Edwin is getting a beatdown. Otro mas por favor.

Good work Toronto! Now it's our turn.

Isn't it ironic that tonight the Red Sox will celebrate breaking the consecutive sell-out streak in front of a team that can't draw flies during a pennant race?

Make the Rays cry.

I'm goin' to Jackson, I'm gonna mess around,
Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town.

9/8/08-- All History's Been Building to This

It’s time for Jose Melendez’s KEYS TO THE GAME.

1. Careful readers of KEYS may have noticed a distinct lack of intensity in Jose’s Yankees columns this year. The standard bile-laced invectives have been curiously absent, as have the demand that all identify “Whose side are you on.”

The reason, of course, is that Jose has been saving the anger and invective for the series beginning today with the ancient and hated rival the Tampax Bay Rays.

Already, Jose is slipping on his “Kazmir Sucks” shirt, and placing orders for ones that read, “Crawford is a Little Bitch,” and “Pena Sucks Hinske.”(Note: Those guys are traitors, damn dirty traitors. How can you leave the Red Sox and go to the Rays? It’s like defecting from Paraguay to Uruguay in the War of the Triple Alliance.)

So to get fired up Jose is going to review some of the great-moments in the Rays-Red Sox rivalry.

September 6, 2000: Pedro Martinez hits ham ‘n’ egger Gerald Williams on his fourth pitch of the evening, prompting Williams to charge the mound. A cowed Martinez then shows his fear by refusing to hit any of the next 24 batters, or let them hit him.

Opening Day 2003: Rays beat Red Sox on walkoff—In what remains the greatest win in Rays history, the then Rays come back on opening day to beat the Red Sox, as Chad Fox blows a save. Tampax starter Joe Kennedy is so emotional that he dies four years later.

March 27, 2006: Julian Tavarez cold cocks a sliding Joey Gathright at home plate in an exhibition game, moving him past “Rockin” Robbie Simms on the list of Massachusetts’ greatest pugilists.


Can’t you feel the history? Can’t you smell the animosity? Screw Fred McGriff! Wade Boggs is a traitor! It’s like Istanbul or was it Constantinople. It’s like Salonika or is it Thessaloniki? This rivalry is where history ends, where possibility clashes with reality. It’s Rays-Red Sox. And this time, it counts.

2. Sine the Rays have enjoyed such wonderful benefits from abandoning the devil and embracing the Ray, Jose thought it would be nice to pay tribute to all of the great Rays by cracking out the old, Top 10 good and evil bit. Today, the Top Ten Good Rays of all time, later this week, the bad

1. Ray Charles—Even if he did nothing else in his career, the man was in Blues Brothers. (Note: Ray is dead, when Stevie Wonder goes, who will continue the chain of blind black pianists who are awesome?)
2. Ray Robinson—Pound for pound the best ever… except for Julian Tavarez.
3. Ray, X—Much better than the old system of cutting the leg in half to see if it is broken.
4. Ray Allen—A champion! Also, number two on the top ten good Jesus list.
5. Ray Magliozzi—Leads Dane Cook in the race to be Arlington’s funniest person by 42,387 people
6. Ray Bradbury—Even in his futuristic novels, could not imagine the Rays in the playoffs.
7. Ray Babbitt—The man was a gambling genius!
8. Ray Jay Johnson—OK, Jose will be honest, he has no idea who this is, but he’s been mentioned on The Simpsons a few times. Of course, if Simpsons mentions were a good metric for skill, Steve Sax would be in the Hall of Fame.
9. Stevie Ray Vaughan—He died in a plane crash. That makes him the Corey Lidle of rock.
10. Allan Ray—Maybe the Celtics couldn’t be bothered to play Ray Allen and Allan Ray, together, but Jose will be damned if he misses the chance.

For KEY 3, thoughts on Big Papi's sore hand visit http://keystothegame.blogspot.com/

In this crazy good era of Boston sports, the various teams have been picking us up like clockwork.

Grady Little loses his mind? The Pats beat Miami in OT and run off 21 in a row, including two Super Bowls.

The Pats blow a huge lead to the Colts in AFC Championship game? The Sox win their second title in four years.

The Pats lose the Perfect Season? The Celts win their first title since 1986, absolutely blowing the doors off the Lakers in the clincher.

Tom Brady goes down with a horrific injury? Seeing the Sox overtake the Rays would be a helluva nice start.

I'm not suggesting equivalence here. It would just be a nice beginning.

Wow! Am I psyched for the latest chapter of the Greatest Rivalry in Sports--Red Sox v. Rays!

Of course, I am also pretty excited by the Yankees battle for 3rd place with the Jays. Also a great rivalry, but not quite up to the former example.

Stand up and fight for the Division lead. Let's not retreat when the surge has worked and victory is in sight! WIN!

Great Top 10, Jose, but where's Ray Romano? C'mon, you know everybody loves Raymond. C'mon if you can put X-Ray in there, I can go with a fictitious character.

The time is now...it's winning time. So let's make the Rays' collective sphincters just a tad tighter tonight with a victory.

Any of you WEEI people hear anything about Drew playing tonight?

Nah. It's all Brady, all the time.

What makes you think Romano goes on the good list?

Bourque mayhaps?

I personally can't stand the guy, but everybody seems to love him, so who am I to go against public opinion? (Maybe I should have said Ray Barone?)

I always liked the Say Ray Kid myself.

Just beat all things Ray into the dust!

Ray Bourque not being on the list is a glaring omission. glaring.

I changed my avatar for the occasion! Ortiz says "you best not be messing with us! We coming for you! CLICKITY CLACK!"

BAD BLOOD

EDIT: I am totally incapable of doing anything by myself.

Borque is an appauling omission.

No Drew per Extra Bases.



Here are the lineups for tonight's game:

Red Sox

1. Mark Kotsay, RF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
5. Jason Bay, LF
6. Mike Lowell, 3B
7. Jed Lowrie, SS
8. Jason Varitek, C
9. Coco Crisp, CF
-- Jon Lester, SP

Rays

1. Akinori Iwamura, 2B
2. B.J. Upton, CF
3. Carlos Pena, 1B
4. Rocco Baldelli, DH
5. Willy Aybar, 3B
6. Dioner Navarro, C
7. Jason Bartlett, SS
8. Gabe Gross, CF
9. Fernando Perez, RF
--Edwin Jackson, SP

Doesn't that look nice? A solid lineup top-to-bottom... esp if like me you think Coco and 'Tek's resurgences are for real. Short of Drew returning, this is the best lineup hte sox could field.

Theo really did a nice job getting Kotsay and Byrd who have both made some pretty meaningful contributions down the stretch. It's also nice to see Crisp in there over Ellsbury.

Funny. Who would have thought that Crisp would beat out Ellsbury for the starting CF job in Sept/Oct? Looks like that's where we're headed.

Oh and by the way



Welcome to Boston

What a wacky reversal from last season!

I am ready to rename the Cy Young Award the "Paul Byrd Award!"

Byrd has been incredible. And he cost next-to-nothing.

Crisp should be in there over Ellsbury from here on out unless there is a good reason not to do it. His OPS is 70 points higher than Dreamboat's.

I like Crisp in the 9 hole right now a lot. He seems to hit well down there and doesn't have the pressure of leading off which he has never looked comfortable doing.

Per Rotoworld:


Glad he is ok, but it's a real shame he won't be available tonight, dude has a 10.38 ERA this year.

I see the Sox really putting it to Tampa in this series. The combination of hat bats, playing at home, having their top 3 pitchers going, and starting to get healthy, spells really bad news for the D-Rays and their chances of winning the division. I honestly cannot see them holding the Sox off.

I want a severe bludgeoning tonight!

Send the message with the first pitch - Sox ain't messing around - then decimate, eviscerate & annhilate until the Rays crawl out of Boston licking their wounds in defeat.

GO SOX - KICK ASS TONIGHT!

Ray Davies of the Kinks, who plays the devil's music, is another.

I'm excited for this series, for this game, and for the Mark Kotsay-as-leadoff-hitter era.

Let's go Red Sox!

Yay for Red Sox fans!

Yay for being a tiny ballpark!

Yay for Mark Bellhorn and Bill Mueller!

Why are all baseball songs shitty country music?

Springfield. That's my side of the state.

Sweet! My name is going to be in the baseball Hall of Fame!

Edit: What the hell? I just realize dno one else is posting. Where is everyone?

How many Red Bulls have you had, Andrew?

Today? Five. I'm not kidding at all, either. I have a problem.

First pitch.

Let's go!

Why do we always let that guy on base?


Lester looked like he got squeezed a bit on that at bat.

Lol.

Thanks BJ!!!

Thanks, bj!

There are the Rays that we all know and love.

Easy inning.

Fucking Extra Innings is shitting the bed on me. I'm so happy I paid $170 for a package that once or twice a season forces me to listen to the game on the radio.

Anyone else have trouble with mlb.tv?

Anyone else having problems with MLB.tv?

Ray Manzarek's a pretty bad omission too.

This POS won't buffer! gahhhhhhh

Nice top of the first.

Score early and often
Go Sox!

Beautiful top of first, lets start getting some hits