Putting aside, for a moment, all of the terrible things that have just gone on in Tampa Bay, the Red Sox are one scoreless inning away from a 3-2 win that would, at the very least, secure their spot in a one-game playoff against the Rays--if not more.
The Sox looked like they might be in trouble with Alfredo Aceves having to warm up again after an hour-and-a-half rain delay. The invaluable reliever was wild to start the bottom of the seventh, hitting two of the first three batters he faced. But a big strikeout of Red Sox killer Robert Andino and a ground out by J.J. Hardy gave the Sox the outs they needed to end the inning.
The top of the eighth held some promise for an insurance run, but a baserunning mistake would end up costing the Sox. With Marco Scutaro at first, Carl Crawford sent a fly ball to left-center field which a diving Nolan Reimold could not come up with. But, having had to stop and wait to see if the ball would fall in, Scutaro was too slow to make it all the way home, and ended up being thrown out.
From there, it was Daniel Bard's game to lose, but the setup man ended up coming through, albeit with some loud fly balls, recording a 1-2-3 inning to send the Sox into the ninth, where they'll just need Jonathan Papelbon to be Jonathan Papelbon.