suppose the Rays could have tried the double steal again there with Upton and Pena to try and stay out of that situation, but with a 7-0 lead you don't really need to. Crawford grounds to 3rd and we head to the bottom of the inning. It's down to the pitchers to get 9 outs. Kazmir is likely done due to his pitch count and the length of that half inning.

10:55 - As expected, it's Aussie Grant Balfour on to pitch for the Rays. And Lowrie promptly blasts one off the short right field wall for a double. So Balfour will be yelling at himself to try and retire the next 3 batters. Varitek is up, turned around to the left side.

11:02 - Two flyouts to Upton by Varitek and Kotsay and there are 2 down for Balfour.

11:04 - Crips lines one into left field just past a diving Longoria. Lowrie has to stop at 3rd, so they're at the corners for Pedroia. This is a huge at-bat.

11:09 - He lines it into right and that brings a run home. 2 on for Ortiz, and all of a sudden this doesn't seem very comfortable.

11:10 - And that's why. Big Papi crushes a 3-run homer into the stands and Fenway is going crazy. He was bound to do that at some point. 7-4 in the 7th, 2 outs.

11:17 - Wheeler is now on the mound for Tampa. He gets Youkilis to fly out to Gross in right, ending the inning. 6 outs left. The Red Sox were down to a 0.7% win expectancy after the two fly outs in the bottom of that inning, but it's up to about 7% now.

11:28 - Papelbon retires the side in order, so it's Bay, Drew and Lowrie due up. Boston is looking at about a 9% WE.

11:32 - Wheeler walks Bay on 4 pitches. Not the start we needed here.

11:33 - Drew drives it into the stands. 7-6 Rays. REALLY not what we needed.

11:40 - Kotsay doubles to center with 2 outs, bringing up Crisp.

11:47 - After a really long at-bat, Crisp singles to right. Gross makes a horrible throw, or something, and they get Crisp trying to advance to 2nd. 7-7 heading to the 9th, and the Red Sox have all the mojo, and all we will be able to hear about is the young, inexperienced Rays not being able to finish the job and the vaunted "playoff experience" of the Red Sox and how they have "been here before", blah, blah. But yeah, that was quite the implosion from a 7-run lead, although the Red Sox had to start hitting at SOME point.

11:50 - Masterson is on for Boston, with Cash behind the plate. Bartlett up for the Rays. And he singles to left to put the go-ahead run on first.

11:59 - Iwamura flies out, but Upton walks to put runners at first and second. Not sure why they didn't use a one-run strategy with Iwamura up.

11:59 - ...and Pena grounds into a double play. Pedroia, Ortiz, Youkilis coming up in the bottom of the inning against (I presume) Howell. I can't take this.

12:01 - Boston's WE is sitting at 64%. What a difference a couple of innings makes.

12:03 - Nice play by Bartlett to get that deflection from Longoria and throw out Pedroia by a step.

12:04 - Ortiz tries to pull a Pena and bunt down the 3rd base line, but pushes it foul. Good strategy. He then strikes out swinging.

12:10 - After a (predictably) long at-bat, Youkilis puts one down the line and Longoria makes a throwing error which allows Youkilis to end up on 2nd. Maddon is walking Bay to get the platoon matchup against Drew.

12:16 - Drew lines it over Gross's head in right and the game is over. I will not be turning on ESPN in the near future to listen to the talking heads discuss this game. Christ, what a disappointment. Game 6 is Saturday in Tampa, Shields vs. Beckett.