Final Thoughts on the Red Sox Complete Collapse

On September 1st the Red Sox had just lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees in Fenway, but hey were still 1/2 a game up in the division and nine games ahead of the Rays. The Rays had a 1% chance of making the playoffs, but nobody thought they would be able to beat the Red sox for the spot. The Red Sox went 7-20 in September and they won ONE game where they scored less than 7 runs, they did not win back to back games the entire month and only once did they win two games in a three game stretch and that was when they won against the AAA Yankees on Sunday and then again on Tuesday 9/27 when they won 8-7 over the fighting showlaters. As of Wednesday morning the Red Sox were still favored to make it to the Playoffs and nobody in the national media seemed to think it was possible that they would lose as most of them had picked the Sox to win the world series.  It happened. Baseball fans never thought it would but the Red Sox blew a 9.5 game lead in the wildcard when they lost to the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees epically didn't care and let the Rays comeback and win in extra innings.
This Year wasn't supposed to be the Yankees year and many people said they were too old and would miss the playoffs all together. The fact was that all of us were blinded by the Crawford signing, the Cliff Lee not signing and the Adrian Gonzalez trade. Gonzalez didn't have the power that he was supposed to, Crawford was mediocre from the get go and a rejuvenated Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia as well as a better than expected Ivan Nova meant that the Yankees didn't miss Cliff Lee as much as they thought they would.
My pre season assessment of the Sox was very close to true but I still thought they would win the Division:
The Red Sox were already a formidable team that contends every year, but then they went out and traded for Adrian Gonzalez who if healthy will be an absolute beast in Fenway park. The Red Sox, being the scrappy small market team that they are, were able to scrounge up some change and pay free agent Carl Crawford $142 million over 7 years. Last year the Boston bullpen struggled so the Sox acquired Dan Wheeler and Bobby Jenks to bolster their pen and possibly take over for Pappelbon if he proves to be unreliable. The Red sox have a great rotation, but after Lester every one of them has question marks as Beckett and Dice-K have had recent injury problems, Lacky suffered from being mediocre and over hyped and Buchholz stats suggest he will regress this year.Even if the Rotation has problems the Red Sox have good rotation depth and their offense should be able to overcome any pitching problems and win them games.
There were a couple things that we found out this year that blew these assumptions out of the water. Lackey wasn't as bad as he was last year he was worse, Adrian Gonzalez wasn't healthy, Jenks and Wheeler did almost nothing, Crawford was mediocre which nobody expected, The Sox Farm system got exposed as overrated as did their rotation depth. Now many Sox fans are calling for the heads of Theo Epstein and Terry Francona and don't be surprised if either some key Sox don't come back or the Sox go on another spending spree this winter. That being said I have gotten Four different reactions from Sox fans:
Reaction 1) We only lost because of Injuries: Adrian Gonzelez claimed that they lost because of Injuries/God (read here) and fans have claimed that if would have been different if Youkillis hadn't gotten hurt late then things would have been different. They also already pointed to their various injuries and one person I know even stated that the Yankees didnt have the same injury issues that the Sox did to which I smiled and laughed. Youkillis is your cleanup hitter and spent time on the DL but still played in 21 more game than our own cleanup hitter. The Yankees had more cumulative time on the DL than any other team. Stop bitching, great teams overcome.
Reaction 2) Numbness. With all the success of Boston and New England teams have come three big epic failures, Red Sox September 2011, Superbowl 42 and the Bruins losing in the playoffs after being up three games to none. As a Patriots fan I remember Suprebowl 42 and it was seriously 3 years before I could discuss it with people and even now I refrain from doing so in the same way I refrain from talking about 2004. Remember that numb feeling and just remind yourselves to never count your rings until after you've won them.
Reaction 3) Devastation: first of all as I said in the last reaction dont count your rings until you've got them. Second of all This sucks and there is no way around it but Boston and New England based sports teams have not only been in consistent contention every year for years but each major sports team has won a championship since 2004 and in total they have won 7 since Brady beat the Rams in 2001. You gotta get over it, it will suck but honestly San Diego, Seattle and Cleveland would all kill for one championship appreciate what you have.
Reaction 4) "your Yankees let me down" / The Yankees TANKED the game: Lets be clear YOU let YOU down, the Yankees contributed to your epic fail but if you had kept your lead against the Orioles then none of this would have happened, you had two strikes and two outs and blew it. Are you really trying to tell me that the Yankees who had literally NOTHING to play for should have brought in Mariano or Robertson to save that game when they play again in two days. I wasn't even that comfortable with Luis Ayala and Corey Wade pitching, I thought Proctor should have pitched the last two innings. Your telling me that with everything clinched the Sox would have brought in Papelbon and Bard to get the save in a meaningless game, no way. If our loss had kept you out even if you won that's different but it didn't, take responsibility for the fact that your number one offense in baseball could only score 3 runs off the Orioles worst pitching staff in the American league and your closer ,who according to some Sox fans is better than Mariano Rivera, couldn't hold the lead with two outs. Staying healthy was more important than winning games since they clinched home field advantage and if you had been in the same position you would have done the same. Keep in mind that this Sox team was the greatest baseball team in the history of the game as can be noted here.

First of all I want to say that if you haven't seen the video of the Orioles walking off you need to watch it, but also these two losses against the Orioles for the Sox provided two awesome Gifs.

$142 million Crawford Fail

Bellsbury

On letting the Rays come back I have to keep reminding myself that in an even remotely meaningful game the Yankees go to a least Wade after Ayala walks the bases loaded but I'm not as happy about the Rays coming back as I thought I would be. However you have to give credit to the Yankees offense and honestly I am not even sure why Ayala and Wade came in as opposed to Scott Proctor. I just hope this game won't affect the Yankees in the ALDS because they are really going to need it while facing Verlander and Fister. If anyone is concerned about the Yankees losing four before going to the playoffs just remember that the Yankees lost their last seven in 2000 before winning the world series including 3 to the Rays in Tampa. Also two things that hadn't occurred to me, The Red Sox haven't won a playoff game since 2008 and could this be the death of Pink hat Nation?